ne thing you can say about the Bruins - they're consistently inconsistent.
One night they're terrific, the next night they're awful, sometimes they're in between.
Last night, the Bruins were clearly ill-prepared for the Dallas Stars, who rolled over them, 4-0, in front of a rare sellout crowd at the FleetCenter. The game marks the halfway point of the season, with Boston now sporting a 14-17-6-4 record.
Rookie goalie Marty Turco earned his first career shutout.
One thing is clear, the Bruins' offense has gone south. In five of the last seven games, the Bruins have scored one or fewer goals. The power play, once again, was a bust and the Bruins have now failed to convert on 28 consecutive chances over the last seven games.
Goalie Byron Dafoe, who is 0-5-4 against Dallas in his career, didn't get nearly enough help from his teammates in this one.
Coach Mike Keenan said the key to success against the Stars was preparation. The philosophy was correct, but the Bruins failed to live up to it. Keenan called their work ethic and their maturity into question.
''We have not been able to develop a level of respect amongst the athletes to care enough about their team and to play hard on a consistent basis every night,'' said Keenan.
''It's a poor reflection of a group of players who haven't been able to develop the mental skills, regardless of what you do on the ice in terms of systems and tactics and so on ... Our team has no emotional level of preparation whatsoever on a consistent basis.''
Dallas put the game away right off the bat, scoring a pair of goals 1 minute 22 seconds apart. Only 1:26 into the action, the Stars went ahead, 1-0, on a goal by Brett Hull. Benoit Hogue, who was signed as a free agent by the team Friday and is on his third stint with Dallas, didn't waste any time getting on the scoresheet. Hogue dished a pass to Hull in the right circle and the sniper took it from there, netting his 22d tally of the season.
The Bruins' fortunes got worse at 2:48 when a scramble in front of the Boston net resulted in the second Dallas goal. A bid by former Bruin Ted Donato was blocked by Kyle McLaren, who then tried to clear it. But he couldn't get much on it and he poked it up into the right circle, where Grant Marshall was. Marshall fired a forehander that beat Dafoe through the pads.
The game was pretty well over at that point.
''It's the same story about not being ready every night,'' said captain Jason Allison. ''Maybe that early goal drained everyone's confidence, I don't know. It shouldn't happen but that's what it looked like.
''We should be [more resilient] but it's not happening. It should be. It's not. It's frustrating. It's hard for a guy to do his job when other guys aren't ... It's easy not to trust people when you see people not doing their jobs.''
And because of that, Dallas did a job on them. At 1:29 of the second, Brendan Morrow took advantage of a wide-open back door at the right post to put the Stars up, 3-0.
The Bruins outshot the Stars, 13-7, in the period and had a boatload of scoring chances, but they came up empty.
One of Turco's best saves was at 9:12 when he positively stoned Joe Thornton. Right wing Bill Guerin, in the left circle, made a pass across the slot to Thornton, who was beneath the right circle. Thornton's shot was a good one but Turco turned it back.
Donato closed out the scoring at 12:30 of the third.
There was plenty of frustration in the Bruins' dressing room that bordered on disgust.
''It's hard to put a finger on it,'' said Dafoe. ''Maybe it's the work. Why do we come out one night and look like a bunch of All-Stars and the next night look like we shouldn't be in the league sometimes? It's frustrating for all of us.''
