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THRASHERS 5, BRUINS 1 Listless play leads to third loss to Atlanta [ Game summary ]
On the cusp of a major surge up the Eastern Conference standings, the Bruins were down by three goals by late in the second period, the Thrashers paced by a pair of Ray Ferraro scores and some respectable - though not overly strenuous - netminding by Damian Rhodes.
By the time it was over, Byron Dafoe (17 shots/15 saves) had been pulled, Jason Allison was yanked from the No. 1 line, and little-known Per Svartvadet - he of the Solleftea, Sweden, Svartvadets - also had a pair of goals, handing the Bruins their second loss in three games.
''It seems,'' said Bruins winger/point specialist Brian Rolston, ''they've got our number.''
Specifically, that number now stands at three.
The pesky Thrashers, 1-13-3-1 in their 18 games prior to last night, beat the Bruins for the third straight time this season.
The Thrashers only have 17 wins all year. For a club bordering on famine in the win column, the Bruins have been a ready-serve Faustian feast. And this was Fat Faustian Friday.
''They showed a lot of speed,'' said Bruins coach Mike Keenan, his club not nearly a match in that department. ''We knew we were in for a tough game. They scored a couple of power-play goals, and that was critical for them. And we just weren't sound defensively.''
One important caveat: The Bruins had Allison as the only legitimate center in the lineup. They were without Joe Thornton, who was serving the final game of his two-game suspension for cross-checking Montreal's Johan Witehall. When Allison's game grew dimmer late in the second, Keenan resorted to using sensational winger Sergei Samsonov as a center.
Most nights, Boston's lack of depth in the middle goes unnoticed, provided Messrs. Allison and Thornton get the job done. This wasn't one of the nights. For the most part, they were both absent.
''Pretty tough at the NHL level to compete with one center,'' bemoaned Keenan, sounding slightly like his predecessor, Pat Burns, who often noted the lack of able personnel in his lineup. ''That was a factor.''
Overall, though, the Bruins were done in by their own mistakes and lack of jump.
Ferraro scored his first on a power play, rifling in a shot from the right circle on a defensive lapse in the Boston end. Shean Donovan struck for the 2-0 lead when the puck eluded Peter Popovic at the other end, sending Donovan off to the races. He finished with a pretty backhand while being rubbed out by Kyle McLaren.
''I tried to pinch in a little,'' said Popovic, describing how the puck eluded him at the left point, triggering the breakdown that led to Donovan's strike. ''It bounced over my foot. He took it with speed, and he was gone.''
Gone, too, was Dafoe, yanked in favor of Peter Skudra (15 shots/12 saves). Keenan was looking for a potential response from his skaters, and also thinking ahead to tonight, when he'll call on Dafoe against the Lightning.
Truly, there was no response from the lineup.
''Well, whatever ... regardless, I don't like to get pulled,'' said the stiff-lipped Dafoe, truly not much to fault on either strike. ''If anything, I guess I should be fresh [tonight].''
Ferraro banged in another, finishing a pretty tic-tac-toe play for a 3-0 lead late in the second. Again, it was on a power play, this one reminiscent of how the Stastny brothers once passed the puck through the streets of Quebec City.
Keenan responded on the next shift by sending Samsonov out as a center for P.J. Axelsson and Rolston, and the instant payoff was a clever backhand Samsonov dish into the right circle that Axelsson drove home for Boston's only goal. Svartvadet banged home his pair in the third period, just icing on the score sheet.
''We didn't have it,'' said veteran defenseman Don Sweeney. ''Certainly, there's no excuse for it. Somehow, you have to find a way.''
This story ran on page G1 of the Boston Globe on 2/10/2001.
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TLANTA - Bad on defense, low on energy, weak around the net, and clinically Thrasherphobic (irrational fear of grown men with birds emblazoned on their chests), the Bruins were bounced, 5-1, last night by an Atlanta team that had only one victory in the previous six weeks.