Still, given that Gillette Stadium has seen some historic football games played in it, this year’s event was pretty cool. Though they didn’t score on either of those power plays they took some momentum into the third period and finally got on the board. Though center David Krejci (upper body) and left wing Brad Marchand (suspension) did not play, the Bruins had the majority of support from the 67,246 at Gillette Stadium and were facing a Canadiens team that went 3-11-0 in December.
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No Bruin showed more dissapointment in the outcome than defenseman Torey Krug.
“He certainly provided a spark”, said Condon of Gallagher. And it just didn’t matter what we tried to do here, we just couldn’t get it going. “Our whole team just had a lot of jam I thought in warmup”. So it’s disappointing, and there’s 70,000 people here coming to see us play. “Had a lot of friends and family here tonight”. “It was such a big buildup”. I’m sure everybody in here wanted to come out on the ice with a little bit more jump and bring a little bit better effort. “But that wasn’t the case today”.
Since the NHL first experimented with outdoor games more than a decade ago, the Winter Classic has grown into a festival of fresh air hockey that this year included for the first time a professional women’s game.
An American flag is unfurled on the ice during prior to the game. Now hands up if you even knew they were still together, let alone would perform the Canadian national anthem at one of the biggest stages in hockey? The Winter Classic victory put the Habs back on top, though, and it also inflated their divisional lead over the Bruins from one point to three. However, if rumours turn out to be true and next year’s Winter Classic is held in Toronto against the New York Rangers… The Bruins and Celtics filled the Boston Garden rafters with championship banners. Rask surrendered the first goal of the game just 74 seconds into the contest and Boston could never even the contest from there.
The only ones who looked like they weren’t having fun were the Bruins, who were totally outplayed.
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Despite allowing the game’s first goal just 1:14 in, Rask rallied to keep the Bruins in the game.
The Habs, meanwhile, spent the period buzzing around the B’s zone, outskating their hosts by a wide margin, building a 14-3 edge in shots.
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Regardless of the venue, the Montreal Canadiens just don’t lose in the Boston area. The Bruins were utterly humiliated in this game, barely avoiding a complete disaster by recording a single goal in the third period (from Matt Beleskey). (Pittsburgh won 2-1 on Sidney Crosby’s clincher in the shootout.) Snow flurries added to the wintry feel, and the teams switched sides midway through the third period (and again in overtime) to neutralize any advantage gained by wind or sun.
