MONTREAL — The Bruins will look for their first win of their opening-round series with the Canadiens in a place where they haven't won all season.
And more than 21,000 screaming Montreal fans will do everything they can to make sure the Bruins don't come away with the win they desperately need on Monday night to get back into the series after dropping the first two games in Boston.
"Our crowd can be the best assist out there," Canadiens forward Michael Cammalleri said after the Habs' morning skate on Monday. "At the same time, we have to keep our energy and focus. There's no need for us to start running around uncharacteristically. But they can be a huge lift for us. There's certain points in a game where you need that boost. There's ebbs and flows. There's going to be points tonight where Boston has the better of the play and our crowd can help."
The Bruins know what to expect. They play here three times every year in the regular season, and this is the third time in the last four years Boston and Montreal have squared off in the opening round of the playoffs.
"It's a tough building to play in," Bruins forward Shawn Thornton said after Boston's morning skate. "We're fortunate enough to have guys here that have been through this, so we know what's coming. It's a little bit louder than it is during the regular season, but we also have the luxury of playing up here in the regular season so that's helps too."
The Bruins have heard plenty from the Habs fans on those prior visits this year. Boston was 0-2-1 in three games in Montreal in the regular season, but the Bruins did quiet the Montreal crowd two years ago when they won their last two playoff games at the Bell Centre to complete a first-round sweep in 2009.
Thornton has experienced both sides of the energy and emotion of a playoff battle in the Bell Centre, having played in the 2008 series that Boston lost in a Game 7 in Montreal as well as 2009's four-game triumph. Other Bruins can only try to imagine what their first taste of playoff action in Montreal will be like on Monday night.
"Well, I know it's a pretty good atmosphere up here for a regular-season game, so I can only imagine what it will be like for the playoffs," defenseman Adam McQuaid said. "Having the opportunity to play here in the regular season will probably help a little bit tonight because it's going to be a loud crowd and there should be a lot of energy in the building. It's not a tough game to get up for, that's for sure."
The Montreal fans will make sure the Habs are up for the game as well, but the Canadiens aren't relying just on the moral support of the home crowd.
"You've got to appreciate our fans, you've got to appreciate the atmosphere that's going to be in our building," Montreal coach Jacques Martin said. "But the responsibility still comes back to our team to be prepared to play its best game of the series. You know the opposition is going to raise their game. They're a good hockey club. They didn't get where they're at by folding, and we know that. So for us it's a big challenge to be better than what we've been in the first two games."
The Bruins have to be significantly better than they have been as well, and that won't be easy with the kind of electric atmosphere only a playoff game in Montreal can produce.
That atmosphere could be amped up even beyond the Bell Centre's usual impressive standards on Monday, as Zdeno Chara could be making his first appearance in Montreal since injuring Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty with a controversial check into the stanchions between the benches on March 8. Chara hopes to play after missing Game 2 following a bout of dehydration that required a hospital stay, and if he does come back he will be returning to face a hostile crowd booing him mercilessly every time he touches the puck.
"If it affects them in a negative way, then great," Cammalleri said. "If it doesn't, then the game will be the game. Our fans can be a huge help to us, but we're just going to worry about what happens on the ice."
Despite a deafening din that can literally shake the building, the Bruins are confident they can tune out the crowd noise and focus on doing what they need to do on the ice.
"Once you're on the ice, you kind of block everything else out, like Billy Chapel," Thornton said, throwing in a reference to Kevin Costner's perfect-game pitching character in For the Love of the Game. "For me anyway, I don't usually hear too much when I'm out there. For some reason your mind is able to focus when you're out there on the ice. But it is a loud building. When you're sitting on that bench and hear that national anthem, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It's exciting. That's why you play hockey, to play in buildings like this."
