By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter/X @RyanJBosworth
The Boston Bruins were back on TD Garden ice for their second of a four-game home stand. Coming off a heavy-hitting game this past Sunday, when they hosted the Florida Panthers, the Bruins had another tough customer on deck — the Montreal Canadiens.
The Bruins debuted their new Hometown Remix jerseys — paying homage to the deep college hockey roots within Boston, as well as a tribute to the Bruins’ first ever uniform, with a brown sweater as the base — a jersey color not seen for Boston since 1924.
The Bruins are atop the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division with a record of 12-4-1. They’ve had an extremely strong start to the 2026-27 season, but the Montreal Canadiens are right behind Boston, with a record of 11-3-4 and just one point back in the standings. Needless to say, tonight’s matchup has a lot on the line.
Flat Start
There was a lot of anticipation coming into tonight’s game — Hometown Remix jersey debut, a ton of college-themed festivities, and a reignited rivalry between two of the National Hockey League’s most historic teams — and the Bruins came out flat. Montreal worked them for all 20 minutes of the first period, and for most of the 60-minute game.
The Bruins struggled to get through the neutral zone, nevermind have a clean offensive zone entry, and they found themselves in a hole inside of the first ten minutes of the period.
Montreal opened the scoring at 2:34. Kirby Dach carried the puck into the zone and behind the net, where he scored a beautiful wrap-around goal, beating Jeremy Swayman and all of Boston’s defenders to the net, which was essentially wide open. As Swayman went to transition to the other post, Charlie McAvoy was caught in the way and was unable to stop Dach from stuffing it into the net.
Just six minutes later, Boston would find themselves down 2-0. Another extremely preventable goal that Boston should’ve had. Mike Matheson put a simple puck on net, and it found its way through all of Boston’s defenders. Mason Lohrei was caught in the slot, not covering the back door, and Josh Anderson was able to stuff one through Swayman’s five-hole to put the Canadiens up two.
The Bruins had a lot of work ahead, but it wasn’t a game that was out of reach. They went off after 20 minutes down 2-0, and actually had a strong first five or six minutes of the middle frame. They dominated the offensive zone and didn’t let Montreal even get a change in. Then, once again, Boston was caught lacking, and they were down 3-0.
Downward Spiral
Boston just could not put it together. Not long after going down 3-0, they’d be down 4-0 and then 5-0. After allowing their fourth unanswered goal, Jeremy Swayman got the mercy pull — but let it be noted, not one of the four goals was his fault. His teammates hung him out to dry tonight.
Two goals were breakaway goals, one was a defender left all alone on the back door, and one was his own defenseman blocking him from going post-to-post to stop a wrap around.
Head coach Marco Sturm provided some clarity post-game as to why they decided to pull Swayman, and whether or not it was a mercy pull or because he needed more from Swayman, stating that, “I think overall, we were just not good enough, including (our) goalie, players, you name it… (down) 4-0, you usually try to do something…but, I think we can all be better.”
The Bruins were able to get on the board, as Casey Mittelstadt would score two goals — both of which were assisted by Elias Lindholm — to bring the Bruins within three goals with about 19 minutes left in regulation. Elias, Casey, and Marat Khusnutdinov were the only Bruins skaters that registered a positive plus/minus, with all three of them recording a plus-three.
Alas, the effort from the Bruins’ third line wouldn’t be enough, as they’d fall to the Canadiens with a final score of 5-2. The loss snaps the Bruins’ four-game win streak, and would give the Bruins a record of 1-2 against Atlantic Division opponents.
The Bruins, however, can’t harp on the loss, as they have to flush it and move on to focus on Saturday’s game, where the Minnesota Wild come into town to faceoff with the Bruins at 7:00.
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