The Montreal Canadiens’ special teams were once again a concern as the bleu-blanc-rouge allowed two power play markers in the third period on Monday to give the Boston Bruins a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory. The Canadiens now sport a one-and-five exhibition record in this 2011-12 NHL pre-season.

PHOTO CREDIT - MontrealGazette.com

Whitby - Sep. 27, 2011 - The Montreal Canadiens’ special teams were once again a concern as the bleu-blanc-rouge allowed two power play markers in the third period on Monday to give the Boston Bruins a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory. The Canadiens now sport a one-and-five exhibition record in this 2011-12 NHL pre-season.

The Bruins’ goals came from Tyler Seguin and Chris Clark. The Habs lone marker and the game’s first goal of the night came courtesy of a Michael Cammalleri wrist shot in the second period. Sunday night’s contest in Halifax was a tame one in terms of the number of penalties taken by both teams and even though the lineups were different for Monday night’s game in Montreal, the game was once again, quiet. Boston went one-for-three on the power play (Clark’s goal was scored just as the Montreal penalty to Jaroslav Spacek had ended) and Montreal went zero-for-one on the power play - not your typical Canadiens-Bruins usual love affair.

There was much cause for concern on at least two occasions as the Habs prized possession, goaltender Carey Price was run into by Boston’s Gregory Campbell and Max Sauvé. Not one member of the Canadiens stood up for their star netminder - not even one of the AHL rookies ‘on the bubble’ even tried to make a statement to stick up for his teammate. Surprising and disappointing to say the least.

The announced three stars of the game were Bruins’ right winger, Jordan Caron (3rd star), Habs’ netminder Carey Price (stopped 30 shots, 2nd star) and Bruins’ sophomore standout, Tyler Seguin (1st star). Bruins’ goaltender Tuukka Rask faced 32 shots and got the win for Boston. The Bell Centre was sold out (21,273) yet again.

Montreal’s next game is Thursday, September 29th at the Bell Centre when the Tampa Bay Lightning come to town. For the game box score and key statistics from Monday’s contest, please see the game stats review and link at the bottom of this article.

Cuts Made Pre- and Post-Game
Before this evening’s contest, the Canadiens made their first chunk of cuts, releasing ten players from camp. Being returned to the QMJHL were Olivier Archambault, Morgan Ellis and Nathan Beaulieu. Heading to Hamilton are Alexander Avtsin, Andrew Conboy, Dany Masse, Mark Mitera and Joe Stejskal. Goaltenders Robert Mayer and Peter Delmas will also be heading to the Steel City.

Immediately following Monday night’s 2-1 loss versus Boston, TSN’s John Lu tweeted that five additional players had been cut from the Canadiens’ training camp: Alain Berger, Philippe Lefebvre, Pat Desimone and Brock Trotter were sent to Hamilton and London Knights’ defenseman Jarred Tinordi was sent back to his junior team to spend another season in the OHL.

Monday night’s running of Carey Price by the Bruins indicates that Les Habs need someone to stand up for themselves and their teammates. Montreal must not allow their marquee player to be man-handled the way Price was on Monday. The Habs should be looking to acquire an energy player as the team needs to show it is hungry to win games on a consistent basis.

STATS & PHOTO CREDIT - NHL.com