he beginning was better, in fact impressive, but the middle and ending had the Bruins once more patching over mistakes and fighting themselves as much as the opposition.
It looks as though there just won't be any easy nights in 2000-01. The Bruins left the FleetCenter last night with a 4-4 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers. They once again failed to win for a second time in a row, botching leads of 2-0 and 3-2, and in the end needed Mike Knuble's goal with 10:36 left to pull out the point.
One minute they are kings of the world, looking strong and confident and ready to shake their funk for keeps. The next minute they are street-corner paupers, looking destined to finish without a playoff berth for the third time in five seasons.
''The enthusiasm was there, that's for sure,'' said coach Mike Keenan, whose club posted a 2-0 lead in the opening three minutes of the first period. ''I think both teams forced mistakes, and that was part of the intensity level it was played at.''
Hal Gill (career goal No. 9) and Bill Guerin (No. 21 this season) connected for the goals that provided the early lead. Gill buried a long-range wrister, only the fifth goal by the Boston defense this season, and Guerin slipped one through Brian Boucher's legs off a nifty feed from Sergei Samsonov. Two shots. Two goals. It appeared the Bruins would turn it into a rare blowout.
But then came the return to reality. The Flyers had it tied, 2-2, with less than 15 minutes gone in the period. Simon Gagne first cut the lead in half when he was left with a wide-open net, the end product of an Eric Desjardins shot off the right wing that was deflected into the slot. Ruslan Fedotenko then knotted it when Mark Recchi charged up the ice and delivered a sizzler from low in the right faceoff circle. Rebound to Fedotenko. Game tied.
''I thought they had some lucky goals tonight,'' said Boston netminder Byron Dafoe, who also was not at his sharpest. ''Their first two goals, they had guys in front ...'' In short, they weren't stylistic successes, but they ended up in the net, the result of plays that should have been short-circuited by the Boston defense or better tended to by Dafoe.
Before the first period ended, Jason Allison put the Bruins out in front again, teaming up with Samsonov to get the puck away from Chris Therien. Samsonov made the key poke, leaving Allison to curl out front and slip by it by Boucher with his ever-expanding reach.
But, like much of the year, if not all the year, the Bruins couldn't sustain the momentum. Justin Williams scored the only goal in the middle period to pull the Flyers into the 3-3 tie, and with 8:03 gone in the third, ex-Bruin Rick Tocchet trailed into the slot and popped in the go-ahead goal after Gagne lost control of a backhand sweep attempt. It was that kind of night, when a busted play ended up a shot behind Dafoe.
''But we've had some good efforts the last couple of weeks,'' said the encouraged Dafoe, fully aware the Bruins haven't won back-to-back games since the opening week. ''We're playing better as a team.''
The proof of that was Knuble's goal that tied it in the third. Forced to play center, with the losses of Joe Thornton (suspension) and Shawn Bates (hamstring pull), Knuble was parked off the left post when Ken Belanger hit Boucher with a short-range one-timer. Boucher made the stop, but Knuble jumped on the dead puck and slipped it behind Boucher. For the better part of two months, Belanger's shot might never have made it on net, or Knuble's stuff attempt would have gone wide.
''That was an up-and-down game for us,'' said Guerin. ''It had a lot of momentum swings. But we stayed with it, and I thought we played well and got a good point out of it.''
A two-goal lead turned into half a loaf in the standings. That's not making the most of an opportunity. In the good days in the Hub of Hockey, it would have been considered somewhat of a disaster.
But in a season of few opportunities, the message is simple: Even a blown chance is better than no chance at all.
