Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadiens
After a Game 1 completely dominated by Boston and stolen by Carey Price and a Game 2 where Montreal collapsed like a second-rate Canadian team in the playoffs against Boston, Game 3 finally brought what the aggregate of what the regular season had been; Boston had a small advantage in shot attempts but the game was pretty close. A couple of breaks from Montreal for breakaways proved to be the difference.
Two major lineup changes occurred for Montreal in Game 3. Thomas Vanek was taken off the top line and put alongside Tomas Plekanec. Also, Douglas Murray was put into the third defensive pairing with Francis Bouillon being scratched. For the record, Murray was caved in with shot attempts against, allowing 22 in under 12 and a half minutes. He was on the ice for more shots on goal against (10) than any player not named P.K. Subban (12). And Subban played over twice his minutes. Almost exclusively, Murray was used against the third and fourth lines (except when he got trapped in his zone for two minutes once) so those are areas to target for Boston goals.
Montreal showed a much more balanced game and applied a bit more pressure through the neutral zone when they had the lead in the third period. Games like Game 3 should be more the norm than Game 1 or 2 from here on out.
One final thing I will say is that the Montreal lineup may be a bit fluid. There’s no certainty that Murray stays in the lineup and there’s no guarantee that Vanek – who left the first period and missed the final seven minutes of it before returning for the second – doesn’t come down with an “upper-body” injury.
| Top RW Value | Top LW Value | Top C Value | Top D Value | Bargain Bin |
| Loui Eriksson(BOS)
$7685 |
Rene Bourque(MTL)
$7038 |
Lars Eller(MTL)
$6377 |
Alexei Emelin(MTL)
$4594 |
Daniel Paille(BOS)
$4784 |
