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OILERS 6, BRUINS 1 [ Game summary ]
Well, that has been replaced by grave concern after the club was routed by the Edmonton Oilers last night, 6-1, at the Skyreach Centre.
The Bruins, in the midst of a harrowing roller-coaster ride, have dropped three in a row and have been outscored by a whopping 16-3 in that span.
Only a day before, president/general manager Harry Sinden expressed dismay at the way his club had played on this trip. Now four games into it with one to go, his discomfort level and that of everyone involved with the team has only increased.
''They were better than us in every way,'' said coach Pat Burns, looking flushed and frustrated. ''We give them a couple of goals, that's for sure, right on a silver platter, and we never could catch up after that. I thought we had a good start, if you take away those two goals. We had chances. We outshot them, we did everything in the first, but we couldn't get a goal.''
Sinden had his own take. ''It wasn't that bad. We were a little freer-skating, but we didn't finish. We lose the one-on-one battles all over the ice.''
Asked where the blame lies, Sinden said, ''We probably got the wrong players again.''
Boston, so convincing in the first four games, was completely overrun by the Oilers.
The worries surround the team's defense, its struggles to get out of its own end, and the thinness at goaltending with Byron Dafoe sitting in Boston with a hamstring injury and John Grahame sitting in Denver with a broken ankle, leaving the responsibility to a game but inexperienced 20-year-old Andrew Raycroft.
By the 6:35 mark of the second period, the Bruins were four goals in arrears and trying to claw their way back.
A manpower shortage didn't help, either, as Boston lost a pair of defensemen - Paul Coffey and Don Sweeney - in the second period to injuries.
Coffey had a hip flexor and Sweeney a skate cut above the ankle; neither returned.
Edmonton started the barrage at 5:50 of the first period with a power-play strike off the stick of Bill Guerin. Tom Poti fired the puck in and it took an Oiler bounce right to Doug Weight. Weight got control of it and dished a quick pass into the slot for Guerin, who ripped it past Raycroft for the 1-0 lead.
Dan Lacouture doubled the lead with a rocket of a shot off the left wing that Raycroft likely couldn't have seen, much less stopped.
Chad Kilger made the pass to Lacouture, who teed up a slapper that beat Raycroft to the glove side at 7:40. It was two goals on four shots for the Oilers.
Boston wasn't without opportunities. At 6:26, Andrei Kovalenko hit the left post. At 12:55, Joe Thornton set up P.J. Axelsson for a hard-angle shot from the left side that goalie Tommy Salo made a terrific save on with his toe.
But for too much of the period, the Bruins were battling to keep the puck out of their own end.
The club's fortunes went from bad to worse in the second.
At 3:54, the killer was a shorthanded goal. With Sean Brown in the penalty box for elbowing, Janne Niinimaa set up Todd Marchant, who was charging down the slot. Marchant switched back and forth from backhand to forehand and beat Raycroft with a shot inside the left post.
It was the third shorthanded goal the Bruins have given up in only two games.
A bad break led to Edmonton's fourth strike at 6:35. Kyle McLaren, normally one of the most dependable blueliners, lost his footing along the boards to Dan Cleary. Cleary made a quick relay to Brian Swanson and the puck was in for the 4-0 advantage.
Burns pulled Raycroft in favor of veteran Kay Whitmore. Boston managed to get one back during a two-man advantage at 8:36.
Brian Rolston took a pass from Darren Van Impe and fired a one-timer from the right point that beat Salo.
This story ran on page F01 of the Boston Globe on 10/18/2000.
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DMONTON, Alberta - Remember all that brimming optimism after the Bruins started the season 3-0-1?