Meeting for the first time since the Canadiens ended the Bruins season much earlier than expected last May, all the bounces went Montreal’s way.

It started in the first period and carried all the way to third as the Canadiens defeated the Bruins 6-4 in their home opener at the Bell Centre Thursday night.

“Tough bounce there for that goal [Montreal’s first of the night], but we battle through. Then the second one we open up a little too much and then a couple more tough bounces but we keep battling and the outcome wasn’t want we wanted” said Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask who was pulled in the third period after allowing five goals.

There is something about playing against the Canadiens that brings out the worst in Rask. Thursday’s loss drops Rask’s record against Montreal to 3-10-3 with a 2.63 goals-against average.

“I don’t know, I got to do something about it, I don’t know, I’ll figure something out” said Rask when asked where his struggles against the Canadiens come from.

“But yeah, like I said we started out good, I felt good in the first. They get that one bounce and its okay we will battle through it. Then they get another one and you’re like okay, doesn’t matter and then they get that third one and you’re like okay it’s one of those nights again.”

It wasn’t just the bounces that haunted the Bruins against the Habs, the defensive breakdowns were equally at fault. P.A Parenteau’s second period goal which put the Canadiens ahead for good was a perfect example of that.

Left all alone in the slot, Parenteau riffled one past Rask, completely swaying momentum in Montreal’s favor, momentum that the Bruins never got back.

“Yeah that’s not us” said Bruins defenseman Torey Krug. “We’re a team that prides ourselves on defense. When we’re spaced out in our defensive zone, bad things are going to happen. We didn’t collapse in front of our own net like we normally do, so shame on us for that.”

Scoring goals has been the issue for the Bruins in the early stages of the season, so to see his club put four goals on the board was a good thing for head coach Claude Julien. Obviously Julien would like his team to clean up the mistakes in the defensive zone.

“Yeah, I mean there are a lot of mistakes that I think guys should know better and like I said guys try and do a little too much or just not focus enough, so we just need to make sure we fix those things” said Julien.

Despite the handful of mistakes that cost the Bruins Thursday night, Julien is not hitting the panic button quite yet.

“There’s nothing alarming,” Julien said. “These guys are a lot better defensively than we’ve seen. It’s not like we’ve got a bunch of new guys that don’t know to play. It’s just we’ve got to be a little more committed to playing good defense and good defense wins games and championships.”

With Johnny Boychuk now calling Long Island home, the Bruins need someone to step up on the blueline and log key those key minutes the way Boychuk once did for the Bruins. They know what they need to do in order to get back to basics.

Julien is not ready to single out one individual for the loss, instead he puts the blame on the entire team.

“I’m not going to start pointing fingers at one person or one player,” Julien said. “I’m going to look at our whole team, and as a team we made too many mistakes here tonight.”

The next time the Bruins will have a chance to correct those mistakes will be Saturday night in Buffalo when they take on the Sabres.

Hear what the Bruins had to say following their 6-4 loss to Montreal Thursday night: