March 24, 2014

How pathetic are the Montreal Canadiens?



Iggy, #12, a large reason why the B's have won 12 in a row 
The Bruins are currently ripping apart the entire NHL. They are on a 12 game win streak, and face the Montreal Canadiens tonight in the Garden, going for win #13. Before we dive into tonight, let's take a quick minute to appreciate some of the amazing stats the Bruins have amassed through this streak:


-The Bruins have outscored their opponents 46-17

-7 of the 12 victories have come against playoff teams

-7 of the 12 games the Bruins have held their opponent to 0 or 1 goal

-Chad Johnson has 5 of the 12 victories (including a shutout) during the streak

-Jarome Iginla has 11 goals during this 12 game stretch 

-Matt Bartkowski and Kevin Miller are the only 2 Bruins who haven't scored during this streak

-The Bruins have only given up 3 PP goals in the 12 games

-This is the 3rd double digit win streak for the Bruins under Claude Julien. 

-The winning streak has stretched over 3 different time zones, against opponents from every division in the NHL

-The Bruins franchise winning streak record is 14. They play Montreal tonight for #13 and Chicago on Thursday night for #14. Victory #15 would be @ Washington on Saturday if it extends that far. 

Also during this stretch, the Bruins became the first team to clinch a playoff spot. They have separated themselves from the division opponents big time. Here's what the standings currently look like: 
















There's no way the Bruins shouldn't be back in the Stanley Cup Finals. Unless they sustain crazy injuries, this season is a failure if we don't get back to the Finals. 

But before we get to the playoffs, we have the Montreal Canadiens on tap in the Garden tonight for #13 in a row. 

Of course, like any good team, the Bruins players aren't getting caught up in it. Today when asked about the streak Chris Kelly responded, " What streak?" with a stone cold face. 

The Canadiens, though? They are treating this like their Super Bowl. They have been in Boston since Saturday. The Bruins were playing a game in Arizona while the Canadiens were in Boston sleeping. 

One of the Montreal players, Dale Weis, had this to say: 

"We're glad they came back to beat Phoenix, because we want to be the ones who knock them off" 

If you are wondering where you have heard of Weis before, he was one of those 6 Vancouver Canucks players who were ganging up on Shawn Thornton a couple years ago in the Cup rematch game. Later in that game, Thornton found Weis and challenged him one on one and Weis backed down. This is what Thornton said about it:

“Hey, he was really tough when he was one of the seven guys punching me in the back of the head,” Thornton said at the time. “But when had had to answer me face-to-face, it wasn’t the same thing. My thing is, if I’m going to punch somebody in the back of the head in a pile of seven people, I know I am man enough to back it up.”

Anyway it seems like Weis is the perfect fit for the Canadiens. Traditionally, teams coming off a west coast trip usually have a tough time in their first home game back. The Bruins are definitely in a tough spot tonight, Joe Haggerty was on 98.5 The Sports Hub this morning and said he thinks Tuukka really needs to "steal the game" for the Bruins to win tonight. While I wish that wasn't true, it probably is. I'll be damn proud if the Bruins can dig deep and extend the streak to 13. 









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