The Boston Bruins won a Tight Game Against a Bitter Rival in the Montreal Canadiens on the Road

The Boston Bruins won a game in Montreal! The Montreal Canadiens are 14-1-1 before last night's game and now are 14-1-2 at home. The Bruins who have nightmarish games normally in Montreal actually pulled out a win in a close game. The Bruins probably should have lost this game glancing at the statistics, but statistics aren't everything and they played a really solid game throughout, a game that was extremely physical, with both sides throwing their weight around from almost the drop of the puck. It was a small taste of playoff style hockey in December as these two teams battled for every loose puck, and took every opportunity to lay the body on their opponent and then some. There was a combined 26 PIM (Penalties in Minutes) dished out in this game with only one fight occurring.

Star of the Game Tuuka Rask - Face Your Fears!

Tuuka Rask as I have discussed before, absolutely fears playing against the Canadiens in Montreal. The last game the Bruins had against Montreal in Montreal, Rask could be found hiding on the bench. His numbers against Montreal whether at Montreal or in Boston have been sub par over the years. However, Tuuka stepped up big time in this game. He stood tall, and shot that evil boogeyman in the closet, and won a game in Montreal. Tuuka stopped 30 of 31 shots against for .968 save percentage, Tuuka also stopped all 7 shots he faced on the penalty Kill. Tuuka made some really big, timely saves in this game and in the overtime period. He definitely earned the top star for the Bruins and the game, outplaying Carey Price in the opposing net. This season has been a big time comeback season for Tuuka and his numbers will keep him in the running for the Vezina possibly, though if the season ended today Devan Dubnyk would win the Vezina hands down.

Bruins top Notch Penalty Killers Shut Down the Montreal Power Play

The Boston Bruins have the second best rated Penalty Kill in the NHL, stopping a massive 87.9% of opposing teams Power Play opportunities. Last night they stopped all five of the Montreal Power plays, and Montreal has the 10th best Power play % at 20.4%. The Bruins did a really good job of keeping the shots to the perimeter and keeping traffic away from rebounds and the front of the net. Tuuka only saw 7 shots on 5 power play chances which is fairly incredible, and the Bruins as a team blocked 25 shots on the night, which is a massive amount. The Canadiens are missing some of their weapons like Galchenyuk, but still have a solid PP. Normally when you lose the PP advantage 5-1 in a game, you lose the game, but the Bruins held tight and gave up no goals on the PK. Other than Rask the PK unit's should get the collective number 2 star for the night.

Austin Czarnik scores again, Continues to Shine in the NHL with Lightning Speed

Austin Czarnik is easily the fastest Boston Bruins rookie skater I have seen in years. Last night his speed struck again as he got the puck on a sloppy breakout pass from Mcquaid, and then broke down the ice on the left wing and fired the puck past Carey Price. His speed made this play happen. Later in the game he also combined with Spooner and Krug for the game winning goal in overtime. Czarnik now has 3G, 5A, 8P in 26 GP and is a -3. Though these aren't fantastic numbers, if you watch this kid play you can see the potential.

Torey Krug when not acting as Peeta from Hunger Games sometimes Fights in the NHL and Loses

So the game was getting pretty heated, and Montreal had just laid out one of the Bruins smaller forwards with a big legal hit. So Torey Krug decided to get retribution by absolutely demolishing Andrew Shaw with a borderline hit. So as I have explained before Krug is deathly afraid of getting hit himself. As a defenseman in hockey you are taught to always win the race to the puck even if you have to take a hit to move the puck. Krug does the exact opposite, he always lets the other teams player get to the puck first and then he tries to hit them and free the puck, one of the major reasons he sucks as a defensive player. This time however he had no choice but to get to the puck first, and Canadien Brendan Gallagher drilled Krug legally, then starting hitting him when he was already down (should have been a penalty but wasn't called). This of course got under Krug's bonnet and he decided to fight Gallagher. Then the two lightweights met up and...

It was a draw. Neither player really landed any punches and both sort of toppled to the ice, the take down goes to Gallagher, so if you had to pick a winner it would be Gallagher. However, this type of physical play would continue all night. I thought there was going to be at least one more tussle but it never took place. Radulov should have fought Kevan Miller but backed away because he is a __________. (Fill in the blank in the comment section for teh lulz)

The Road Ahead for the Bruins

To be in the playoffs, or to be golfing is the question? The Bruins likely will be golfing is the answer, they just can't seem to string enough points together to stay in the hunt. If I was the GM, I would be actively pursuing a Torey Krug trade, and possibly a few other players as well to continue building this team for the future. The Bruins have some decent young players and some core guys that will be around for a few years so to waste more assets on this season would be insane. If they shop out draft picks for rental players to miss the playoffs again they should fire the GM. The only trades the Bruins should even consider are ones that benefit them long term. The road ahead is gloomy for this season, but could be bright for the future if they don't squander away their draft picks and young talent.

Image Credits:

1. Bruins Vs Canadiens: My Own Image
2. Rask vs Canadiens: Image 2
3. Bruins Defense: Image 3
4. Austin Czarnik: Image 4
5. Krug Hits Andrew Shaw: Image 5
6. Krug vs. Gallagher NHL Fights video: Video 1
7. Rough Road Ahead: Image 6

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