Tomas Kaberle and 4 Other Keys to Bruins-Canadiens Monday Matchup

The Boston Bruins will vie to pull even in their 2011-12 season series with the Montreal Canadiens when the time-honored rivalry conducts its fourth of six installments at the TD Garden Monday night.

As it happens, Montreal is in a semi-comparable state to where it was the last time these adversaries converged on Causeway Street. As was the case near the end of October, the Canadiens are just coming off a coaching change and looking to slow down a tumble in the Eastern Conference standings.

A stark difference on the Canadiens front this time around is their allotment of padded personnel. Due to injuries, Andrei Markov and Ryan White are all but certainly not going to be in action on Monday. Odds are that Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez could still be out of commission themselves.

For the healthy and happy Bruins―who were last in the conference when they confronted Montreal in October but are now tied for the league’s best winning percentage―the difference of about seven weeks has spoken for itself.

They can add another sentence to that ongoing speech on Monday, especially if they get the better of their visitors in the following five areas.

Kaberle Equals Kessel?

Since a recent trade from the Carolina Hurricanes, defenseman Tomas Kaberle has five assists in four games with Montreal so far. However, that is not quite indicative of any drastic change from his brief stint with the Bruins at the end of last season.

If anything, Kaberle continues to be a one-dimensional asset with his irreproachable playmaking (11 playoff assists with Boston) to go with a generally iffy outlook in other areas.

And now that he is wearing the crest and colors of a divisional rival, let alone the Habs, he just might constitute the same cut of fresh meat as Phil Kessel in Maple Leafs attire.

Given the general reception he got from his own fans as a Bruin, there is no hope of Kaberle being left to conduct business in peace when visiting the Garden as a Canadien.

In turn, his former mates can feed off that buzz to generate greater qualities and quantities of scoring chances at his expense.

Kicking Them While They’re Down

For the second time in as many weeks and as many home games, the Bruins will face a team that is fresh off a coaching change, having previously confronted and conquered the Los Angeles Kings this past Tuesday.

Montreal discharged seasoned skipper Jacques Martin on Saturday and will play its second game since filling the vacancy with Randy Cunneyworth.

In Cunneyworth’s hasty debut against New Jersey, the Canadiens put up a respectable fight for portions of a 5-3 loss, scoring three second-period goals and leading for a little less than 10 minutes straight. But they were comparatively lifeless in the opening and closing stanzas, so much so that a players-only meeting was called after the final horn.

As long as they agree not to feed the animal that is the opponent’s desperation at any point in this 60-minute bout, the Bruins will have decent odds of actually controlling a tangle with Montreal.

Brushing Off The Remains

One of the reasons Montreal could not get Cunneyworth a victorious debut against the Devils even when it was within reach was because their most leaned-on forwards were quiet as a mime on Saturday.

Erik Cole and Max Pacioretty, the only two Habs with double digits in the goal column, were each held without a single point or shot on net. Cole did pen himself to the scoresheet, but for six penalty minutes.

Team-leading playmaker Tomas Plekanec did manage a game-high five stabs at Martin Brodeur, but finished with zero points and a minus-one rating. In the previous game against Philadelphia, a 4-3 loss, he was similarly scoreless and endured an acrid minus-two rating.

Muzzle each of those players the same way New Jersey did, and Boston will make its own life a little easier Monday.

Staying Sharp

Despite the recent rash of injuries, particularly up front, the Habs have managed at least three goals in four of their last five games. But coming off a 6-0 whitewash over the NHL’s top strike force in Philadelphia, the Bruins need not excuse themselves from both stifling and one-upping the Montreal offense.

Confining the Habs to a slim output should not be of too much concern for either Tim Thomas or Tuukka Rask, depending on who gets the nod for this one. What Boston buffs really want to watch for is Tyler Seguin and the Nathan Horton-David Krejci-Milan Lucic line following up on their contributions to Saturday’s victory over the Flyers (For Lucic, this is assuming he gets Brendan Shanahan’s approval to take part in Monday’s contest.).

The degree of hunger those individuals express for this rivalry game could be a telling gauge of their character.

Special Offers

The Canadiens’ Saturday night battle with New Jersey pitted the NHL’s two best penalty-killing squads, yet featured a combined three power-play strikes. The Devils went 2-for-5, the Habs, 1-for-4.

Monday will have Montreal still bringing in the second-stingiest penalty killing brigade in the league with 88.8 percent success. As it happens, the Bruins are a few negligible ice chips behind in that department, warding off the opposing power play 88.5 percent of the time.

Was it the coaching change that set back the Habs’ shorthand squadron, which went a cumulative 11-for-11 in Martin’s last three games? That remains to get a reliable gauge, but for themselves, the Bruins are coming off a 3-for-8 performance in Philadelphia.

Lately, Boston has followed a pattern of converting at least one man-up opportunity in one game, then going two straight with no such luck. Luring a team like the Canadiens into the box and imposing the fee for early bail could be a critical building block for a consistently threatening power play.

Conversely, given that they rank near the bottom of the NHL’s power-play leaderboard and all of their missing personnel, the Habs could build a lot on one or two conversions if the Bruins are not careful.