Analyzing the Bruins recent struggles against Montreal

November 23rd, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins faced the Montreal Canadians Saturday night in a marquee game in Boston. The matchup, which ultimately ended in a 2-0 loss served as yet another renewal of an old rivalry and featured strong emotions . Like the hundreds of games before it, the hatred felt in the game was one fueled by emotion and long engraved memories of triumph and sadness.

But something is changing with this rivalry and it was only made more real by the loss handed to the Bruins Saturday night. 

Very simply, the Canadians have the Bruins number; they know how to reliably beat Boston. As hard as it is to face, the result of that game was predicatble,

In the 21 games in which the two teams have met since the 2011 Bruins Stanley Cup victory (including last year’s playoff series) the Canadians have beaten the Bruins 14 times. They have outscored the Bruins 70-42 and are averaging nearly 3.33 goals per game. In stark contrast, the Bruins have put up a much lesser scoring output averaging exactly 2 goals per game.

From top to bottom, these past few years, as they pertain to the Bruins’ meetings with Montreal, have been marred with goaltending miscues and offensive deficiencies.

Tuukka Rask is a perfect example of the former of those two.

Rask, who, since the beginning of the 2010-2011 season has produced a GAA of 2.11, has allowed a much less impressive average of 3.10 goals per game in 13 starts against the Canadians during that time. What is worse is that before Saturday's holding the Canadians to two goals, Rask had a GAA of over 6 this season vs Montreal.

After recognizing Rask’s struggles, the Bruins benched him for last week’s meeting with the Canadians where rookie backup goaltender Niklas Svedberg went in and promptly allowed five goals.

But the goalies are not the only ones at fault in what has since spiraled into a four year parade of problems with Montreal. As said before, the Bruins have scored just 2.1 goals in each of the games they have played against Montreal. That, when matched with the 3.5 goals per game that the Canadians are scoring has the majority of these affairs going decisively in favor of Montreal.

Furthermore, 2.00 goals is not a level of goal scoring the Bruins normally fall to. As of Saturday November 22^nd, the Bruins and Canadians had both played 233 games since 2011. In that time, the Bruins had actually outscored them by over 100 goals. They were averaging 3.07 goals per game while Montreal was putting up just under 2.74.

Some of the Bruins best and brightest forwards are struggling to make their mark against the Canadians As a result, we are seeing angrier, lopsided games that ultimately end with the Bruins going home empty handed.

This is a problem for a Bruins team that once elevated its play when the schedule put them up against their most hated foe. Now as excited and pumped up as they get, the Bruins keep losing in a growing trend that is noticeably diminishing the magic of one of the greatest rivalries in sports.

*All statistics from ESPN.com. All statistics valid as of November 23nd, 2014 at 11:30 AM.

**Thank you to everyone who has viewed this blog since it went live on July 4th, 2012. Earlier today Go Titletown received its 10,000th page view almost exactly two and a half years into its existence. This blog means a lot to me and I appreciate any and all who have taken the time to watch and help it grow. Here's to many more years of Boston sports blogging in the ever changing business that is 21st century journalism! Thank you!