Canadiens dominate Bruins in National Hockey League holiday clash

Wearing a mask decorated with a Patriots theme and autographed by their coach and quarterback, Mike Condon stopped 27 shots to help Montreal beat the Bruins 5-1 on Friday at the home of the reigning National Football League champions.

The Bruins will be home watching the Patriots play Sunday, Julien saying “probably 90 per cent of our players are big-time Patriots fans”.

According to Sportsnet Stats, Byron became just the fourth player in Winter Classic history to score multiple goals in a single game.

Montreal scored just 1:14 into the game, with David Desharnais getting credit for a puck that touched off Bruins defenseman Joe Morrow’s stick on its way past Tuukka Rask, shades of the sole score the goaltender allowed the last time these teams met, a 3-1 Bruins’ victory in Montreal Dec. 9.

The Winter Classic also marked the return of Montreal forward Gallagher after a 17-game absence because of two broken fingers he suffered while blocking a shot. “It’s two points, they’re a big two points, but we’ve got to look at this as a great experience”. First two periods, I haven’t seen us play so bad in a while. We all had fun and you can’t undervalue the smiles everyone had coming to the rink, especially (Thursday) for practice. The Winter Classic was their first chance to do so, and the Canadiens took the opportunity to shine.

Julian Edelman posted this photo on Twitter, with his face, along with Danny Amendola, Rob Gronkowski and head coach Bill Belichick photoshopped on to Bruins players on the bench. It was a huge momentum boost for the Canadiens and proved crucial because the Bruins scored at 3:56 of the third period. “When you’ve got a guy like Carey Price, this game is obviously marked off for him”.

“We knew it was an important game for us”, Therrien said. “Overall, we didn’t definitely didn’t deserve to win”.

Rask had every reason to be mad about the game, but the defensive performance was just one of the areas the Bruins’ effort did not look up to snuff against the previously slumping Canadiens.

Byron admitted to having negative thoughts when the Flames let him go, but he said they have been overshadowed by all the positive things since he joined the Canadiens.

The Winter Classic is in full swing and David Decharnais and the Montreal Canadiens tallied the first point. “Anything can happen. So you’ve just to make sure you’re prepared for the opportunities you get”.

With Montreal already ahead 2-0 late in the second period, Pacioretty tipped a floating puck over to Gallagher, who swiped it out of the air and knocked it into the net.

“I said I wouldn’t come back if I wasn’t able to contribute”, said Gallagher, who targeted the New Year’s Day game but was going to be smart about it. “The way the night went you couldn’t really ask for anything more”.