MTL vs BOS

MONTREAL - The concept of home ice advantage was a largely foreign one to the Montreal Canadiens for much of this season.

Despite selling out the cavernous Bell Centre with 21,273 thundering patrons night after night, the Habs found the pressure of playing and performing in front of their home fans to be a bit too much to handle in the first half of the season.

But now, with the noise at the Bell Centre in fine playoff form, it appears the Habs are finally reaping the benefits of their loyal fan base.

Bruins coach Claude Julien admitted following Montreal’s 4-1 opening game win Thursday night that his players looked nervous to start the game, quite understandably a little intimidated by the reception that awaited them when they hit that Bell Centre ice.

And Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas said after Thursday’s game that defenceman Aaron Ward could not hear him yelling “screen” on Sergei Kostitsyn’s goal 34 seconds into the game.

On Friday, with a full night’s rest behind him, Thomas was asked to reflect on his first career playoff game, and it was his initial reaction to the atmosphere in the building that still struck him the most.

Coincidence or not, the Bruins were victimized by two Habs goals in the first 2:02 of the game.

“I took a few minutes to soak it all in,” Thomas said Friday after practice. “I don’t know if it had anything to do with the start, but I don’t think so.”

The Bruins will definitely be better prepared to face that crowd for Game 2 on Saturday, but the question remains whether they will be able to provide any semblance of opposition for the Canadiens. Bruins coach Claude Julien shuffled his lines at practice and focused much of the 45-minute skate on puck recovery deep in their zone and breakouts. Julien remains at a loss to explain why the Bruins have lost nine straight times to the Canadiens this year.

“Our team has, for some reason, not played our best games against the Canadiens,” Julien said. “And I’ve seen a lot of Montreal game this season, aside from the ones we’ve played against them, and I would say they seem to play their best games against us.”

Julien is trying his hardest to push the idea that Game 1 was just one game, and that the playoffs are different from the regular season, but even he had a bit of a defeatist air about him Friday. When trying to project how centre Marc Savard’s ice time will progress over the course of the series, Julien talked of how he hoped to have his number one centre playing at full speed by Game 7.

“I’m talking about a seven-game series,” Julien said. “If it goes that way, we’re in good shape.”

As opposed to the Bruins workmanlike, almost somber practice, the Canadiens just went out and had some fun on the ice Friday afternoon.

It’s easy to laugh when you have absolutely no reason to believe you are not advancing to the second round, even though Montreal’s first round series is only one game old.

Habs coach Guy Carbonneau plans to make no lineup changes for Saturday night, and why would he? He said Saku Koivu, who still has not skated on his broken foot, and defenceman Francis Bouillon are both out. Bouillon, in fact, will be kept off skates completely for at least two days, Carbonneau said, noting it’s easier to make a decision like that when the team is playing so well.

For the Bruins, defenceman Denis Wideman - arguably Boston’s top blue-liner Thursday night - did not skate Friday, but Julien said he is expected to play in Saturday’s game. Patrice Bergeron skated again Friday, but is no closer to a return from his Grade 3 concussion.

Bruins lines at practice
Lucic – Savard – Murray
Sturm – Krejci – Axelsson/Bergeron
Kessel – Metropolit – Schaefer
Thornton – Nokelainen – Reich

Chara – Ward
Alberts – Ference
Stuart – Hnidy

Canadiens lines at practice
A. Kostitsyn – Plekanec – Kovalev
S. Kostitsyn – Higgins – Ryder
Begin – Smolinski – Kostopoulos
Latendresse – Lapierre – Dandenault

Markov – Komisarek
Hamrlik – Brisebois
Streit – Gorges