I love the smell of a Habs game in the morning...

Well, in the evening, but you know what I mean. This is the Canadiens' centennial season, so no doubt they'll pretty much be out to prove that they're still the same evil team who's always vexed us in the past. Good thing I was already pretty sure of that fact.

Montreal has won 11 straight regular-season meetings, the Canadiens' longest active winning streak against any team. Boston's last victory at the Bell Centre took place on Dec. 4, 2006 (6-5).

Um...I'm thinking it's time for that streak to end tonight. Eleven regular season meetings in a row is just embarrassing for any team. Let alone us. People are starting to expect losses when it comes to Habs games, and we need to feed off that and make ourselves better. Just like we did last season.

It's always a party when Boston plays Montreal.

Aaron Ward blogged about how he feels about the game:

I feel like I can close my eyes and replay every shift, every moment of every game we played against Montreal last year, so I think it’s comforting to know that there’s shouldn’t be a whole lot of surprises coming at you.

He has a very good point. On Saturday, we played a team we're not familiar with at all. Not that it makes it okay to go down 4-1 over the course of five minutes, but with familiarity comes recognition of tendencies and with that comes a better ability to shut down plays. If there's anyone we're familiar with, it's the Canadiens. Fifteen games against them last season? Yeah, I think we know them well enough.

I think that knowing that this is a big game -- a rivalry game -- we should have learned a lot from last year, from our mistakes, considering we put ourselves behind the eight ball many times with penalties.

Okay, we recognize the problem. That's a start. Recognition is only half the battle, however. 'Don't get behind the eight ball with penalties.' Meaning don't take stupid, lazy penalties that are going to cost you. Meaning no hooking, no holding, and for the love of god when you clear the puck, please try and keep it low to the ground so it doesn't go over the glass. Stay out of the box, because if that game against the Maple Leafs is any proof, they're still just as lethal on the PP.

It’s the score at the end of the game that matters. That’s the one that will be remembered, not if you took a guy’s head off or evened a score from a previous game.

Nothing else relevant – it’s the two points in the standings and the team’s outcome that matters. So I think it’s key that we draw upon our most recent experiences: patience, composure, discipline, because we’ve got to know if you give them an inch, they’re going to take a mile.

Aaron Ward is a wise, wise man. We have every chance to win this game tonight. We're just as talented as they are, and we have almost all the same components to our team that we had when we beat them a couple times in the playoffs last season, remember that guys? Now, we have the added component of Michael Ryder, who will be challenged tonight in playing his old team. But I think he can do it.

I think we can do this. Let's not make my hoping and faith in vain, all right?