But the Bruins won both games at the Bell Centre to even the series, then took a double-overtime thriller at the Garden for a 3-2 lead and all of the sudden the B's were back in Montreal with a chance to close out the series in Game 6 on Tuesday.
While the Bruins couldn't convert on that opportunity forcing a Game 7 back at home on Wednesday, here's a look at a half dozen items from the past week that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks in this week's edition of the Bruins Shootout.
1. Even after falling behind 2-0 in the series, Claude Julien refused to fall prey to panic and shake up his lineup. He was rewarded by sticking with the likes of Michael Ryder, Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley over Tyler Seguin, as that trio combined for five goals, including two game-winners, and 10 points over the next three games. Seguin, who had just one goal and one assist over his final 20 games of the regular season, was unlikely to make any impact in the playoffs at this stage of his career. Credit Julien for understanding the youngster's limitations and sticking with the lineup that gave the Bruins the best chance to turn around the series.
"At the end of the say you have to believe in the lineup that you have," Julien said. "And if you feel it's the best lineup there is no need for a change. … We really felt our hockey club as a whole could play better. We didn't think it was necessarily about the lineup change more than our whole team being a little better. And I guess it proved to be right because we have been a lot better."
2. Ryder did reward Julien for his faith not only with his overtime winner in Game 4 but with a spectacular glove save to keep the game scoreless in the first period of Game 5 when he robbed Tomas Plekanec of a goal with Tim Thomas out of position. But Julien, who coached Ryder in juniors, the AHL and in Montreal before being reunited with him in Boston three years ago, still isn't too happy about the veteran forward's disappearing act late this season, and that came through clearly when he asked about his ability to get the best out of Ryder. "Well obviously I don't all the time, and I wish I could," Julien said.
"These are questions that somehow end up coming my way," Julien added later. "And those are actually questions that he should be answering. I think that's the thing, a player is obviously responsible for how well he plays and how much he shows up. And I guess as a coach, your responsibility is to try and get him going, and I can tell you that we've tried that and tried to make sure he's ready to go. And I think he's responded well in the playoffs right now. And we seem to be asking the question, why and how come, and right now my only answer to you is I'm glad he's playing well right now."
3. Julien didn't make any lineup changes, but he did make one very important tweak after Game 2. He switched up his defense pairs, moving Dennis Seidenberg up alongside Zdeno Chara on the top pair, with Johnny Boychuk moving down alongside Andrew Ference. Tomas Kaberle, who had been with Seidenberg, was moved down to a pairing with Adam McQuaid.
Seidenberg, who was a minus-4 in the first two games, has risen to the challenge and become a force on the blue line alongside Chara. He entered Tuesday night's game with two assists and is a plus-1 with eight shots, 13 hits and 11 blocked shots while averaging over 30 minutes a game (including a team-high 38:15 in Game 5) in the three games since the switch. Seidenberg then scored the Bruins' lone goal in Tuesday's loss to the Habs.
"We put him there for that reason," Julien said prior to Game 6. "We think he's a real good defenseman and with Zee that's a really great pair. We're very comfortable with the other pairs as well. … [Seidenberg] always seemed to play well in big games, and the bigger the game, the bigger he plays. So we're really counting on that from him and he's certainly shown that."
Chara, who was named a finalist for the Norris Trophy on Monday, is certainly happy to be playing with Seidenberg again. "We all know that Seids is such a steady defenseman, so strong," Chara said. "He can move the puck. He can skate. He logs a lot of minutes. He plays in all situations. To be paired up with him just gives me more confidence, hopefully that's the same for him."
4. Chara continues to work his way back to full strength from the bout of dehydration that left him hospitalized for a night and sidelined him for Game 2 on April 16. "Close, it's obviously not there yet, but I'm trying my best to put the weight back on," said Chara, who estimated he lost 10 pounds while sick. "It's amazing, you lose it so quickly in a day or two, but to get it back it's much harder."
Playing back-to-back overtime games the following week, including a double-OT thriller this Saturday when he played 47 shifts totaling 37:06 probably doesn't help the recovery process a whole lot. "It is tiring," Chara said. "If someone tells you they're not tired, they're lying. You have to consider the intensity and the speed of the game, the humidity of the rink. The ice before the second OT wasn't even freezing. There were parts of the ice where it was just water. So you have to be smart, short changes, not try to do too much, be smart with the puck, wait for your chances and do your best to defend their chances."
5. After six very nasty and eventful regular-season matchups that featured a game with 182 penalty minutes and a bout between goalies Thomas and Carey Price and another marred by Chara's controversial hit on Max Pacioretty, more fireworks were expected by many when the Bruins and Habs were matched up in the opening round. While there's been plenty of hitting and even a pair of scraps, both coming after questionable hits by Canadiens that drew additional penalties, overall it's been a relatively calm series. At least on the ice, Andrew Ference did fan the flames with his "unintentional bird" while Pacioretty resorted to Twitter to chirp at Brad Marchand. But such incidents pale in comparison to the flying fists and 911 call-inducing hits of the regular-season encounters as the higher stakes of the postseason have kept tempers at a slightly lower boil.
"I think both teams realize that discipline is a big factor in this series," Julien said. "And when you look at last game, I think again, both teams had 30-plus hits. It's not like it's not a hitting series, but it's not a dirty one. And I think there is a lot of hate probably between the two teams but there is also a lot of respect."
And just in case that respect may have muted any of the hatred between the rivals, Julien did add one last dig on the Habs, noting "I think that they respect that if they get into a physical situation with us, they are probably not going to win that one."
6. The Bruins made the record books in a way they never wanted last year when they became just the third team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 lead in a seven-game series. They may soon get some company, as Vancouver is threatening to add its name to that ignominious list. The top-seeded Canucks rolled out to a 3-0 lead on Chicago, but the Blackhawks roared back to tie the series going into Tuesday's Game 7. The Canucks' collapse could be even worse than the Bruins, as Vancouver was outscored 12-2 in Games 4 and 5 before falling in overtime in Game 6. That kind of performance might elicit some sympathy from a team that's already been through such an ordeal, but the Bruins aren't quite ready to go that far.
"Boy, that's a real tough question," Julien said. "Sympathy? I think I understand what they're going through. And we lived through it. You watch those games and you see how another team can grab momentum pretty quick and [gain] confidence and belief. And it's there again this year and there's an opportunity again to create what happened last year to our team for another team. And whether that's a trend that's going that way now, I don't know. But it certainly shows that there's parity in this league and nothing is over until it's over."
Vancouver native Milan Lucic has a bit more sympathy for the Canucks, or at least for his friends who remain fans, unlike the Lucic clan which has long since switched its allegiances to the Bruins. "More from friends, my family doesn't really care too much about the Canucks anymore," Lucic said. "But there are some friends that are definitely a little nervous right now. It will be interesting to see what's going to happen. For the city's sake I hope Vancouver doesn't lose, because I could see some riots going on."
