It could possibly snow a little bit in New England tonight and what better way to serve as a precursor to another long miserable winter than a visit from the Boston Bruins' most hated rival: the Montreal Canadiens.
When we last saw the Habs on the TD Garden ice, they were slinking off after Nathan Horton's overtime winner in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Tonight kicks off six meetings in the 2011-12 regular season between the Northeast Division foes. Additionally, it's the start of a home-and-home series which concludes on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
So far, neither team is exactly setting the NHL on fire as they are tied for last-place in the division with six points. Only Winnipeg (with 5 points) has been worse so far in the Eastern Conference. The obvious advantage tonight is that Boston (3-5-0) has only practiced since Saturday's frustrating loss to San Jose. For Montreal (2-5-2), this will be their third game in four nights and therefore they should be skating on empty after the initial jump of seeing an opponent that they despise.
B's defenseman Adam McQuaid is expected back tonight after missing two weeks worth of games with a neck/head injury. His return means that Steven Kampfer will be in a suit and tie in the press box with the other healthy scratch-Jordan Caron.
ESPNBoston's James Murphy says McQuaid will team with Andrew Ference on the third defensive pairing. Zdeno Chara and Johnny Boychuk remains the top pair with Dennis Seidenberg and Joe Corvo the second line.
Murphy also surmises that Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Rich Peverley will be the top forward line, flipping with Milan Lucic, Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin. Benoit Pouliot, David Krejci and Nathan Horton remain on the third line while Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton are Claude Julien's fourth line aka Fribble Crew until the end of time.
Tim Thomas starts in goal for the host Bruins. Canadiens goaltender Carey Price played last night but didn't get the start on Monday so I'd expect him back in between the pipes this evening.
As Michael Felger always points out, Montreal is typically a terrible matchup for Boston. Their combination of small, fast and skilled forwards that love to dive and embellish things is pretty much the Bruins' kryptonite. I would argue that of all the playoff series' last spring, the Canadiens were the hardest out (and yes I remember it took seven games to beat the Lightning too). Bottom line is that a win tonight in front of a fired up home crowd and then two points in Montreal on Saturday would be huge for the B's as they try to put last season behind them and begin their new journey.
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