The Montreal Canadiens were steamrolled by the Boston Bruins during their last visit to TD Garden. The Canadiens sit at the bottom of the Atlantic Division and second-to-last in the NHL. Following yet another disappointing outing, Montreal goaltender Cayden Primeau issued a straightforward statement about their performance against historic rivals, the Bruins.
100 years after Boston’s first NHL game, the Bruins celebrated their Centennial against Montreal. Emotions were high as the franchise held a pregame ceremony that featured tribute videos and appearances from franchise legends. Boston hit the ground running from the puck-drop and the Canadiens had no answers.
Boston jumped into a 3-0 lead in the opening period, and eventually imposed their will over Montreal, handing them a blowout 6-3 loss. Montreal cannot get out of their own way and continues to sink in the standings with a 8-13-3 record.
After the deflating loss to the historic opponents in Massachusets, goalie Cayden Primeau dropped a strong confession on the team’s performance.
Cayden Primeau #30 of the Montreal Canadiens makes a save during the second period against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre on April 6, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
“Anytime we come here, they give us a hard time,” Primeau said, via NHL.com. “Just as we do. But yeah, they’re a hard team. It’s hard to try to come back after trying to come back yesterday against two good teams, back to back.”
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Head coach St. Louis replicates Primeau’s statement
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis sent a concise message on the team’s shortcomings. St. Louis is coaching through his third season at the helm in Montreal, though the team still has a long way to go.
The Canadiens struggle with their direct divisional opponents and the Bruins have them all figured out recently. Boston has a 15-0-1 record on the last 16 games against Montreal, the longest active point streak by a team against a single opponent.
“You can’t help the other team, dig yourself in a hole,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “It’s hard to play catch-up hockey on a back-to-back. It’s hard when you’re fresh, so we lacked a little bit of that.”
Joe Sacco’s statement after win
Since Joe Sacco took over as interim head coach in Beantown, the Bruins are 4-2-0. After the emotional win over the Canadiens, the head coach revealed what it meant for the franchise to celebrate their Centennial with a triumph.
“We wanted to make the fans, we wanted to make the players of the past that are here now, we wanted to make them proud of our effort more than anything today. The score usually takes care of itself when you do that, so I thought our guys did a pretty good job of that today.”
