MONTREAL — On Jan. 1 at Gillette Stadium, the odds are in the Canadiens' favor that they will leave Foxborough with a Winter Classic win over the Bruins tucked in their toques.
This is not the 2014-15 version of the hang-on Habs, who asked superhuman things of goaltender Carey Price to earn their results. This year's team is fast, skilled, structured, and well-rounded. They control not just the puck but the pace of play.
The Canadiens and the Capitals are the two best clubs in the Eastern Conference. Their current 1-2 positioning atop the East accurately reflects the strength of their rosters. Even without Price (knee), their best player, and Brendan Gallagher (fingers), their version of Brad Marchand, the Canadiens owned Wednesday's game against Boston for the first two periods.
Favorable odds, however, are as useless as the Canadian dollar (currently trading at 74 pennies per loonie) when the opponent has three game-changing elements: a stud goalie, a shutdown defenseman, and one of the best forward tandems in the league.
The Bruins are and come Jan. 1 still will be a team chasing the Canadiens. Coach Claude Julien is not satisfied with his lines, proof being his third-period shuffle. He does not know what he'll get from Ryan Spooner, Jimmy Hayes, Brett Connolly, or Matt Beleskey from shift to shift. The defense is neither as stout nor deep as blue lines he's been used to coaching.
But Julien has a good idea what Tuukka Rask, Zdeno Chara, and his first-line combination of Marchand and Patrice Bergeron will do. They're usually pretty good. They were very good during Wednesday's 3-1 come-from-behind win.
"I didn't think we had a great start," Julien said. "We had a real slow start to our game. We just couldn't seem to find our legs. We were getting beat to the puck. We were losing battles.
"But we started getting better near the end of the second period. The third period, we found a way to win. We were a much better team in the third period."
Rask was the star. At the start of the season, he did not play well. He didn't make game-saving stops. Some pucks he usually swats aside ended up behind him. Mostly, Rask reflected his team's play.
On Wednesday, as he has been for the last three weeks, Rask was an ace. When the Canadiens attacked with multiple waves, Rask brushed back every flurry. His movement was smoother than whipped cream. He flicked rebounds into harmless areas. He turned 24 square feet of Montreal's shooting space into a pinhole.
But as Rask noted postgame, the Bruins didn't give up many Grade-A chances. Chara was one of the most significant factors in helping his goalie make consistent but casual saves.
The captain was on the ice for Montreal's lone goal. But that required an unlucky bounce off Zach Trotman's leg for the Canadiens to beat Rask. Otherwise, Chara kept Max Pacioretty, Montreal's most dangerous scorer, from making any noise at all.
Chara logged 25:12 of ice time, most of any Bruin. He played a team-high 3:45 on the 3-for-3 penalty kill. On all three occasions, a regular PK defenseman (Trotman for hooking, Dennis Seidenberg for tripping, and Kevan Miller for interference) was in the box, which increased Chara's shorthanded duties.
Chara not only snuffed out every Montreal power play. He initiated the Bruins' rally.
Chara's best asset is his stick. Combined with his reach, Chara turns his twig into a telephone pole. In Wednesday's third period, it became a paddle.
When P.K. Subban tried to send the puck deep into the Boston zone, Chara picked off the pass and batted it up the ice to Loui Eriksson. Seconds later, Eriksson beat Montreal goalie Mike Condon with a shorthanded strike to tie the game at 1-1.
Chara wasn't the only shutdown presence. He had Marchand and Bergeron as company.
The Canadiens, losers of two straight heading into the game, changed their first line for the Bruins. Coach Michel Therrien paired Pacioretty with Alex Galchenyuk, the left wing-turned-center. Pacioretty and Galchenyuk are Montreal's two most offensive-minded forwards. Chara, Marchand, and Bergeron helped turn Galchenyuk into a ghost.
The skilled Montreal center landed two shots on Rask in 15:24 of play. He lost 7 of 10 faceoffs to Bergeron. Marchand outhustled Galchenyuk to set up Bergeron's insurance goal.
After Beleskey's forecheck advanced the puck behind the Montreal net, Galchenyuk had a step on Marchand. But the left wing raced past Galchenyuk to win the race.
Bergeron read the play and approached the front of the net. Bergeron was in the right spot to receive Marchand's pass and tuck the puck behind Condon to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead. It was the No. 1 center's fifth shot on goal, most of any player.
Chara is averaging 19:29 of even-strength ice time per game, the second-highest total he's ever played as a Bruin. Bergeron is logging 19:59 of total ice time per appearance, also his second-highest average. Marchand is averaging a career-high 18:23 of play per game.
Julien is asking his lead dogs to do a lot. Lately, they've delivered.
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.