Get out the brooms
Arrivederci, sayonara, au revoir les Canadiens. The Bruins knocked the Habs into next year when they swept their playoff series in four games on Wednesday night.
I know it's only one playoff series, and there's a long way to go before the B's can vie for the Stanley Cup. But the view from here is the Bruins looked awfully impressive in disposing of their long-time rivals.
They played strong positional hockey, for the most part, giving the Canadiens few passing lanes for breakout plays, and won all the battles for loose pucks, which resulted in those David Krejci-Michael Ryder goals last night. They also maintained their composure, and when was the last time you could say that about a Bruins' team?
The Canadiens, on the other hand, were disappointing. They took the play to the Bruins at some points, but every time the B's began to roll they folded. Their defensemen had a horrible series. Too many bad clearing passes, and failures to clear rebounds in front of Carey Price. Sure their best defenseman, Andrei Markov, couldn't play, but really, that's no excuse. Teams that care suck it up during the playoffs. The Celtics lost Kevin Garnett, who means a lot more to them than Markov means to the Habs, yet they're still compete. This is the first time that I can remember that the Bruins had a decided talent edge on the Canadiens.
Time to break up the gang in Montreal. Go Habs Go!