BOSTON -- Bruins coach Claude Julien says he's not much for hunches when it comes to shootouts but instead relies on what he sees in practice.

Unfortunately for Julien, practice didn't turn into game execution Thursday night at TD Garden, as Mark Recchi failed to do more than slide a weak backhand shot on Montreal goaltender Carey Price as Boston lost the shootout, 1-0, and the game, 2-1, to the Canadiens.

Earlier in the shootout, Blake Wheeler had been stopped by Price and Patrice Bergeron had missed the net.

Recchi was a curious choice to be the Bruins' third shooter. He entered the season just 1-for-10 in shootouts and had yet to attempt one this season. During game action, he hasn't been playing particularly well, as evidenced by his one shot on goal in 19 minutes, 14 seconds of ice time Thursday. But there was the 41-year-old winger skating in on Price with the game on his stick.

"I know that the last time we practiced it, he was extremely good," Julien said. "So again, I know when you're not scoring goals, the first thing that's going to happen is everybody's going to second-guess every move you make. That's part of the game. That's why we're there, and we do what we feel is best with it."

Recchi was not available for comment.

As curious as Recchi's inclusion in the shootout was the exclusion of Marco Sturm. The speedy winger has succeeded on 7 of 24 career shootout attempts. Even Zdeno Chara (2-for-5) has a better success rate than Recchi. Even Michael Ryder, who is just 2-for-13 in his career but had a more active game, might have had a hotter hand.

Rask relieved

Before the game, the Bruins announced they had signed backup goaltender Tuukka Rask to a two-year contract extension worth a reported $2.5 million.

"Yeah, it's relieving to get it out of the way and I was glad that they wanted to keep me here and I really wanted to stay," said Rask, who would have been a restricted free agent next summer. "It's good to have that under my belt."

Rask will still be two years from unrestricted free agency when this extension ends.

Friendly call

Although he was victimized by a Glen Metropolit goal later in the game, Tim Thomas was the beneficiary of a goaltender interference call that wiped out a score by the former Bruins forward just 1:41 in.

"I couldn't move," Thomas said. "[Travis Moen] kind of had my head locked, so I couldn't even turn my head to find where the puck was. And fortunately the refs called it. I'm just doing anything I can to find the puck. Sometimes I don't even know that there's a guy on me because sometimes the refs aren't going to call it, so I'm doing everything I can to find the puck."

Dennis menaced

Andrei Kostitsyn left Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman in the dust just a stride or two past center ice on his way into the Boston zone to set up Metropolit's goal -- the one that counted -- later in the first period. Wideman actually bumped into Matt Hunwick and took a spill as Kostitsyn blew past.

"I went up to step up on Kostitsyn, and then as soon as he got it, instead of going straight up in the lane he was in, he cut wide," Wideman said. "And he just happened to be lucky I was coming in that lane. So I pivoted to go back and start skating forward, and I ran into [Hunwick]."

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