Horton, B's Pound Montreal

Entering last night's contest with Montreal, the Boston Bruins were 0-3 against their Northeast Division rivals thus far this season.

Make that 1-3.

The Bruins put 8 goals and 85 penalty minutes on the board against their conference rivals and walked away with an 8-6 victory in a wild game at the TD Garden. Nathan Horton had 5 points (1g, 4a) and both Lucic and Michael Ryder had 2 goals to lead the Bruins.

The game got off to a relatively calm start, with the Canadiens and Bruins going back and forth equally until the Bruins put two goals on the board in 12 seconds. The first was the result of a beautiful Recchi to Bergeron to Marchand play, and the second was an impressive mid-air snipe from just outside the crease by Dennis Seidenberg. The play picked up in the second period, as the Canadiens scored two quick goals to tie the game before Adam McQuaid but the B's back up on top with his first goal of the year.

The two teams then went back and forth in this same manner for much of the rest of the game - Ryder and Lucic scored back to back goals for the Bruins before Montreal got another to put the game at 5-4. Milan Lucic and Michael Ryder each scored again for Boston, with Nathan Horton capping off the scoring with an absolute rocket that rang the post and dove into the net.

The real story of the night, however, was the fighting. The game itself was a rough and tumble sort of contest, with heavy hits being handed out left and right. I was especially impressed with Nathan Horton, who was absolutely giving it to that punk P.K. Subban all night. Too bad Subban was too scared to fight, it would have been a good one for sure. I remarked to QuackQuack, while watching the end of the game, that what made the Bruins so special was that every single guy on the squad would drop the gloves for his teammates. That fact was clearly evident in the fights of David Krejci and goalie Tim Thomas, both guys who literally never fight yet engaged last night. I think you would be hard pressed to find another team in the NHL who could claim this, with the exception of maybe the Flyers (who have always been a little nuts).

Regardless, the Bruins are back in action on Friday night against the Red Wings in an original 6 battle. For now, I leave you with some hard hitting action from back in the day...