The Bruins are scheduled to wear their brown "Hometown Remix" jerseys 11 more times this season. They might want to burn them instead after the way they played in Thursday's "Homecoming" game against the rival Canadiens.
The theme of the night was college-inspired, but Boston showed up late to class and failed the exam. In a battle for first place in the Atlantic Division, Montreal dominated from the get-go and cruised to a 5-2 beatdown at TD Garden.
While the Bruins got off to a great start in Sunday's divisional win over Florida, the same could not be said Thursday. Instead, it was the Canadiens who brought the early energy and had Boston on its heels.
Montreal took a 1-0 lead just 2:34 into the game when the Bruins got caught flat-footed in their own zone, allowing Kirby Dach to literally skate a circle around them before tucking a wraparound past both Jeremy Swayman and a stumbling Charlie McAvoy.
The Habs made it 2-0 six minutes later when Josh Anderson batted in a rebound after getting inside position on Mason Lohrei in front. By that point, still not even nine minutes into the game, shots on goal were 10-2 in favor of Montreal.
The Bruins did make a push as the first period went on and drew a late power play, but they squandered that opportunity with a lackluster man advantage that spent more time regrouping after clears than possessing the puck in the Montreal zone. Boston's power play has hit another dry spell of late and is now mired in a 2-for-24 slump (8.3%) dating back to Oct. 27.
The Bruins still managed to carry some momentum into the second and strung together some good offensive-zone shifts to start, but then they handed the Habs a pair of breakaways with some careless puck management, and Jake Evans and Cole Caufield took advantage to double Montreal's lead to 4-0.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm yanked Swayman at that point and turned things over to Michael DiPietro, the first time this season he has pulled a goalie. While the B's certainly would have liked an extra save or two from Swayman, there was plenty of blame to go around in this one, with the team in front of Swayman hanging him out to dry more than once.
Either way, the change in net did little to turn the tides. Philip Danault made it 5-0 later in the second period with a rocket one-timer that beat DiPietro, sparking an audible round of "Ole, Ole" chants from the Montreal fans in attendance.
The Bruins did finally get on the board 38 seconds after that when Elias Lindholm set up Casey Mittelstadt for a goal. Mittelstadt scored again 53 seconds into the third to make things at least somewhat interesting with 19 minutes to go, but 5-2 was as close as the Bruins would get.
The Bruins' tough homestand continues on Saturday, when they host a Minnesota Wild team that has the third-best record in the NHL, and that already beat Boston 4-1 back on Oct. 3. Needless to say, the Bruins will need to be ready to get off to a much better start than they did Thursday.
