This story originally ran in BruinsZone.com on April 12, 2011.

By Nick Tavares

Before the puck drops on the 33rd playoff meeting between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins in TD Garden on Thursday night (7:05 p.m., NESN/98.5 FM), let’s take a look at five classic series played by these Original Six rivals, before Habs fans drown me out with “Ole Ole Ole” chants.

1971 — First Round: Montreal 4, Boston 3

The Bruins were the defending Stanley Cup champions and boasted a ridiculous offense — 10 different players had at least 20 goals for Boston in 1970-71, including Phil Esposito, who led the league with 76 goals and 152 points. No slouches, Bobby Orr chipped in 37-102-139, Johnny Bucyk had 51-65-116, and Ken Hodge had 43-62-105.

But all that firepower was negated by young goalie Ken Dryden, who was called up to the Habs just before the playoffs. Dryden tipped the balance in Montreal’s favor and pushed them to a win in seven games, the beginning of a march to the Stanley Cup.

Dryden would win the Conn Smythe trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and next season, followed it up with the Calder as the league’s top rookie.

1979 — Wales Conference Finals: Montreal 4, Boston 3

Easily, this is the “Wide Right” moment for Bruins fans. With a 3-2 lead late in the third period of Game 7, Don Cherry’s Bruins were called for the infamous “too many men on the ice” penalty, leading to a Montreal power-play goal and, eventually, an overtime win.

Montreal went on to top the New York Rangers in the final for the Cup, while Cherry was unceremoniously dumped by General Manager Harry Sinden. Sinden, for the rest of his tenure in Boston and then some, was booed by the fans for firing the popular coach.

1988 — Adams Division Semifinals: Boston 4, Montreal 1

Demons were exercised by the Bruins in this one. After dropping the first game of the series, Boston, led by Ray Bourque, a young Cam Neely and the crafty Reggie Lemelin in net, stormed through the next four games, finally knocking the Habs out of the playoffs after decades of torment. Boston got past a pesky New Jersey Devils squad before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in the final, which turned out to be Wayne Gretzky’s swan song with the Oil.

2004 — Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Montreal 4, Boston 3

Boston entered the series as the no. 2 seed and Northeast Division champs, guided by the strength of rookie and eventual Calder winner Andrew Raycroft in net, Sergie Gonchar and a young Nick Boynton on the blueline, and the 700-Pound Line of Joe Thornton, Glen Murray and Mike Knuble. But an injury to Joe Thornton (later revealed to be broken ribs) severely hampered the team’s offense, and leveled the stakes for the up-and-coming Canadiens.

Boston took a 3-1 series lead thanks to Glen Murray’s winner in double overtime of Game 4 in Montreal (and Alex Kovalev picking an inopportune time to fake an injury), but Montreal took Games 5 and 6, forcing a winner-take-all in Boston. It was gutty and back-and-forth, but Montreal, led by coach Claude Julien, funny enough, squeezed out a 1-0 win.

For the Bruins, the series was followed by the lockout, the gutting of the team, and, eventually, the Peter Chiarelli regime.

2008 — Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Montreal 4, Boston 3

For many, this was the series that brought the hockey bandwagon back to Boston. The Bruins, an eight seed led by Tim Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard and Marco Sturm, clawed their way into the playoffs and were facing a Montreal side who were picked by many to contend, if not outright win, the Stanley Cup. Winning a game would have been a moral victory.

Instead, the Bruins forced Montreal back to a Game 7. The Habs took that one, 5-0, before falling in the next round, but not before the Bruins hosted a classic Game 6 that saw several lead changes, a rocking TD Garden, SturmFace and a 5-4 win that reignited the hockey flame in Boston. At least as far as a few out-of-touch writers were concerned.

Many thanks to The Internet Hockey Database for some of the information used here.