The hockey gods and the habs bruins rivalry

The Habs Bruins rivalry has always been one-sided for many decades until the late 80's. It was more of a habs curse on the bruins. No matter who and what the bruins threw at the habs including Orr, Esposito, Cheevers, Middleton, Ratelle, Park, O'Reilly, Oates and Thornton the habs would eventually come out the victors. The last decade has seen a reversal of fortunes up to a point.

I guess the first inkling of the rivalry was when Rocket Richard took out his frustrations after being high sticked by Bruin Hal Laycoe and retaliated with a high stick of his own and then went loco on the linesman punching him unconscious. The Rocket was suspended for the rest of the season by anglo Clarence Campbell and the quiet revolution finally took to the streets. As a footnote, the Rocket the leader in points up to then  would be overtaken by the Boomer in the last few games and would never win a scoring championship.

The Bruins team of the sixties stunk until the arrival of Number 4 Bobby Orr.  Then they added Espo and talented brawn and the rivalry was in full gear as the Bruins transformed into the folkloric big bad Bruins. Even though the habs won 4 cups in the sixties, they encountered the bruins twice. A soon to be powerhouse Boston Bruins met the last vestiges of the 60's Habs dynasty in 1968 and 1969. Bobby Orr, Espo and company were stopped in 4 and 6 games by the Beliveau led habs. One noteworthy event of those playoffs was Beliveau scoring the only overtime goal of his career to end the series in 1968.

The Bruins would win the Cup the next year as Orr and Espo started their assault on scoring records. They did not play the habs who failed to make the playoffs for the first time in what seemed an eternity. The following year, the Stanley Cup champion Bruins obliterated the scoring records again as Espo was the first to pass the 70 goals mark in a season and Bobby Orr had ridiculous assist totals. The proverbial favorites to win their second Cup in a row, the Bruins were expecting an easy series against the aging Habs. Unfortunately, the Bruins had not reckoned on a scrawny giraffe named Ken Dryden and the rebirth of the likes of Beliveau, Pocket, and the big M. An upset for the ages ensued as the Habs went on to end the illustrious career of Beliveau on a high note. Even though the Bruins won the Cup the following year, the reality is Orr and Espo never beat the habs in the playoffs. The hockey gods would not allow it.

The mid seventies brought about the recurrence of another Habs dynasty under the shrewd maneuvering of Sam Pollock and the coaching of Scotty the savant Bowman. The celestial hockey balance was restored as Guy Lafleur became the best player in hockey and the Habs became the best team in the NHL. The second best team during most of the same period were the bigger and badder bruins who were close to the Habs but just not good enough. It seemed to be a yearly occurence as the Bruins would meet the Habs in the semis or finals but always fell short. Two incidents would forever become part of the historic rivalry during the latter half of this decade. One was when Stan Jonathan ko'd  Pierre Bouchard who was left lying on the ice a bloody mess. This was the seemingly invincible Bouchard the son of Butch who had fought the likes of Dave Schultz and held his own. The habs nation was shocked. The other incident happened in 1979. Every year the bruins seemed to be a notch better. They went from being swept in 1977 to leading in game 7 of the 79 semis and frankly dominating the game. The Cherry led Bruins had one black cloud left over their heads as the gods decided Stan Jonathan who had dared crack the habs invincibility would be the extra man in the infamous too many men on the ice penalty. The celestial balance was restored as Guy Lafleur tied the game on the powerplay with seconds remaining and the Hab gods would not be denied in overtime.

One of the main reasons Raymond Bourque never won a Cup with the Bruins was that Habs almost always beat the Bruins in the 80's. In 1984 the emergence of Guy Carbonneau and Chris Chelios had the habs sweeping the first place Bruins. In 1986 the Stanley Cup winning habs swept the Bruins again. The goose egg was finally broken in 1988 as the bruins beat the habs but still lost in the finals. In the early 90's the bruins had the edge as they repeatedly beat the habs except for 1993 when they were eliminated before meeting the stanley cup champion habs. Did the Bruins success over the Habs in the 90's contribute to Patrick Roy's exit? One never knows.

The new century had varied results and led to upsets by both teams as the underdogs seemed to always pull it out. Saku Koivu the habs David always had the upper hand over the Goliath Joe Thornton who was eventually traded after several futile attempts against the habs. Jose Theodore played his best games against Boston as the tradition continued. Another tradition seemed to be a Big Bad Bruin destroying another Big Hab as Lucic manhandled Komisarek every fight they had. Finally in 2011 the Bruins eliminated the pesky habs in 7 games in overtime before going on to win the Cup. Had this ever happened before? Who remembers? It seemed the gods had turned finally to the bruins...

Well this year....