Canadiens crush Bruins' spirits

The fact that the Boston Bruins are about to be eliminated from the NHL postseason by the Montreal Canadiens is sickening enough.
Watching the Bruins be relegated to visitors' status in their home building, however, is just one more reminder of what a complete and utter debacle hockey has become on Causeway Street.
Montreal fans swarmed the TD Banknorth Garden for Tuesday night's pivotal Game 4, a match-up that Boston desperately needed to win to avoid falling behind 3-1 in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarterfinal. I didn't think that the eighth-seeded Bruins stood any chance against the top-seeded Canadiens when the pairings were announced, what with that 11-game losing streak against Montreal and all, but to see Boston be humiliated on home ice by thousands of traveling Canadiens fans was the last straw.
These games between the two Original Six rivals were as much a blood feud as the current Red Sox-Yankees struggle back in the old Adams Division days. The Buffalo Sabres, Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Failures Whalers were supporting acts to the main stage that pitted the Bruins and the Canadiens against each other seemingly every season. My earliest hockey memories as a kid were watching Ray Bourque, Cam Neely and the rest of the Boston legends face off against Patrick Roy, Chris Chelios and Montreal's bunch of divers and frauds. And there was absolutely no way that any Montreal fan would have been able to find a seat in the old Boston Garden, a building that was as great a home-ice advantage as any arena in the NHL.
That's not the case anymore. The Canadiens' home reds were on display all over the place on Tuesday. Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara was booed every time he touched the puck, just like he is when the Bruins travel to the Bell Centre. I must admit booing Chara from the comfort of my couch every once in a while, especially when I found out he makes more than perennial Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom for nothing close to the Red Wing captain's excellence, but Chara being abused at home in the playoffs is unthinkable. The cries of 'Ole, Ole Ole Ole, Ole, Ole' rang out from all four corners of the rink from Montreal fans who weren't the least bit intimidated.
Boston's fractured fan base, neglected for so many years by indifferent management, has eroded to the point where the Bruins have been relegated to the suffering status of the Rays or Orioles when the Red Sox invade Tropicana Field or Camden Yards with their Nation. What makes it so much worse is that the Canadiens, the team that has heaped more misery on the Bruins than any other in the past eight decades, are the team to rub salt in what has become a jagged wound. Boston will be forced to watch Montreal celebrate when it wins the series on any of the next three nights, and it will be a sickening sight to be sure.