The day before the Montreal Canadiens face elimination in Game 4 of their opening round playoff series with the Bruins, coach Bob Gainey decided to make today's practice optional. The Habs played hard for most of last night's game and some players probably legitimately needed a breather today, but to have 8 players show up for practice the day before you face elimination to me shows that this team just doesn't care.

Meanwhile, the Bruins had a full practice this afternoon in Montreal with all of their healthy players on the ice. WEEI's Joe Haggerty is reporting via his Twitter page that Andrew Ference skated on his own this morning. Ference is not expected to return to game action in this series.