A Century of Hatred Between Montreal and Boston
There are rivalries in sport, and then there is Montreal versus Boston. This is not a hockey rivalry. This is a blood feud wrapped in a century of grievance, language, religion, and the stubborn refusal of two cities to ever forgive one another for anything. The Canadiens and the Bruins have been trying to destroy each other since 1924, and neither side has any interest in stopping.
To understand this rivalry, you need to understand what it means when a Quebecois says "les maudits Anglais" and when a Bostonian says "those damn Frenchmen." You need to understand that hockey, in these two cities, is not entertainment. It is identity. And when identity is at stake, people don't shake hands at the final whistle. They carry the wounds forever.
The Montreal Canadiens were already a storied franchise when the Boston Bruins entered the NHL in 1924 as the league's first American team. From the very first puck drop, something about the matchup felt different. Montreal, the proud capital of French Canada, versus Boston, the blueblood heart of New England. One team draped in the sacred bleu-blanc-rouge, the other in the black and gold of a city that had fought its own revolution.
"It was tribal from the beginning," explained a longtime hockey historian. "You had two proud, insular cities that defined themselves through their hockey teams. And they both believed — genuinely believed — that the other side was inferior. Not just at hockey. At everything."
By the late 1920s, the two clubs were already meeting in the playoffs with regularity. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1929. The Canadiens responded by winning it in 1930 and 1931. The pattern was established: every generation would bring a new chapter of mutual destruction.
From 1942 to 1967, the NHL consisted of just six teams. Montreal and Boston played each other 14 times per season during those years — and often met again in the playoffs. The sheer volume of contact turned animosity into something primal.
"You'd see the same guys every other week," recalled one former player from the era. "You knew their tendencies, their weaknesses, their families. And you hated them anyway. Maybe more because you knew them."
The Canadiens dominated this period, winning the Cup in 1944, 1946, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965, and 1966. Boston, by contrast, endured a stretch of futility so profound that it became a civic trauma. From 1941 to 1970 — 29 years — the Bruins did not win a single Stanley Cup. For much of that drought, it was Montreal standing in their way.
No single event captures the intensity of the Canadiens-Bruins rivalry — and the broader tensions it represented — better than the Richard Riot of March 17, 1955.
Maurice "Rocket" Richard was more than a hockey player. In Quebec, he was a symbol of French-Canadian identity, a man who proved that the Canadien could compete with — and beat — the English establishment. When Richard attacked a linesman during a game against Boston on March 13, 1955, NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended him for the rest of the season and the entire playoffs.
The suspension was seen in Quebec as an act of anti-French prejudice by the English-dominated NHL establishment. When Campbell had the audacity to attend the next Canadiens game at the Montreal Forum on March 17, the crowd turned on him. Fans threw eggs, tomatoes, and bottles. A tear gas bomb was set off inside the arena. The game was forfeited to the visiting Detroit Red Wings.
But the real violence was outside. Thousands of people poured into the streets of downtown Montreal, smashing windows, looting stores, and setting fires. The riot caused over $100,000 in damage — a staggering sum in 1955 — and resulted in dozens of arrests.
"The Richard Riot wasn't really about hockey," said a Quebec historian. "It was about everything hockey represented. The feeling that French Canadians were second-class citizens in their own country. Richard was their champion, and Campbell took him away. The streets burned because the people had been burning inside for generations."
Richard himself went on radio the next day and appealed for calm. The Canadiens lost in the playoff finals that year to Detroit. But the Rocket came back the following season and led Montreal to five consecutive Stanley Cups — a record that will almost certainly never be broken.
For decades, the rivalry was largely one-sided. Montreal won, and Boston seethed. That changed in the late 1960s when a teenager from Parry Sound, Ontario, arrived in Boston and transformed the franchise.
Bobby Orr didn't just make the Bruins competitive. He made them transcendent. With Phil Esposito scoring at will and Orr revolutionizing the defenceman position, Boston won the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972. The image of Orr flying through the air after scoring the Cup-winning overtime goal against St. Louis in 1970 became the most iconic photograph in hockey history.
"Orr gave Boston something they hadn't had in 30 years — a reason to believe they were the best," said a former Bruins scout. "And when you believe you're the best, that's when the rivalry with Montreal gets really dangerous. Because Montreal always believed they were the best, too."
The two teams met in the 1971 playoffs, and Montreal pulled off a stunning upset. The Canadiens' rookie goaltender, Ken Dryden, stood on his head and eliminated the heavily favoured Bruins in seven games. It was a defeat that still haunts Boston.
If one moment encapsulates Boston's tortured relationship with Montreal, it is the "too many men on the ice" penalty from Game 7 of the 1979 semifinal.
The Bruins were leading 4-3 in the third period. They were 11 minutes away from advancing. And then Don Cherry's team was caught with too many men on the ice. The penalty was called. Guy Lafleur scored the tying goal on the ensuing power play. Yvon Lambert won it in overtime.
"That call destroyed Boston," said a Bruins historian. "Don Cherry was fired after that season. The entire complexion of the franchise changed. And it was all because of one stupid penalty against Montreal. If you want to know why Boston fans hate the Canadiens with every fibre of their being, start with that moment."
Cherry himself never got over it. For the next four decades on Hockey Night in Canada, his bitterness toward Montreal was barely concealed. The too many men penalty became a scar that the entire city of Boston carried.
The 1980s brought a new level of physical brutality to the rivalry. Montreal, still winning with skill and speed, also employed some of the toughest players in the game. Chief among them was Chris Nilan — "Knuckles" — a Boston-born tough guy who wore the Canadiens sweater and terrorized the Bruins.
"The thing about Nilan was that he was from Boston," recalled a former teammate. "He grew up a Bruins fan. And then he spent his career beating the hell out of Bruins players. That drove the Boston fans absolutely insane. They saw him as a traitor."
Nilan accumulated 3,043 penalty minutes in his career, many of them in games against Boston. His battles with the Bruins' Terry O'Reilly and later Jay Miller were legendary. When Nilan was eventually traded to the Bruins in 1988, the irony was almost too perfect.
"Playing for Boston after Montreal was surreal," Nilan once said. "The guys in that dressing room hated the Canadiens. And I understood why — I'd been the reason for a lot of that hatred."
The Bruins, under Terry O'Reilly's coaching and with players like Cam Neely and Ray Bourque, were formidable in the 1980s. But they kept running into Montreal in the playoffs. The Canadiens won the series in 1984, 1985, and 1988. Boston's playoff futility against Montreal had become almost supernatural.
From 1946 to 1987, the Montreal Canadiens won 18 consecutive playoff series against the Boston Bruins. Let that number sink in. Eighteen. Over four decades, spanning multiple generations of players and coaches, Boston could not beat Montreal when it mattered most.
"There was genuinely a feeling that the Bruins were cursed," said a Boston sportswriter. "Rational, intelligent people believed that there was something metaphysical preventing Boston from beating Montreal in the playoffs. Players felt it. Coaches felt it. It was like a weight that the entire organization carried."
The streak finally ended in 1988 when the Bruins beat the Canadiens in the Adams Division final. The relief in Boston was palpable — as though the entire city had been holding its breath for 42 years.
The rivalry evolved but never cooled. The 1993 playoffs saw Montreal's Patrick Roy lead the Canadiens past Boston with a stunning run that included 10 consecutive overtime victories en route to the Stanley Cup. Roy, imperious and infuriating, became the latest Montreal player to haunt Boston's nightmares.
The 2002 playoffs brought another memorable series. The Bruins, led by Joe Thornton and built around a physical identity, took on a Montreal team that was scrappy and defiant. Boston won the series in six games, but the battles were brutal — the kind of series where players remember every hit for the rest of their lives.
"We knew going in that it was going to be a war," said a Bruins player from that series. "Montreal-Boston playoff games aren't hockey games. They're survival contests. You play through injuries you'd never play through against anyone else."
On March 8, 2011, the Canadiens-Bruins rivalry produced one of the most controversial moments in NHL history.
Boston captain Zdeno Chara drove Montreal's Max Pacioretty into a glass stanchion at the Bell Centre. Pacioretty crumpled to the ice with a severe concussion and a fractured cervical vertebra. He was stretchered off the ice. The arena fell silent.
The NHL reviewed the hit and decided not to suspend Chara. The decision ignited a firestorm. Montreal's director of player personnel called the league's decision "a joke." Quebec politicians weighed in, with some suggesting the matter be referred to the police. Fans protested outside the Bell Centre.
"That hit crossed a line," said a former Canadiens executive. "Chara is a massive human being, and Pacioretty was vulnerable. Whether it was intentional or not, the result was horrifying. And the league's decision not to act made it worse. In Montreal, it confirmed every suspicion that the NHL establishment was biased against the Canadiens."
Pacioretty, remarkably, returned to action later that season and eventually became the Canadiens' captain. But the incident added another layer of animosity to a rivalry that didn't need one.
The Canadiens and Bruins met in the 2014 Eastern Conference semifinal, and the series delivered everything the rivalry promised: controversy, hatred, and a moment that became the talk of the hockey world.
After Boston eliminated Montreal in seven games, Bruins forward Milan Lucic reportedly told several Canadiens players during the handshake line that he was going to kill them. Dale Weise and Alexei Emelin both confirmed the threats.
"It's the handshake line — you're supposed to show respect," Weise said afterward. "But I guess that's how it is in this rivalry. Even when it's over, it's not really over."
Lucic initially denied the claims, then essentially confirmed them by saying, "I don't think what I said was that bad." The incident perfectly captured the Canadiens-Bruins dynamic: even the traditional post-series show of sportsmanship couldn't contain the venom.
The series itself was a classic. Montreal's P.K. Subban and Boston's Shawn Thornton provided the physical fireworks. Carey Price was magnificent in goal for the Canadiens. And the games in both the Bell Centre and TD Garden had an atmosphere that regular-season hockey simply cannot replicate.
What separates the Canadiens-Bruins rivalry from every other rivalry in professional sport is the cultural dimension. This is not just about two teams competing. This is about two peoples, two languages, two visions of what North America should be.
"In Quebec, the Canadiens represent survival," explained a Montreal-based cultural critic. "For 100 years, they've been proof that French Canada can compete with — and beat — the English world. Every time Montreal beats Boston, it's not just three points in the standings. It's a validation of identity."
In Boston, the dynamic is different but no less intense. New England has its own fierce regional pride, and the Bruins embody it: tough, blue-collar, never backing down. When Boston plays Montreal, there is an unmistakable sense that the city's honour is at stake.
The rivalry has produced its own vocabulary. In Montreal, they call it "la classique." In Boston, they simply call it "the rivalry" — no further description needed. Both sides understand that when these two teams meet, the stakes transcend the scoreboard.
Every era has its standard-bearers. Maurice Richard and Milt Schmidt in the 1940s. Jean Beliveau and Johnny Bucyk in the 1960s. Guy Lafleur and Bobby Orr in the 1970s. Patrick Roy and Cam Neely in the late 1980s and 1990s. Carey Price and Patrice Bergeron in the modern era.
"The best players on both sides always rose to the occasion in these games," said a veteran hockey broadcaster. "There was something about the Canadiens-Bruins matchup that brought out a higher level of play. You could see it in their eyes during warmups. These games mattered more."
And then there were the fighters. John Ferguson and Ted Green. Chris Nilan and Terry O'Reilly. Donald Brashear and P.J. Stock. The rivalry demanded toughness, and both teams always had someone willing to answer the bell.
In recent years, some have questioned whether the Canadiens-Bruins rivalry has lost its edge. The Bruins have been one of the NHL's most consistent franchises, winning the Cup in 2011 and remaining competitive every year since. The Canadiens, meanwhile, have endured a painful rebuild that saw them bottom out before drafting potential franchise cornerstones.
"The rivalry is quieter right now because the teams haven't met in the playoffs recently," acknowledged a Montreal sportswriter. "But don't confuse quiet with dead. You put these two teams in a playoff series tomorrow, and it would be 1979 all over again. The hatred is in the DNA."
When the Bruins visit the Bell Centre, the building still buzzes differently. When the Canadiens come to TD Garden, the boos are louder, the hits harder, the atmosphere more charged. Players who have been traded between the two teams speak of the rivalry with a reverence reserved for few things in sport.
"I played for both clubs," one former player shared. "And I can tell you — nothing prepares you for a Montreal-Boston game. Not the coaching, not the video sessions, not the pregame talks. You just have to experience it. The building shakes. The crowd is on another level. And the players on both sides play like their lives depend on it."
The Canadiens and Bruins have played each other more than 900 times in the regular season — more than any other NHL matchup. They have met 34 times in the playoffs, another league record. Montreal has won 25 of those series, a dominance that defies statistical probability.
Combined, the two franchises have won 30 Stanley Cups (24 for Montreal, 6 for Boston). They have produced dozens of Hall of Famers, retired numbers in the double digits, and generated enough stories to fill a library.
But statistics can't capture what this rivalry truly is. It is the sound of 21,000 voices at the Bell Centre singing "Ole, Ole, Ole" as the final seconds tick away on a Montreal victory. It is the sight of a Boston fan, face painted black and gold, screaming at a television in a Causeway Street bar. It is 100 years of two cities absolutely refusing to give an inch.
This is the greatest rivalry in hockey history. And it shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
| First Meeting | 1924 — when Boston entered the NHL |
| All-Time Regular Season Record | Montreal leads with over 500 wins in 900+ meetings |
| Playoff Series | 34 series — Montreal has won 25, Boston 9 |
| Most Famous Moment | The Richard Riot (March 17, 1955) |
| Key Players (Montreal) | Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, Patrick Roy, Carey Price |
| Key Players (Boston) | Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Terry O'Reilly, Cam Neely, Patrice Bergeron |
| Combined Stanley Cups | 30 (Montreal 24, Boston 6) |
| Montreal's Playoff Streak | 18 consecutive series wins vs. Boston (1946-1987) |
The rivalry dates back to 1924 when the Boston Bruins entered the NHL as the league's first American franchise. Montreal, a founding member of the NHL in 1917, immediately developed a fierce competitive relationship with Boston that was intensified by the cultural and linguistic divide between French-speaking Quebec and English-speaking New England.
The Richard Riot occurred on March 17, 1955, after NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended Montreal's Maurice "Rocket" Richard for the remainder of the season and the playoffs. When Campbell attended a game at the Montreal Forum, fans attacked him, tear gas was deployed, and a full-scale riot erupted in the streets of Montreal, causing over $100,000 in damage and dozens of arrests.
The Montreal Canadiens hold a commanding lead in the all-time series with over 500 wins in more than 900 regular-season meetings. In the playoffs, the Canadiens have won 25 of their 34 postseason series against Boston, including an incredible 18 consecutive series victories from 1946 to 1987.
The rivalry has featured numerous Hockey Hall of Famers on both sides. Montreal icons include Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, Patrick Roy, and Carey Price. Boston legends include Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Terry O'Reilly, Cam Neely, and Patrice Bergeron. Chris Nilan holds the unique distinction of having played for both teams.
On March 8, 2011, Boston captain Zdeno Chara drove Montreal's Max Pacioretty into a glass stanchion at the Bell Centre, causing a severe concussion and a fractured cervical vertebra. The NHL chose not to suspend Chara, sparking outrage in Montreal and even commentary from Quebec politicians. It remains one of the most controversial incidents in the rivalry's history.
The rivalry transcends hockey and reflects a deep cultural and linguistic divide between French-speaking Montreal and English-speaking Boston. For over a century, the two teams have served as proxies for broader tensions between French Canada and English-speaking North America. The sheer volume of playoff meetings (34 series, an NHL record) and the proximity of the two cities adds further fuel to the fire.
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