Hockey’s greatest rivalry resumes on Friday, but what a lopsided rivalry it is.
The 907th match between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens will be the first one to be played outdoors, in a feud that goes back more than 90 years and stands on a par with Yankees-Red Sox, Celtics-Lakers and, outside North America, Scottish football’s Old Firm rivalry, Celtic v Rangers.
Hockey’s version of the firm has a clear-cut senior partner and that would be Montreal.
The Canadiens lead the all-time series with 461 wins, 335 losses and 110 ties or overtime losses.
At one stretch (spanning 1946 through 1987) they beat the Bruins in 18 consecutive play-off series. And each of the seven times these foes have met in the Stanley Cup final, victory has gone to Montreal.
It makes one wonder, why is this a great rivalry? And beneath that, what exactly are the required ingredients?
Let us take a look at two key games to get a sense of the stuff of this feud.
The first was on April 8, 1971. The Habs were in a funk after a glorious run in the 1950s and 1960s, while the Bruins had been on a roll ever since Bobby Orr, greatest defenceman ever, joined the team in 1966.
The Big, Bad Bruins had won the Cup in 1970. In the regular season that followed Orr went an astounding plus-124, a mark never equalled. Montreal had a little-known rookie in net, a lanky law student named Ken Dryden who had played all of six NHL games.
Boston won the opener 3-1 and were up 5-1 midway through Game 2. And then, so the story goes, the Montreal players saw the Bruins laughing and making merry on their bench. That riled the Habs up.
Then Orr himself turned the puck over for an Henri Richard goal. The tide had turned and Montreal, behind the long-limbed goaltending of Dryden (like Orr, a future Hall of Famer) went on to win the game 7-5 and the series 4-3.
Of course, the Canadiens went on to win the Cup that year.
The second key match came on May 10, 1979. It was the seventh game of the semi-finals and Boston led by a goal with less than three minutes left.
Then, in one of the all-time great gaffes, the Bruins mucked up a line change.
A buzz rose from the savvy Montreal crowd and the referee whistled Boston for too many men on the ice.
On the power play, Guy Lafleur beat Gilles Gilbert with a shot from the point with 74 seconds left. The Habs won in overtime – and, of course, went on to win the Cup that year.
Those two games are the rivalry in a nutshell: Habs win, Bruins are foiled again. It is like an older brother who glides through life while a younger brother scraps for every morsel. If this is a feud, then it is a family feud.
But if balance is not a necessary ingredient of a great rivalry, what is? I would say three things: a long history, especially in knockout play; frequent recurrence; and at least one of the teams has to have been of championship calibre, in order for the stakes to be high.
When the Bruins and Canadiens skate onto the ice on New Year’s Day, few fans will be looking for such perspective. Because in a great rivalry, the game that matters the most is always the game that is on right now.
Watch the video of the May 10, 1979 game
Signs of life in Toronto Maple Leafs
Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs have reason to be hopeful.
Yes, they have been hopeful for decades, but it tends to be a dumb and desperate hope that for some lame reason the team’s eons of incompetence are about to end.
This time, though, it actually is rational.
The Maple Leafs are making the leap from being a bad bad team to being a good bad team.
In other words, they are finally competitive.
On the season they have 13 wins in 34 games entering last night’s match against the New York Islanders.
But since early November they have won 11 of 20.
It has gotten to the point where a headline on tsn.ca the other day said: “Babcock staying grounded despite Leafs’ positive strides”.
Listen, this team have been dirt for so long, the last problem anyone in Toronto should have is keeping grounded.
Still, the improvement under new coach Mike Babcock is undeniable.
In a win against one of the league’s elite, Toronto skunked the Los Angeles Kings 5-0 on December 19.
It was their goaltender Jonathan Bernier’s first win of the season – in his 12th try.
In the very next game, Tyler Bozak scored a hat-trick as Toronto won 7-4 on the road to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.
Since he became a Leaf during the 2010/11 season, Bozak was a cringeworthy minus-70.
Looking forward, the best thing for the Leafs would be to revert to losing, even if by smaller margins than usual.
This is a team of tomorrow and not today.
The worse they are today, the higher they can be in the next NHL draft – when they can acquire another building block for a better future.
rmckenzie@thenational.ae
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