Krause: Canadiens had all the answers for Bruins

There was a scene in Rocky II when one of Apollo Creed?s handlers begs the champ not to sign on for a rematch.?He?s all wrong for us, baby,” says the trainer. “I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man kept coming after you. No, we don?t need no man like that in our lives.”(This is a direct quote, so please excuse the lack of proper grammar.)This pretty much sums up the Montreal Canadiens. They keep coming at you. There is no quit. Every time it looked as if the Bruins had stolen the edge, the Canadiens dug down a little deeper and got it back. And that is why the Bruins are lining up tee times today instead of preparing for the New York Rangers.Loathe them though we may, the Canadiens took the series away from the Bruins with their style of play — their speed and their grit. And as such, they were all wrong for the Bruins. They weren?t impressed, and they didn?t roll over. The Canadiens got in the Bruins? faces from the opening puck drop (once upon a time called a faceoff) and never got out.They play a frustrating game, and the Bruins played the part of being harried and frustrated very well, missing open nets, having the puck do strange things. The popular term these days for it is “puck luck,” and the Bruins didn?t seem to have any.But was it that? Or did their frustration result in a lack of focus that resulted in missed shots and passes that bounced off sticks? Montreal blocks a lot of shots and that altered the way the Bruins played — especially the first line, which basically didn?t show up. Instead of just firing away and wearing the Canadiens down, the Bruins often tried to be too fine.The most disturbing thing about this series is that the Bruins didn?t seem to have one leader — not even Patrice Bergeron — around whom they could rally. Nobody said — as the Celtics? Cedric Maxwell once famously said – “climb upon my back, fellas. I?ll get you there.” The first line was invisible, and Brad Marchand seems to be going backwards.The Canadiens are pests who get in your way and try to goad you into stupid penalties. Conversely, the Bruins lost their poise several times. They did not play a smart series. Montreal is at its best when it pounces on the other team?s mistakes. And the Bruins obliged, such as in Game 6 when Lars Eller swooped in on Kevan Miller?s bad turnover and scored the game?s first goal. The Canadiens did it again last night, scoring twice thanks to momentary lapses on the part of the Bruins. It didn?t matter that the Bruins dominated for two of the three periods. All it took were those few mistakes for the Canadiens to steal the game.This is supposed to be a smart, veteran team that — at times — acted like it was a group of high school kids playing on the big ice for the first time. Shawn Thornton found it necessary to give P.K. Subban a shower at the end of Game 5 because Subban was a stone in their collective shoes. Never mind that he is a talented hockey player with a cannon for a shot. Instead of respecting him, the Bruins — in the form of Thornton — got him even more motivated.To put it another way, when your best player is Johnny Boychuk, you?re in trouble.As the inimitable Rodney Dangerfield once said, “I?ll bet you a hundred bucks you slice it into the woods.”