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PREDATORS 3, BRUINS 1 [ Game stats ]
Struggle has become familiar story locally
All those questions you've been asking about the local NFL entry these last few days? Shift them all some 30 miles northeast to Causeway Street and apply them directly to the Bruins, a now-.500 club that only last May was taking on the shape and feel of a bunch that could be a team of substance here in 1999-2000.
That substance, at the moment, is looking like fool's gold.
''It's aggravating,'' said team captain Ray Bourque, following a 3-1 loss to the one-year-past-expansion Nashville Predators last night before a very quiet - though quick-to-boo - crowd of 14,109 at the Vault. ''It's lingering too long. It's frustrating. It's a rut, and we want to get out of it.''
For approximately a month now, the Bruins have gone 2-6-3, a .318 winning percentage that has inched them to the lower tier of respectability in the Eastern Conference. December isn't the time to be factoring playoff seeds, but it's deadbeat stretches like 7-out-of-a-possible-22-points that often keep clubs from factoring playoff seeds in April. Only two-plus seasons past finishing last in the NHL, the Bruins now look far more capable of slipping out of the playoff picture than making a true run for a Cup.
''I think everyone in here has to look in the mirror,'' said Jason Allison, whose fifth goal of the season brought the Bruins an all-too-brief 1-0 lead in the opening moments of the first period. ''No one's playing well. Management ... coaches ... players ... there probably isn't a person in the organization who isn't frustrated.''
Allison quickly added, ''You can't blame management - we have the talent here to play better than we're playing.''
The lead Allison provided at 0:22 of the first, backhanding home a rebound of a Kyle McLaren flip shot, was erased less than two minutes later when Cliff Ronning ripped home a left-circle slapper off a botched attempt by the Bruins to move the puck out of their zone. Patric Kjellberg sent a quick relay ahead for Ronning, and the veteran striker nailed a low slapper to the far side.
''You could feel a little air come out of us,'' said coach Pat Burns, his club now mired in its second protracted slump this season with not even half the schedule finished.
The true killer - beyond the near-perfect netminding of Mike Dunham's 37 saves - came with only 5:01 remaining in regulation when Sergei Krivokrasov shook his defensive coverage and drove home a 15-footer from the slot with help from Drake Berehhowsky and Greg Johnson.
The Bruins, despite their 33-18 shot lead, suddenly were in a 2-1 hole. With 51 seconds to go, Sebastien Bordeleau swept in an empty-netter to end it. Game over. The boos rattled around the building once more, something that is happening quite frequently lately.
''They made a lot of mistakes in their end,'' said Burns, noting the Nashville errors that the Bruins didn't cash in for goals. ''We made one, and it ended up in our net.''
Last spring, it took the Buffalo Sabres, eventual Cup finalists, six games to erase the Bruins in Round 2 of the playoffs. Today, the Bruins can't find a way to beat the likes of Chicago and Nashville on home ice. They were touch and go to manage a win last week against the newborn Atlanta Thashers. Most nights they are without punch, without emotion, and without a semblance of scoring touch.
They talk bravely about adhering to a game plan, but it's a schematic that has them rooted in failure. The question is, is it the game plan or the players playing it? Ultimately that answer could determine whether Burns remains long on the job.
Consider: In the 2-6-3 rut, they have been outscored, 34-22, managing more than two goals in only three of those games. It truly isn't a bad team, but it truly is, at best, a .500 team, which is exactly where the Bruins are this morning (13-13-8).
Last spring, this was taking shape as a team of wonders. Today, it's a team of widgets, just a bunch of guys who may have higher-profile names than those faceless Nashville Predators, but their game truly isn't that much different.
Last night, once again, it was worse.
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 12/22/1999.
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hat we have here, folks, is a whodunit, whyisit, and whathappened all wrapped into one very unentertaining, often lifeless hockey team.