I’ve got you babe. I’ve got you babe.
It’s time to do it all over again. The Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens in a first-round playoff series, with just a little twist from last season. This year, the Bruins will be the heavily favored top seed while the Habs will be the eighth-seeded upstarts.
The Habs were relegated to the eighth spot when they lost to Pittsburgh last night, 3-1. Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette has the complete story.
Opinion: I’ll expand on this prediction a little later. But I’ve got …

The Boston Bruins could know the identity of their first-round playoff opponent as early as tonight. If Montreal loses to Pittsburgh, the Canadiens will  be coming to Boston for Games 1 and 2 of the first round next week.
The Habs have struggled through the regular season since January, but they clinched a playoff berth in the Hub Thursday. And center Tomas Plekanec, for one, is looking forward to the postseason as a fresh start. Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette has the story.
Opinion: History aside, the Habs are a better …

Former Ducks forward Brad May celebrated his 1,000th game in the NHL on Wednesday, and was honored in a pregame ceremony by his current team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
May began the season with the Ducks but was traded to Toronto so that he could reach the milestone. May had not been getting a lot of playing time and it was doubtful that he would have reached 1,000 games this season had he remained in Anaheim.
May spent most of his career with the Buffalo Sabres (425 games) but also had stops …

Well, one way or another we now know that Toronto head coach Ron Wilson will be coaching meaningful games in the winter of 2010.
While we don’t know how his Maple Leafs will fare in their first full season under general manager Brian Burke, but Wilson will be coaching the U.S. National team at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Opinion: I don’t get this selection at all. Wilson is a good coach, but with Peter Laviolette out there and unemployed he would’ve made sense as a guy with real time to devote …

Those hoping to grab some hot wings and beef on weck during the Boston Bruins’ first-round playoff series might be greatly disappointed. The Buffalo Sabres are still four points out of the eighth and final playoff spot after coming up short, 3-2, against New Jersey last night.
Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff even “rested” goaltender Ryan Miller for the third period with the Sabres down 3-0. But the goaltender took some of the blame as well.
“We got off to a tough start, for sure,” said Miller in John Vogl’s piece in …

Montreal 6 Toronto 2 (Air Canada Center)
A team effort.
On Tuesday night, four different Canadiens’ players scored against Chicago. Five different scorers provided the offense on Thursday versus the Islanders. Tonight, the Habs got goals from six different players.
Each member of the team now has a role, is aware of the coach’s expectations, and in turn is contributing. They are also held accountable. Andrei Kostitsyn learned that lesson as he sat out tonight’s game.
Special teams are also an area of major improvement. Part of the reason is …

Could the Boston Bruins be headed toward a first-round playoff series with Buffalo? It’s funny, because the Bruins will actually have a say in the matter with games today against the New York Rangers, Montreal Thursday and Buffalo next Saturday, Boston will practically be hand picking its opponent.
The Sabres, four points behind the Rangers for eighth in the Eastern Conference entering today’s action, kept their hopes alive last night with a thrilling overtime win over Washington. Tim Connolly turned a Capitals turnover into the game-winning goal by Jason Pominville. Mike …

It seems like it’s a big day for big signings around the Northeast Division. In addition to the Boston Bruins’ reported signing of veteran goaltender Tim Thomas to a multi-year deal, according to Damien Cox of The Star the Toronto Maple Leafs have won the auction for Denver University free-agent star Tyler Bozak.
Cox reports that Bozak might officially sign with the Leafs as soon as this afternoon. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound Bozak posted 5-8-13 totals in 19 games during an injury-riddled sophomre season at DU, but he’s been on scouts’ radars …

The Boston Bruins obviously have bigger fish to fry the next couple weeks in the regular season and then during, what they hope will be, their lengthy playoff run.
But it doesn’t hurt to take a look ahead to next year a bit and wonder what the Northeast Division will look like. And one club that will probably be more of a factor is Toronto — at least if general manager Brian Burke has his way.
The Leafs were mathematically eliminated — a foregone conclusion for months now — the other night …