The Boston Bruins found themselves in a familiar position Saturday night at TD Garden – facing the Montreal Canadiens on the back end of a back-to-back.

Playing without David Krejci, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara and Chris Kelly, their goaltender, Tuukka Rask, needed to be their best player on the night, but his struggles continued against the Canadiens and he ended up in a familiar position as well-the losing goaltender.

Coming into the game with a career 3-11-3 record and a 2.80 goals against average versus the league leading Habs, Rask’s numbers did not improve. He still remains winless against the Habs at TD Garden (0-6-3).

It’s an alarming stat to look at for the amount of times these two teams square off. The offense provided much of nothing the entire night on his counterpart, Carey Price. Rask ended the night with 21 saves on 23 shots and although he got the loss, he played much better against a team that gives him trouble.

Still, it just wasn’t enough.

After goals by Andrei Markov (power play) and Tomas Plekanec, Rask tended to settle in, but he wasn’t really tested throughout the night and it was too much to overcome. The Habs improved their record to 10-0-0 on the year when they score first.

Rask again was outplayed by Price who recorded his first career shutout against the B’s during the regular season. But, the Finnish net minder was satisfied with his team’s effort on the night despite the loss.

“It’s part of the game, it happens and I thought we played really good even though there were some injuries and last minutes changes,” Rask said after the Canadiens snapped their three-game win streak. “The guys coming up did a great job of battling out there and we played a good game. So it’s a tough loss, but we can live with it if we lose like that and I’m sure if we keep playing like that we’re going to win more games than lose for sure.”

When asked if it has become a psychological barrier in beating the Canadiens for him personally and his team, Rask quickly denied that.

“I don’t think so,” Rask said shaking his head. “I think guys are-we recognize when we play good and when we don’t play good and tonight we played a good game and could have easily got a point or two. But again, sometimes we just don’t play good at all against them and then it’s kind of psychological. But, we just feel like we have to play good against them and eliminate their odd-man rushes and stuff like we did today for the most part and it’s going to be good. So, I feel like there’s no worry in the locker room why we couldn’t beat them.”

Rask took an 8-2-0 record at home this year against the Canadiens Saturday night, but just couldn’t get a victory against a very hot team. He still cannot get over the hump.

It’s a tough night to blame Rask for the loss, although his career statistics scream it. There was no net front presence to distract Price, there were minimal scoring opportunities from the offense and with a few different bounces maybe the B’s escape with one point.

The Canadiens have Rask’s number. That has to change if the B’s want to make a run at another Stanley Cup because there’s a good chance these two teams will meet somewhere down the road with a lot on the line in the playoffs, and there is no doubt that Rask will be between the pipes for every game of the series.

See what Rask, Milan Lucic, Matt Fraser, and Torey Krug had to say following the 2-0 loss to the Habs