Bruins - Inside Shots

With most franchises, finishing eighth in the conference and taking the top seed to a seventh game would be a major accomplishment, something to look back on with a bit of a smile and a lot of pride.

But when you’re the Bruins … and you haven’t won a playoff series since 1999 … and you play in a city now filled with winners … well, let’s just say coming close isn’t appreciated as much as it could be.

At least by the fans.

But that doesn’t mean the upstart Bruins didn’t stake a claim on the future by winning games 5 and 6 and forcing the Canadiens to go to a seventh game. The B’s battled all kinds of history at the Bell Centre in Monday night’s finale, and they played the first 20 minutes as if they more than belonged.

“I think there’s a positive to build on, but when you get to this stage you get a little greedy,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “I think we believed that we could get to the next round of the playoffs, and I think our expectations were there and they were high.”

They were deserved. This was a team that overcame the adversity of losing arguably its best player—Patrice Bergeron—way back on Oct. 27. The Bruins brought in a goalie who played only a few games before he, too, was gone for the year. The parade of injuries never stopped, but Julien brought the team into the playoffs for the first time since 2004 and then almost led his guys out of the first round.

To jump ahead and say the future looks bright is always dangerous. But it certainly looks better than it did two weeks ago.

Canadiens 5, Bruins 0: Forget the final score. This was a hockey game for much of the 60 minutes.

In fact, the Bruins outplayed the Habs in the first period and were down 1-0.

“We had some unbelievable chances that we couldn’t bury, and I think that was the turning point right there,” said coach Claude Julien.

After pouring 10 goals past Carey Price in the last two games, eight of them in a pair of four-goal third periods, the Bruins were shut out for the second time in the series as their season ended.

The Canadiens led 1-0 after one for the third straight game when Michael Komisarek’s one-timer deflected off Petteri Nokelainen’s stick and changed direction to get past Tim Thomas.

The Bruins, who hit like crazy in game 2 through 6, didn’t do much hitting at all in what turned out to be the season finale.

Notes, Quotes:

• The Bruins are 0-21 in playoff series they’ve trailed 3-1 after losing 5-0 in Montreal on Monday night. They have also never won a series they trailed 2-0. The Canadiens, on the other hand, are 27-0 in series they’ve led 3-1.

• The Canadiens have a 24-7 series lead over the rival Bruins.

• Even though the Capitals are threatening to do it, there still have been only 20 teams (of 225) that have ever come back from 3-1 to win a playoff series.

• The B’s, who ranked No. 14 among the 16 playoff teams in goals scored this season, had five goals in their previous five games before the 10 in the last two, all coming in the four playoff games after getting shut out in the regular-season finale against Buffalo. They then got shut out in Game 7.

• The Bruins were 0-for-6 on the power play Monday night and went 3-for-31 in the series, 6-for-61 against the Canadiens this season.

• Meanwhile, Montreal, which had the league’s top power play during the regular season, scored one power play goal Monday and connected on another goal just as Zdeno Chara came out of the penalty box.

• Monday night marked the 161st lifetime playoff game between the two rivals, tops in the NHL.

• Monday night marked the first Game 7 between the rivals in Montreal since the infamous too-many-men game back in 1979.

• The Bruins are 0-4 in Game 7s on the road.

• The Bruins and Canadiens have played seven seven-game series, more than any rivals in sports.

Quote To Note: “The character of this team can’t be overemphasized, I don’t think, for what we battled through all year and even in this seven-game series.”—Bruins goalie Tim Thomas after the B’s went down to the Canadiens in Game 7 Monday night.

Roster Report

Goaltenders: Tim Thomas, Alex Auld.

Defensemen: Zdeno Chara, Dennis Wideman, Andrew Ference, Aaron Ward, Shane Hnidy, Mark Stuart.

First Line: Marco Sturm, David Krejci, Phil Kessel.

Second Line: Milan Lucic, Marc Savard, Glen Murray.

Third Line: P.J. Axelsson, Glen Metropolit, Petteri Nokelainen.

Player Notes:

• G Tim Thomas proved people wrong this season by showing that he truly was a No. 1 goalie and leading his team into the playoffs. He started 15 of the last 16 games and almost led the Bruins into the second round.

• D Zdeno Chara was a minus-3 in Monday night’s finale, allowed Alex Kovalev too much time to set up the first goal and was beaten badly by Mark Streit on the second score.

• D Aaron Ward, a three-time Stanley Cup winner whose experience helped this team, was a minus-4 Monday night. He had been a plus-2 in the series until the finale.

• LW Jeremy Reich was again a healthy scratch.

• RW Glen Murray, who didn’t score in the final 12 games, left Monday’s game with a mid-torso injury after being pushed into the boards on a scoring chance in the first period. Murray didn’t have a point in the series.

• LW P.J. Axelsson and RW Shawn Thornton were pointless in seven games.

• Rookie C David Krejci was 1-4-5 in his first playoff series.

• Rookie LW Milan Lucic had two goals and 34 hits in the seven games.

• C Marc Savard finished with 1-5-6 in his first playoff series. He led the Bruins in scoring, his six points tying for the series lead.

• LW Peter Schaefer led the Bruins with a plus-2 in the series, while D Mark Stuart was on the other end with a minus-5.