Bruins stay cold

Winless stretch is up to 9 games

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 3/4/2003

r. Jekyll, or is it Mr. Hyde?

The season continues to tick away, and the Bruins for weeks have been unable to figure out how to play an entire game. One period they're very good, the next they're not, the third they are. Or, some nights, they start slowly, come roaring back, but wait too long to kick it into gear and fall short.

Last night, the team was all over the map, but the bottom line is that its winless streak has now reached nine games as a result of a 6-4 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at the FleetCenter.

The team is in an 0-5-3-1 run, which is the Bruins' longest streak without a victory since Oct. 2-20, 1999, when they went 0-5-4-0. Boston hasn't won since Feb. 14, when the club beat Florida in overtime. The Bruins haven't had a regulation win in nearly a month - since beating Montreal Feb. 6.

Even worse, the Rangers keep on coming. They rallied to tie the Islanders last night and pick up a point, which pulls them within 2 points of Boston for the last playoff spot (although the Bruins have four games in hand).

Last night was one of the more confounding contests in recent memory. The Bruins took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, were positively horrid in the second period, and came back to tie it in the third before running out of gas.

''The strange thing was, we came out in the second period and had so many giveaways,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek, who admitted to being both frustrated and disappointed that his team has failed to put together a complete effort in ages. ''You can't do that against a team that's a transitional team and one of the most powerful offensive teams in the league. We turned it over about five times in the neutral zone and they scored on a couple of them, at least.

''We just wavered a little bit, and as has been going on, the puck was in the net. As you saw in the first, we played a great period, and the third we played a pretty darn good period, but that second one just was a dog.''

They looked very much on top of their game in the first as they took a 1-0 lead at 6:42 on the first of two Glen Murray goals. Left wing Mike Knuble, positioned to the left of Vancouver goaltender Peter Skudra, backhanded a centering pass to Murray, who one-timed a shot from the right circle for his 33d tally of the season.

It is hard to imagine the Bruins playing a worse period than the second. For some reason, they just stopped skating. They gave the Canucks everything they could possibly want, including three goals as goalie Jeff Hackett was left to fend for himself.

Vancouver tied the game at 2:33, late in a power play. With defenseman Hal Gill off for hooking, defenseman Brent Sopel dished a pass from the far edge of the right circle to Trevor Linden in the left. Linden, all alone, beat Hackett with just five seconds remaining on the man advantage to make it 1-1.

A neutral-zone turnover led to the Canucks' second goal at 6:47. The miscue created a two-on-one, with center Matt Cooke relaying a pass from the left circle to Trent Klatt in the right. With only defenseman Jonathan Girard back for Boston, Klatt beat Hackett for his 13th goal of the season.

Skudra could've gone to the bench for most of the second and not have been missed. The Bruins didn't manage a shot on goal until the 12:58 mark, by forward Marty McInnis.

The Canucks kept on coming, expanding their lead to a pair at 15:00 on the first of two goals by Cooke. At that point, they were outshooting Boston, 14-1, in the period.

The Bruins staged a furious albeit short-lived comeback in the third. They stormed the Vancouver net, scoring two goals in a span of 2:02 to tie it.

Murray tallied his second of the night when he buried a rebound from the left circle at 3:25, just one second after a power play expired. Then Girard pulled them even on a rebound at 5:27.

By the 7:16 mark, the Bruins had completely turned the tables on the visitors, outshooting them, 14-0.

The bad news, though, was that Vancouver's first shot of the period was a goal. At 8:24, Cooke potted his second to put his team back on top. Center Mats Lindgren stole the puck from defenseman Nick Boynton and backhanded a shot on Hackett. He made the save but Cooke beat him on the rebound with a backhander and the Canucks were back on top to stay.

Todd Bertuzzi made it 5-3 at 9:51 and all the enthusiasm generated by the comeback evaporated from the building.

Left wing P.J. Axelsson drew the Bruins within one when he scored on a power play with 36 seconds remaining in regulation but that's as close as they would come. Marek Malik potted an empty-netter with 20 seconds left to close it out.

''Like we've said all along these last two or three months, we can't put a full game together,'' said Murray. ''We can put a period together and play great hockey like we did in the first period, and I think we even played pretty good the third period. There are no excuses. It just can't happen this time of year.''

Except it keeps happening. Over and over again.

This story ran on page F1 of the Boston Globe on 3/4/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.