The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens will have the next week off -- going in opposite directions as far as results are concerned.
After firing coach Claude Julien on Tuesday, the puck-possession beasts from Boston have gone on to win three straight, including Sunday’s convincing 4-0 victory over the rival Habs.
But even just before management’s decision to turf the coach, the Bruins had been able to win some games and convert more of their chances. They have won six of their last eight games, including a three-game winning streak prior to Julien losing his job, while scoring fewer than four goals in a game only once in this stretch.
On Sunday, they managed to pick apart a pretty good goalie in Carey Price, although the Habs netminder has been struggling for two months now.
Adam McQuaid opened the scoring in the first period and Zdeno Chara really got the rout going in the second with a pretty goal for his fifth of the season.
Thanks to this recent stretch of wins, the Bruins have moved six points back of the Habs for top spot in the Atlantic Division. Boston and Ottawa are now tied with 64 points, but the Senators have five games in hand and remain in the second spot.
For the Habs, this has been a brutal stretch of results in February. It’s not good when the highlight of their game versus Boston is Andrew Shaw dropping the gloves with Torey Krug 58 seconds after the opening faceoff. Montreal has now been shut out three times in the past week, with its only real strong offensive performance of late coming against the Arizona Coyotes. The Canadiens have now dropped six of their last seven games.
They have five days off before playing the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.