Bad first period beats Bruins

Montreal Canadiens' Michael Cammalleri, top, fights with Boston Bruins' David Krejci (46) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Montreal, Canada on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Graham Hughes)

Another bad start by the Bruins and another loss because of it. By the end of the first period, it was 3-1 and Montreal was skating around with space and doing whatever they wanted. But before I go into details about the game let me just say that this game tonight, now that was hockey. Not that stuff I watched last night with the Bruins vs the Sabres. This game vs Montreal had everything... passion, trash talking, hitting, scoring, fighting, defense, offense, and great saves by the goalies. That is hockey.

It started off with Shawn Thornton challenging the always talking, smiling, and gloves taped on Maxim Lapierre. 1:04 into the game Michael Cammalleri scored on a penalty shot because of a weak call by the ref. As Mike Milbury said during the first intermission on CBC, you can't even touch them anyone, it's the whimpification of hockey. Later, Maxim Lapierre scored to make it 2-0 Montreal. Later in the period, Blake Wheeler scored his 7th goal of the season to make it 2-1.

Then came P.K. Subban and his huge hit on Brad Marchand. Gregory Campbell came over to Subban and challenged him but it looked as if Subban slew footed Campbell (at least that was the word the commentators said during intermission about what the Bruins thought of that incident). Subban of course kept his gloves on, he must be taking notes from Lapierre. As Mike Milbury and P.J. Stock both said during intermission, I don't know how you can respect both Lapierre or Subban for what they do and not back it up, it must be hard having them as teammates. Montreal made it 3-1 late in the first period.

P.K. Subban does his impression of Rob Blake with his "behind" check on Brad Marchand

In the second period, the Bruins picked up their game and brought energy and emotion. Marc Savard scored his 1st goal since coming back this season on a beautiful redirection tip in from Andrew Ference, to make it 3-2. Later in the period, David Krejci and Cammalleri got into a fight and both looked like they landed a few. After the fight, both had cuts on their foreheads/above the eye area. Cammalleri was bleeding quite a bit that he had to go to the dressing room. I would give that fight a draw. Later, Brian Gionta would score to make it 4-2 Montreal. Even though that was officially David Krejci first NHL fighting major, he did drop the gloves in the 2008-09 season against Rangers Chris Drury, but they only received double minors.

In the third period, Johnny Boychuk layed out Benoit Pouliot with a huge hit as he stepped up and sent Pouliot flying and down to the ice. Milan Lucic scored a power-play goal, his 16th goal of the season as the puck somehow went into the net off of his body as he screened Carey Price. Price, as Ryan Miller did last week when Mark Recchi scored on him, complained to the ref about interference but there was none. The game would end 4-3 Montreal.

In my opinion, even though the Bruins lost, this was possibly the most entertaining game of the season for the Bruins. You could feel the rivalry, it did feel somewhat of a playoff game. It was good to see Tyler Seguin back in the lineup, who recorded an assist in the game.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 37 saves on 41 shots. Thomas is now 14-3-3, with a 1.63 GAA, and a .951 save percentage. Montreal led in shots 41-37 and led in faceoff wins 32-28.

The Bruins next game is on Saturday against the struggling Washington Capitals.