The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens seem to meet every postseason.

But then again maybe they should, because you never know what will happen when these two fierce Original Six rivals come together in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, this season the Bruins have the upper hand by claiming the top seed in the East. 

The Habs are the team who seem to be in disarray.  The Habs lost their last four regular season games. And Boston has beaten the Habs quite convincingly having taken five out of six games during the regular season.

But we have learned in the past that none of Boston's regular season domination will matter once the puck drops in Game One of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal. I don't know what will happen, but you can bet these teams know each other so well that it will be wildly entertaining series.

Boston is ranked second in scoring with 274 goals. Phil Kessel led with 36 and Michael Ryder had 27. Marc Savard, David Krejci rookie Blake Wheeler and Chuck Kobasew exceeded 20 goals, as did late-season acquisition Mark Recchi. Michael Ryder led the Bruins with 10 power-play goals and seven game-winners.

Lines:

First-line center Savard had 63 assists and was tied for ninth in League scoring.
Krejci led the NHL with a plus-37 rating and Wheeler was second at plus-36, while Ryder was plus-28 and Savard plus-25. Savard led Boston forwards with an average ice time of 19:32 per game.

Milan Lucic led Bruins forwards with 262 hits, tied for fifth in the NHL. Stephane Yelle led the Bruins forwards with 56 blocked shots and Savard was tops with 55 takeaways.

Up front, Montreal has found lightning in a bottle since the return of forward Alex Tanguay from injury. Upon his return in late March, Tanguay was placed on the top line with Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu and that trio scored 32 points in 10 games since being re-assembled March 24.

Tanguay missed 31 games with a shoulder injury, and his return eased the shock of losing Robert Lang, who led the team in scoring when he was lost for the season Feb. 1.

The Habs have struggled to find successful second and third lines. Tomas Plakanec had 20 goals this season, down from 29 a year ago, and 39 points, down from 69. The Kostitsyn brothers, Sergei and Andrei, also have had off years.

Matt D'Agostini had four goals in his first five games, but he went more than two months without a goal before scoring in the season's final week.

Defensemen:

Captain Zdeno Chara is a 7ft tower of strength and a model of positional play in his role as first-pairing left defenseman. He led Boston's defense with 19 goals, 169 hits, three game-winners, 216 shots, 26:04 average ice time, 27.5 shifts per game, and 28 takeaways.

He was second with 123 blocked shots and tied for the team lead with 50 points.

Dennis Wideman, second-pairing, left defense-man, led the Bruins' defense with 37 assists and tied Chara with 50 points. Aaron Ward adds strength, experience and good puck-moving skills on Chara's right side, as does Andrew Ference with Wideman.

Top defense-man Andrei Markov will miss the first round with a knee injury and Mathieu Schneider is playing with an old shoulder injury that turns out is in no need of surgery. Markov will be a big loss on the power play.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?