Bruins have not missed a beat after the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, whereas Habs undergo their fourth straight loss.
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The Boston Bruins simply preserve rolling alongside.
The Canadiens, alternatively, are exhibiting how way more work is required on their rebuild.
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The Bruins beat the Canadiens 5-2 Saturday night time at Boston’s TD Backyard, enhancing their document to 13-1-2. The win for the Bruins got here seven days after they misplaced 3-2 in extra time to the Canadiens on the Bell Centre. Boston now has an 11-0-1 document in opposition to the Canadiens of their final 12 conferences relationship again to 2019.
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Trent Frederic scored twice for the Bruins, whereas Charlie McAvoy, Pavel Zacha and James van Riemsdyk added singles. David Pastrnak had three assists, giving him 11-16-27 totals in 16 video games.
Juraj Slafkovsky and defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic scored for the Canadiens — the second aim of the season for each. It was Slafkovsky’s first aim in seven video games, whereas Kovacevic scored in a second straight sport. Slafkovsky assisted on Kovacevic’s aim, giving the 19-year-old ahead 2-3-5 totals on the season.
The Bruins outshot the Canadiens 44-22 and went 2-for-5 on the facility play, whereas the Canadiens had been 0-for-2. Canadiens goalie Jake Allen noticed his document fall to 3-4-1 with a 3.54 goals-against common and a .907 save proportion.
“The Bruins had been good tonight,” Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis stated on RDS after the sport. “It’s not that we didn’t work, however we didn’t work nicely. I discovered that we had been delicate a bit, too.”
St. Louis added the Canadiens gave the Bruins an excessive amount of respect when it got here to one-on-one battles, bodychecks and battles for the puck.
After 16 video games, the Bruins have the identical variety of factors they did at this level final season once they had been 14-2-0 en path to ending with a 65-12-5 document for an NHL-record 135 factors. Boston is doing it this season with out former captain Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, two veteran centres who retired after the Bruins had been upset by the Florida Panthers within the first spherical of final season’s playoffs.
Street to the Cup
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Bergeron (27) and Krejci (16) mixed for 43 targets and 114 factors final season with Bergeron successful the Selke Trophy because the NHL’s prime defensive ahead for the second straight season and the sixth time in his 19-year profession.
The Bruins haven’t missed a beat with out them.
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For the Canadiens, this was their fourth straight loss — all in regulation time — as their document fell to 7-9-2. Final 12 months, within the first full season of their rebuild, the Canadiens had a 9-8-1 document after 18 video games. The longest regulation-time dropping streak they’d final season was six video games.
For the second straight sport, the Canadiens’ dads had been in attendance in Boston on a father’s journey, after watching their sons lose 6-5 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday on the Bell Centre. Final season, when the Canadiens had a mom’s journey, additionally they misplaced each video games — 9-2 to the Capitals in Washington and 6-3 to the Predators in Nashville.
The Canadiens didn’t give their fathers a lot to cheer about Saturday night time as they fell behind 2-0 within the first interval, once they had been outshot 18-8. McAvoy opened the scoring at 7:11 on a five-on-three energy play after Jesse Ylönen was penalized for hooking at 6:11 and Kovacevic was despatched off for tripping 13 seconds later.
Zacha made it 3-0 for the Bruins at 5:18 of the second interval earlier than Slafkovsky acquired the Canadiens on the board with a pleasant snapshot on a setup from behind the web by Nick Suzuki at 13:04. Frederic put the Bruins up 4-1 together with his second of the sport at 15:30 of the second interval, 12 seconds after a Canadiens energy play had ended.
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After van Riemsdyk made it 5-1 at 5:39 of the third interval on an influence play, some followers at TD Backyard began singing “Olé! Olé! Olé!” like followers on the Bell Centre do when the Canadiens are successful. Kovacevic wrapped up the scoring with 4:31 left on the clock.
After splitting them up for the earlier 5 video games, St. Louis began the sport with Suzuki and Cole Caufield again collectively on the No. 1 line with Alex Newhook.
Caufield was held pointless with three pictures and he has just one aim within the final 11 video games. Solely considered one of Caufield’s 5 targets this season has come at five-on-five. He has one power-play aim and three OT targets. Within the first season of his eight-year, US$62.8-million contract with a salary-cap hit of US$7.85 million, Caufield is on tempo to complete the season with 23 targets after scoring 26 in 46 video games final season earlier than struggling a season-ending shoulder damage that required surgical procedure.
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The Canadiens’ Josh Anderson solely had one shot on aim in opposition to the Bruins and continues to be in search of his first aim after 18 video games and 307 minutes of whole ice time.
The Canadiens took six minor penalties in opposition to the Bruins and lead the NHL in that class with 88 this season — a median of 4.89 per sport.
“I do know that preparation, effort-wise, I do know I can look each man within the eye and know that they had been able to go to struggle tonight,” Kovacevic, who took three minor penalties, advised RDS after the sport. “I’ll must rewatch, however I nonetheless assume we had been hitting, we had been blocking pictures. However some execution was off early after which the feelings sort of acquired the higher of us and it snowballed. We acquired to discover ways to put the brakes on that snowball and climb uphill a bit of bit till we discover our A sport once more.”
Issues gained’t get any simpler for the Canadiens with their subsequent 4 video games additionally on the highway, together with a three-game California journey that begins Wednesday in opposition to the Geese in Anaheim (10 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
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