David Desharnais puts the Habs over the Bruins 4-3 in Boston

Mar 3, 2013; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman

(27) is congratulated by center

(63) after scoring a goal during the second period against the Montreal Canadiens at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

In what should have been a routine win for the Boston Bruins, they are now behind 2 points to Montreal in the Northeast Division and in the Eastern Conference. The Boston Bruins fell behind Montreal twice in this game and had to climb back from a 2-1 deficit. The Bruins looked poised and physical as ever, but right when everything should have come up for the B’s it all fell apart.

In what seemed like Game 3 of the 2002 Bruins vs Montreal series, things got physical fast. If the spot light of blame can be shined on anyone in this game it was Andrew Ference (and we could shine that same spotlight on the terrible performance of Kyle McLaren in 2002). Ference took a “holding” penalty early in the game which allowed Montreal to go up 1-0 on the powerplay. The Bruins fought back to tie the game 1-1 and fell behind with a goal from Canadiens forward David Desharnais, they would go up 2-1 with a tally from Patrice Bergeron and then 3-2 from Dougie Hamilton’s second goal of the season.

It was here the Bruins should have been able to put this away, but Max Pacioretty tied the game for the Canadiens and David Desharnais logged his second goal of the game. Montreal’s game winning goal could have prevented had Andrew Ference not laid down in the goal and let Tuukka come back (who was in the process of coming back to the front of the net before being blocked by Andrew Ference.)

The Bruins penalty kill and powerplay suffered in the game. The Bruins penalty killers let in a goal and overall played sloppy despite several kills on the night. Speaking of the penalty kill, the officiating needs to be brought up. The officiating in the NHL has been down right awful, and everyone has talked about it. Tonight’s game was very close to getting out of hand, especially with Montreal diving and making blatant late hits all over the ice (Emelin’s hit on Seguin is the prime example).  The NHL needs to do something about the officiating before a full out line brawl or bench clearing brawl erupts between two teams. Things are getting out of hand fast, and someone is gonna get seriously injured and nothing will come of it.

Tuukka Rask tried his hardest for a solid performance tonight, but lousy defensive in front of Rask allowed several soft goals. Montreal goalie Peter Budaj also had a valiant effort in tonight’s game. There were several instances where Montreal players covered the puck with their hand (and alas no call was made), but putting that aside; Budaj did preform well in tonight’s loss.

The Bruins have time to rebound from this, as they travel to the nation’s capital to face against their “playoff up-setters” the Washington Capitals