Habs still have Rask's number

— -- MONTREAL -- Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask is so confident in his abilities that he can only shake his head and laugh at his career numbers against the Montreal Canadiens.

But it's no laughing matter.

His so-called "nightmare" continued on Thursday as the Canadiens handed Boston a 6-4 loss in Montreal's 2014-2015 home opener at Bell Centre. Rask allowed five goals on 23 shots before he was pulled at 7:17 of the third period and replaced by backup Niklas Svedberg.

In 18 career regular-season games versus Montreal, Rask is 3-11-3 with a .902 save percentage. It was also the first regular-season matchup since the Canadiens ousted the Bruins in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last May.

In Thursday's Bruins loss, it wasn't all about Rask's performance. Once again, the Bruins had too many defensive miscues, and a few of Montreal's goals were the result of lucky bounces in the Canadiens' favor.

"From my point of view, it was one of those nightmare nights when the bounces aren't going your way," Rask said.

When Rask was asked why he has so much difficulty against the Canadiens, he could only smile in disbelief.

"I don't know," he said with a laugh. "I've got to do something about it. I don't know but I'll figure something out. We started good and I felt good in the first, then they get that one bounce, then another one and you're 'OK, it doesn't matter.' Then you get a third one and you're kind of like, 'OK, it's one of those nights again.' I've got no answers. If I had an answer, we'd probably win more games here. We'll battle. We'll keep battling and get stronger."

Too many times in the early part of this season, the Bruins have struggled in the defensive zone. Those breakdowns have caused the Bruins to get off to a poor start with a 2-4-0 record. Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was an uncharacteristic minus-3 on Thursday.

"A lot of it is mental," Rask said of the team's overall defensive play this season. "In these games we don't give up a lot of shots, but when we do they're tough shots and they're scoring chances. It's tough for a goalie to be ready for those, because you're ready for that shot, but the puck bounces backdoor and stuff like that and we break down. It's tough for a goalie to get a read of those, but I think a lot of it is just mental and doing our jobs and not worry about the other guys' job."

Those types of breakdowns were evident in the final minutes of the second period.

Boston held a 3-2 lead, but Montreal scored goals at the 18:11 and 19:36 mark of the second to gain a 4-3 advantage. The Bruins were caught flat-footed and the Canadiens seized momentum.

"Everything was under control, and then a couple of breakdowns and it's a 4-3 game. Obviously, it kind of shakes you a little bit, but then again, we wanted to come out strong in the third and shake those goals off, but the start of the third wasn't sharp, they got that goal and that was it," Rask said.

As the Bruins were trying to regain momentum, the Canadiens' Brendan Gallagher scored his second goal of the night, outmuscling Chara in front of the Boston net. The puck deflected off Gallagher and beat Rask at 7:17 of the third. Bruins coach Claude Julien decided he had seen enough and pulled Rask.

"At that point, you're looking for something to spark your team and maybe slow things down a little bit, too, before the next faceoff," Julien said. "Made that change, but it was just one of those games where there were a lot of bouncing pucks here and there. The first goal [against] we put in ourselves and that's just an example.

"It's a team thing right now and there were a lot of mistakes made in front of him, so I'm not going to start pointing fingers at one person, I'm going to look at our whole team, and as a team we made too many mistakes here tonight."

Bruins defenseman Torey Krug, who was a plus-3 on the night and registered an assist on Loui Eriksson's goal, can only imagine how difficult it is for Rask to lose again in this fashion to the Canadiens.

"It's tough for Tuukka," Krug said. "He bails us out so many different times and sometimes the puck just ends up going in. It is what it is but he bails us out so much and he's great for us."

While the Canadiens hadn't played a game since Monday, the Bruins posted a 3-2 shootout win over the Red Wings on Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Boston arrived in Montreal at 3 a.m. Thursday and that fatigue was evident after the first 30 minutes against the Canadiens.

"It definitely looked like it at times," Rask said. "We got tired and our decision-making wasn't there and our heads just weren't there and it's understandable. It's not an excuse. But we battled hard, and [except] for some mistakes, take those out of there, it was a pretty solid game for us."

It was also noticeable that someone in the building had a green laser and was pointing it at Rask during the game. In the second period, it also appeared at the feet of Bruins center Gregory Campbell during a faceoff. After the game, both Rask and Campbell said they didn't notice it.

"At me? No. You know, I saw it in the second but it was in the offensive zone. Good thing I didn't go blind or anything," Rask said.

This season, the Bruins have to play Montreal on the second half of back-to-back games four times. After Thursday's loss, there are three remaining.

It will be interesting to see if Julien will go with Rask in those games given the goaltender's history. But since there's a chance the Bruins could again face the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Rask will need to shake those demons at some point.

"We haven't played our best hockey against Montreal and we don't have the best record against them," Rask said. "We want to fix that because we're in the same division and we're going to face them a lot of times during the year, and maybe in the playoffs. We have to be better against them."