One of the oldest rivalries in pro sports will be renewed Thursday when the Boston Bruins host the Montreal Canadiens in the opener of their first-round, best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series (7 pm ET, CBC, NESN).
The Bruins are a -220 moneyline favorite in Game 1 in betED.com NHL Playoffs betting odds. The total is 5.5.
Boston showed dramatic improvement this season. The team’s 116 points was the highest point total for the Original Six franchise since the Bobby Orr-led Bruins posted 119 in 1971-72, the last time Boston won a Stanley Cup championship.
The Bruins and Canadiens have played each other more times, in regular season play, than any other two teams in NHL history. The Bruins have won 255 of those games, while Montreal’s won 320.
In the Stanley Cup playoffs, the heated rivals met a total of 152 games. And they’ve played each other in the playoffs more times than any two teams.
After some bloody battles in the 1950s, the rivalry became more intense in the 1970s, when both were contenders nearly every year. In 1971, despite the Bruins finishing first in the league and shattering many NHL scoring records, they lost in the first round to the Canadiens in seven games.
The teams met in the playoffs for nine straight years from 1984 to 1992, again in 1994, when the Canadiens were knocked out in the first round by the Bruins. Montreal returned the favor by eliminating the Bruins in the first round of both the 2002 and 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The teams met again last year in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which Montreal won in a thrilling seven-game series.
Thursday, the rich history between these two storied franchises will be resurrected.
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