Dull Rivals: Boston Versus Montreal Lacks Familiar Fire

Has the Bruins rivalry with the Canadiens been fizzled with hype and the loss of 'energy' players from each side?

Growing up in Boston, the hatred for the Montreal Canadiens is instilled in you through your parents, your friends, or in most cases the Habs knocking the Bruins out of the playoffs routinely. The Canadiens didn’t like the Bruins, and the Bruins deplored the Habs and their 24 Stanley Cups. Throughout their entire history the scales were always tilted in favor of the blood-red franchise from Quebec, and given their unmatched 32 showdowns in the post-season, the most among any two NHL clubs, there was no shortage of animosity between the spoked-B and the CH.

Naturally, here in Boston it was always a David vs. Goliath mentality when the Habs were in town. It always seemed that Montreal had that swagger, they were more skilled, they played finesse, and their speed was almost never matched by the Bruins gritty style of play. But it wasn’t just the players who’d impose feelings of doom and hostility among the Garden Faithful.

They’d bring their fans: loud, horn-blowing, Olé-singing, and naturally irritating given their dominance over the black-and-gold as the Garden would become a near-neutral site with an invasion of red-and-white.

2007-08 would provide much of the same, the Habs beat the Bruins all eight times during the regular season with ease, and the teams were matched up in the 2008 Playoffs. Providing a thrilling contest, the B’s took the Habs to a decisive Game 7 and despite losing, a changing of the tide had appeared to developing in the NHL’s most storied rivalry.

Adding big time enforcer Georges Laraque over the 2008 off-season, the Canadiens were seemingly ready to no longer be bullied by the undoubtedly more physical Boston Bruins. Regardless of the change in momentum, the fire and hatred between these two clubs was seemingly at all-time high. Led by instigators Maxim Lapierre and Mike Komisarek, the Canadiens would push their luck with the Bruins until a breaking point was eventually met. At the sound of every whistle, it seemed that the two-sides were exchanging words, shoves, and punches. However, Laraque and the rest of the underachieving Habs’ attempts to goad Milan Lucic (along with the rest of the Bruins) were unsuccessful or unanswered all six times during the regular season, and even more flawed when the Bruins swept the Canadiens out of the playoffs in their centennial celebration.

Over the off-season though, something changed. Hated faces and severe victims of the boo-bird’s in Boston, Saku Koivu, Chris Higgins, and Alex Kovalev left Montreal. They were replaced by Michael Cammalleri, who Boston almost never saw, and career-long Atlantic Division natives Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez. While a more than large change, the biggest loss came on the blue-line as Mike Komisarek traded in his red sweater for a blue-and-white one in Toronto. A bruising defensemen and arch-nemesis of Milan Lucic, the Long Island-native was no longer going to be irritating the Bruins in red, a seemingly impossible concept to grasp. Replaced by former Bruin Hal Gill, just what were we to expect from the B’s and Canadiens?

Firstly, there were no more busloads of Canadiens fans in the Garden. Bought out by fans, ticket agencies, who bought season-tickets in the golden balcony of Boston (for resale), the former staples of sign-waving Montreal fans were no more. It was a full-on B’s crowd. Was that a bad thing? It all depends on who you ask, but given the success of last season’s Bruins club, the Garden was in the midst of an introduction to the dreaded bandwagon fan whose precious Red Sox were swept out of the playoffs and looking for a winter habitat and what tickets did they want? Why Boston versus Montreal, of course!

On the teams’ first meeting on November 5th, there was this rather unsettling lack of energy from the Boston crowd. Blame it on the injuries suffered on each sides prior to the meeting, but it just didn’t feel the same. There were no combating chants of “Let’s Go Bruins” vs. “Go Habs Go”, and there was close to no scoring with Montreal eventually beating Boston by a 2-1 final thanks to a Cammalleri shootout winner.

Along with the obvious departures of Montreal’s former top-line, the roster has changed dramatically for both sides. The biggest loss coming with the cut of Georges Laraque from the Habs, an alleged distraction in the Montreal dressing room. Off the ice and behind the bench, adopting the Jacques Martin way, the former run-and-gun Canadiens have developed into a more defensively-sound club who play conservative while maintaining  an imposing offensive attack. Sound familiar? Oh yeah, that’s right, that’s what the Bruins (try to) do.

Perhaps I’m crazy, or perhaps it’s the at-times-boring style in which the teams are run by their coaches, but something is aloof in what has been known as one of the greatest rivalries in sports history. As Boston currently sits in the middle of a nauseating 10-game losing streak, the two clubs will do battle for the fourth time later today at the Bell Centre and with the B’s in desperate need of some goals, energy, and most importantly points, is this rivlary ready to awake from it’s near-year long slumber or are the fans in for yet another emotion-less game?

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