Canadiens-Bruins Rivalry

SI Staff | Apr 14, 2011

Canadiens-Bruins Rivalry /

Canadiens-Bruins Rivalry

The Chara-Pacioretty incident

The NHL's most bitter rivalry entered a new chapter in the 2011 postseason. Here are a baker's dozen of its most memorable moments. Late in the second period, Boston's 6'-9", 255-pound defenseman Zdeno Chara drove the head of Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty into a turnbuckle between the team benches in Montreal's Bell Centre. Pacioretty suffered a severe concussion and fractured vertebra, but Chara received only a game misconduct penalty. Canadiens fans, and the team's owner, were outraged that the NHL did not hand down a stiff suspension, and local police opened a criminal investigation into the hit. Click here to watch the video.

Beantown brawl

Referees handed out 182 penalty minutes, 12 fighting majors, and four misconducts during a wild game in Boston. A brawl in the second period included a goalie fight between Tim Thomas and Carey Price and five Bruins and four Canadiens were stuffed in the penalty box. Another fight broke out with 41 seconds left to play. The Bruins won 8-6 on the scoreboard and 24-21 on the scoresheet ... in penalties. Click here to watch the video.

Habs celebrate centennial

Montreal's Mike Cammalleri burned the B's with a hat trick on the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens franchise. With a stellar array of former Habs greats in the house, Cammalleri poured in all three of his goals in the second-period to key a 5-1 spanking of Montreal's bitter rivals. An added indignity for Boston: their Vezina trophy-winning goaltender, Tim Thomas, was yanked in the second period. Click here to watch the video.

Habs stun B's

The Canadiens were 0-12 during their storied history when trailing three games to one in seven-game playoff series. The Bruins were 17-0 under the same circumstances. But Montreal stormed back to win the last three games of their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the No. 2 seed Bruins. After taking Game 5 with a 5-1 rout in Boston, and winning Game 6 at home by the comfortable marging of 5-2, the Habs returned to Beantown and capped their comeback with a 2-0 win in Game 7 behind a 32-save shutout by goaltender Jose Theodore. Click here to watch the video.

Wesley whacks Habs

For the second time in three seasons, Boston eliminated Montreal in the playoffs. With 1:13 left in a tied Game 5 of the Adams Division finals, Bruins defenseman Glen Wesley put a rebound by Habs goalie Patrick Roy. Boston went on to win, 3-1, and close out the series. It was the third straight year that the winner of a Bruins-Habs postseason showdown had advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. In 1990, Boston fell to Edmonton in a rematch of their 1988 battle for the chalice. In 1989, the Montreal was bested by Calgary. Click here to watch the highlights.

B's win...finally

Boston had dropped 18 straight playoff series to Montreal during a span of 45 years when the Bruins broke through at last with a thumping five-game Adams Division final series triumph. Cam Neely and Steve Kasper each scored two goals in the decisive 4-1 win in Montreal. Click here to watch the Game 5 highlights.

Mayhem in Montreal

After the final horn sounded in the Habs' 3-2 win in Boston, the rival squads crossed paths on the way to their dressing rooms and fists started to fly. The liveliest bout was between Bruins enforcer Jay Miller and Montreal's John Kordic and the mayhem resulted in $25,000 fines for each team. The scene was so chaotic that Canadiens' GM Serge Savard came down to the bench to order his players into the locker room. Click here to watch the video.

Brawl in the hallway

As Chris Nilan was being escorted off the ice after receiving a game misconduct for fighting near the end of the second period, the Habs enforcer known as "Knuckles" skated by the Bruins' bench and delivered a blow to Boston's Ken Linseman, ignitimg a donnybrook. The brawl spilled up the runway leading to the dressing rooms in the Boston Garden. For his part in the festivities, Nilan was given a three-game suspension, as was Montreal's Ryan Walter, who led the Habs' charge into the fray. Claude Lemieux of the Habs also sat out a game. The Habs were fined $9,000, the B's $5,000 and assorted players a not-so-grand total of $4,400. ( Click here to watch the video.

Too many men

In one of the darkest moments in Boston's history, the Bruins held a 4-3 lead with less than two minutes left in Game 7 of the semifinals when coach Don Cherry failed to realize he had seven men on the ice. The resulting penalty gave Montreal the opening it needed. Guy Lafleur scored on the ensuing power play and the game went into overtime where Montreal's Yvon Lambert put in the game-winner to take the series. The Habs went on to win their fourth-straight Stanley Cup, by defeating the New York Rangers in five games. Click here to watch.

Habs beat B's for Cup

Before realignment moved the two teams to the same conference, they faced off in back-to-back Stanley Cup finals. Montreal swept Boston in 1977 and won the series four games to two in 1978 during its run of four-straight Cups. Winger Guy Lafleur won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in '77, defenseman Larry Robinson in `78. Click here to watch the 1977 Game 4 highlights. Click here for Larry Robinson in the '78 Cup final.

Habs rally

Down 5-1 in Game 2 of the quarterfinals, the Canadiens scored six straight goals to turn a huge deficit into a momentum-building 7-5 victory and eventually upset heavy favorite Boston in seven games. Rookie goalie Ken Dryden made several crucial saves in Game 2 -- and throughout the series -- as Montreal unleashed its offensive onslaught. The series is remembered partly because of Dryden's emergence.

The Rocket Richard Riot

After Boston's Hal Laycoe high-sticked the Habs' icon in the face, bloodying him, the feisty Rocket went after the offending Bruin with fury in his eyes. Linesman Cliff Thompson tried to break up the fight, but Richard punched the official in the face twice, knocking him unconscious, and was suspended for the rest of the season as well as the postseason. When Commissioner Clarence Campbell visited Montreal four days later for a game against the Detroit, he was attacked repeatedly by fans who were upset by the severity of Richard's penalty. The Forum was cleared, but that didn't stop the disorder. A riot ensued outside the building, and dozens were arrested. Click here for CBC's look back.

Rocket levels Boston

With blood still dripping down his face from an earlier hit that reportedly also gave him a concussion, Richard returned to the ice and scored the decisive goal in Game 7 of the semifinals vs. Boston. The tally is considered one of the greatest of all-time, and it sent Montreal to the Cup Final, where it was swept by Detroit. Click here for Rocket Richard highlights.

Published Apr 14, 2011

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