Jim Montgomery Respected Bruins While Growing Up In Montreal

There are certain teams in sports that will always be rivals. No matter who the players are or how many times they play, there will be animosity. One of the most storied rivals is the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.

As two of the Original Six NHL franchises, Boston and Montreal have faced off against one another 934 times with the Canadiens holding the all-time 469-351-103-11 record over the Bruins, with a 106-71 edge in the playoffs. While Montreal may hold the all-time record, Boston has defeated their archrivals in 10 straight games.

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery was born and raised in Montreal and grew up rooting for the home team, but on the recent "Raw Knuckles" podcast, the first-year coach admitted there was another team he didn't like more than the Boston.

"More the Nordiques that I hated. I gotta be honest. I hated the Nordiques," Montgomery said on the podcast. "The Bruins I had a lot of respect for. Just because you know how tough they were."

"Raw Knuckles" host Chris Nilan said the Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers were two teams in the NHL that had to be physical, no matter what. Montgomery agreed.

"You gotta be blue-collar in Boston," Montgomery said.

"There's some guys that are gifted like Johnny Gaudreau and David Pastrnak -- these guys smell a turnover and they're gone."

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery

But the sport Montgomery and Nila grew up watching and playing has evolved over the years with the players getting faster and more skilled so having the toughness of the "Big Bad Bruins" and the speed of today's game is a combination Montgomery has to instill with the team.

"Well, playing fast is also checking fast. It's not just with the puck," Montgomery explained. "There's some guys that are gifted like Johnny Gaudreau and David Pastrnak -- these guys smell a turnover and they're gone. You can't tell those guys not to go because invariably those guys know when you're getting possession. Does it burn you at times? Yes, it does. But you have to live with it at times."

It's when the players that are offensively skilled don't have the puck is when the team needs to be on the same page.

"Everybody's got to look the same. It's really important to our (defensive) zone coverage," Montgomery said. "That's where I think everybody's held to the same standard without the puck. But with the puck -- you got to let the painters paint and you got to let the grinders dig."