We need not wait for the conclusion of the first round of the Stanley Cup play-offs to recognise the premier match-up of the second: the Boston Bruins versus the Montreal Canadiens.
Both have the Original Six cachet and volumes of history. And, they do not like each other.
Each shrugged off first-round foes, with the Bruins dispatching the Detroit Red Wings in five games and the Canadiens sweeping the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bruins rank as favourites. They won the President’s Trophy (for the best record in the regular season), and they have two players who are perhaps the best in the league at their positions, the goaltender Tuukka Rask and the defender Zdeno Chara.
But the Canadiens have reasons to believe they can win. They lost only once to Boston in four games during the regular season and hold a 24-9 lead from the 35 occasions they have met the Bruins in the play-offs.
“It’s always great to play these guys,” Patrice Bergeron, the Bruins centre, told the Boston Herald. “Detroit was definitely a great challenge. Same thing with Montreal. They’re a great team, a team that’s definitely playing some great hockey right now.”
The Bruins are the more recent winners of a Stanley Cup, in 2011. The Canadiens are the most recent Canadian team to lift the cup, way back in 1993.
In the intangible column, the Bruins get an edge. They carry the expectations of a city; the Canadiens have the weight of a country on their backs.
poberjuerge@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
