Five things you should know about the CanadiensBruins game Saturday at TD Garden (7 p.m. SN1, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio), writes Pat Hickey.
1. The matchup
The Canadiens are facing another bounce-back game after dropping a 4-3 decision Thursday night in Buffalo. The Canadiens had leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, but lost on a powerplay goal by Kyle Okposo with 1:01 to play. Montreal, which hasn’t lost two consecutive games this season, dropped to 5-2-2. The Bruins improved to 6-2-2 as former Canadien Jaroslav Halak shut out the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 at home. The Bruins are 4-0 at TD Garden.
2. Domi finds the net Brendan Gallagher said Max Domi is a pass-first kind of player, but a lot of people, including Max’s father Tie, have been urging him to shoot more. He has been following that advice lately and he scored twice on three shots in Buffalo. Domi leads the Canadiens with 10 points — one more than defenceman Jeff Petry — on four goals and six assists. He has a five-game point streak with four goals and three helpers.
3. Stay out of the box That’s the best advice for the Canadiens until they can figure out how to kill penalties on a regular basis. The Sabres scored twice on four opportunities and at least one of those goals was avoidable because Jason Pominville scored after Andrew Shaw took an unnecessary holding penalty. Montreal’s PK has a 74.2 per cent success rate and will have to be better against a Boston power play that scores 31 per cent of the time.
4. The goalies
We won’t see a resumption of the Carey PriceHalak debate because the Bruins will be starting Tuukka Rask in goal even though Halak has been the better goaltender this season and is coming off a 26-save shutout win over the Flyers. Price has a 3-12 record with a 2.48 goalsagainst average and a .906 save percentage. Rask has struggled, but had a strong performance in his last start against Ottawa. He’s 3-2 with a 3.38 GAA and a .901 save percentage.
5. The other guys
Patrice Bergeron is regarded as one of the top defensive forwards in the NHL, but he has seven goals and nine assists and he was tied with Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen for first place in the NHL scoring race before Friday’s games. Coach Bruce Cassidy said Bergeron is shooting better than ever and could surpass his career high of 73 points. Linemate David Pastrnak has 15 points and is tied with Matthews for the league lead in goals with 10.