oaltender Byron Dafoe revealed last night that he likely soon will have a seventh surgical procedure on his right knee.
Dafoe, who has had two operations on the joint in the last 13 months for torn cartilage, said he's been playing with floating bodies in the knee the last several months and they've been causing him discomfort. He said the condition isn't serious but he wants to be able to spend the summer getting healthy for next year.
''I'm going to talk to some doctors and just see,'' said Dafoe. ''I've got some cleanup that needs to be done. It's nothing major. It's nothing alarming. I've had it for three months. Now that I've got four months to rehab it, it's just a scope to clean out what's in there. There's just something that's catching every once in a while.''
Dafoe said he was going to consult with Dr. James Andrews's group in Birmingham, Ala., as well as other well-known specialists in Colorado and New York.
''I just have some questions I want answered,'' said Dafoe. ''I figured I'd seek out as much information as I can before I dive into this. I feel I'm playing at a high level now and if I could keep doing that ... but if there's something I can do to make it feel better and give it a little bit more mobility, who knows, maybe I can bring my game up a little more.''
Dafoe missed 36 games because of three injuries this year and he said it was hard to get up to speed.
''I was behind the eight-ball at the start of training camp because of the surgery the end of August,'' he said. ''I felt like I was playing catch-up all season. It was just a terrible year injury-wise for me.
''This way, I get this taken care of, I'm going to get a personal trainer. I'm going to do all kinds of things this summer to prevent this from ever happening again. I don't know why it happened. You could say I was out of shape, you could say because of the surgery I favored one leg or another. Whatever it is, I want to fix it.
Dafoe said he wants to play 70 games next year. ''I'm going to do everything I can in my power this summer to live up to my end of the bargain as far as coming in in tip-top condition,'' he said. ''Starting it is by getting my knee checked out.
''Next year is a huge year for the Boston Bruins and it's just as big a year for me being the last year of my contract. I'm definitely not happy with the fact we've missed the playoffs the last two years. I think I'm a big reason ... especially this year. Unfortunately, I have to live with that throughout the summer, but I can handle the responsibility.''
Bedeviled
For coach Mike Keenan, the crushing end to the season came during Friday night's game in New Jersey when his team hit the wall against the Devils.
''I think it came in a couple of ways,'' said the coach. ''One, we were playing a team that was definitely on a mission. They wanted that first-place finish [which they got last night].
''We were playing a team that was extremely deep in talent playing with a great deal of confidence and we were at a stage in our own situation that we had really pushed the envelope and gone to the well many times.''
When the Bruins got behind, ''They just didn't feel the confidence to be able to come back one more time against a team like this,'' said Keenan.
Final touch
Last night's game against the Islanders at the FleetCenter, which was billed as ''Fan Appreciation Day,'' produced a hollow 4-2 victory.
Sergei Samsonov gave Boston a 1-0 lead just 54 seconds into the middle period for his 29th goal of the year. Jarno Kultanen made it 2-0 at the 10-minute mark. Then Joe Thornton tallied his first of two to give the Bruins a three-goal cushion at 13:26 when he cashed in a pass from P.J. Axelsson.
Roman Hamrlik pulled the Islanders within 3-1 when his shot deflected off the skate of Bruins defenseman Peter Popovic at 18:37.
In the third, Tim Connolly closed the gap to 3-2 at 8:50 but Thornton made it 4-2 at 9:37 with his 37th of the season.
