CANADIENS
Montreal

BRUINS
Boston

Game Notes:

Award winning season continues.  The reigning Vezina-trophy winner was in the game on Sunday night:  Tuukka Rask.  This season against the Canadiens, Rask is 0-3 with a 3.29 goals against average and an .886 save percentage.  In 19 career starts against Montreal, Rask has just three wins (record: 3-13-3).

Until David Pastrnak scored with 4:31 remaining in the third period, the Bruins had gone 159:25 without a goal against Carey Price.  Price has a 4-0 record this season against the Bruins with a 1.50 GAA and .950 SV%. His career record is 21-8-3.

Price made 34 saves on Sunday making the look easy and bringing a calm to his team in the hostile TD Garden.  The Bruins had 70 shot attempts on the night to 58 for the Canadiens.   Without a doubt, Price was the game’s first star.

Dutch Gretz.  More than just a little unconventional but fourth-liner Dale Weise continues to contribute in a big way to an offense-starved lineup.  Weise now has nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points. What’s remarkable is that the majority of Weise’s points are of the primary variety, that is, goals and first assists.

In fact, when one calculates the number of primary points divided by the number of goals scored while a player is on the ice for all Canadiens forwards, Weise comes out on top.  When Dale Weise is on the ice and a goal is scored, he has either scored the goal or got the primary assist 71.4 per cent of the time.

Using this metric, most of the forwards are in an eleven percentage point range between 57 and 68.  By contrast, David Desharnais is involved in a primary role just 35.1 per cent of the time when a goal is scored.

Speed and discipline. The Bruins simply couldn’t handle the Canadiens speed throughout the game.  And credit the Habs for playing a smart, disciplined road game even while some of the Bruins were taking liberties.  If there was a negative on the night, it was the Canadiens power-play that went 0-for-3.

Role players. Alexei Emelin saves his best for the Bruins bringing a physical presence on the back end. Emelin’s punishing checks don’t mix with a player like Milan Lucic who doesn’t like to get hit.

In just his third game Jacob De La Rose centred the fourth line. De La Rose won an important own-zone faceoff against David Krejci in the first period after an icing. In addition, the De La Rose line for a shift with under a minute remaining in the second period with the Canadiens up 1-0.

Plus / Minus

▲    Carey Price, Max Pacioretty, Dale Weise, Andrei Markov, P.K. Subban, Jiri Sekac, Lars Eller, Alexei Emelin

▼    Nathan Beaulieu

1.  Carey Price  MTL
2.  Max Pacioretty  MTL
3.  P.K. Subban  MTL

• “We understand that it was a huge challenge for us tonight. The Bruins are playing really solid hockey lately, and both teams played [Saturday] night. We find ways to win. I thought we were really solid, and we were pursuing the puck well, and we put pucks at the net. We didn’t try to be fancy, and that’s our game.“

Max Pacioretty

• “[Dale Weise has] always valuable. He’s been plugged into different roles, and with the role he’s in right now [on a top line], you get a little bit more of the glory. He’s putting pucks in the net. He set me up for a breakaway [for the goal]. He’s always been useful, but it’s good to see him get a lot of recognition. He definitely deserves it.”
• “You’ve got to give credit to Weisey. He manages to have chemistry with everyone he plays with. He’s got the right mindset. I think that’s the biggest thing. He’s going in there and he knows he’s going to be the hardest worker out there. At the same time, he’s got an undercover skill set that allows him to make plays for his linemates. It’s been a pleasure playing with him. We hope to continue contributing to some wins as the season rolls along.”

Dale Weise

• “[Sweeping the season series] means a lot. That’s a good hockey team over there. I think that says a lot about our team. They played well right to the end. Carey (Price) made some unbelievable saves like he does every night to help us. It gives us a lot of confidence beating a team like that.”

Carey Price

• “I don’t doubt that if we want to get to our ultimate goal that we’ll see them again.”
• “[Dale Weise] is such a character guy. He’s always got his nose in everybody’s business out there. He works hard, grinds it out, earns all the bounces that he gets. I’m really happy to see him start getting rewarded.”

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask

• “It’s a fine line for us to be physical, especially against Montreal because we tend to take stupid penalties. I don’t think it was too bad for us [tonight], we tried to hit but our puck management, execution and scoring chances weren’t as sharp as they should be.”
• “It’s being mentally aware of what’s going on and play our game. Carey’s a pretty good goalie and he’s going to stop what he sees, so we need those second opportunities and manage to get some goals. Today, we didn’t do that, but if it’s a playoff series that’s what we have to do.”

Bruins head coach Claude Julien

• “I think we lost too many battles, and again you can’t beat a team like that if you’re not going to win your battles, which is what we should be good at. When we did kind of pushed our game on them in spurts we were getting some success but, you know, if you can’t sustain it throughout the whole game then you’re not going to get the results and we got them in spurts tonight. And in order to beat this team that really gets up for us our best players have to be our best players and we didn’t have that tonight.”