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CANADIENS 5, BRUINS 2 [ Game stats ]
They're stuck in fixed position now
Cost of four tickets: $300.
A couple of programs, four hot dogs, four drinks: $40.
Crazy puck-shaped spongy hat: $20
Chance of seeing the Bruins win these days: absolutely zero.
The season isn't quite bankrupt yet, at least not mathematically, but both spiritually and realistically, the 1999-2000 season came to a close last night when the Bruins turned a 2-0 lead into an inexplicable 5-2 loss to the Canadiens before a sellout crowd of 17,565 at the Vault.
Bedeviled by mental mistakes and a period-plus of poor execution, the Hub's hard-luck hockey team turned fortune into folly after Sergei Samsonov and Eric Nickulas posted the 2-0 lead by midway through the second period. They botched passes, pinched at the wrong time, left gaping holes in front of goalie Rob Tallas, and overall made like lost souls from the Disney on Ice show that recently departed Causeway Street.
Slightly tardy for his postgame news conference, a perturbed Pat Burns, after apologizing for being late, said he led his defeated charges through a postgame question-and-answer session that didn't produce much more than a chorus of ''I don't know(s),'' ''I blew it(s),'' and ''Gee, got me(s).''
''You can't screw up all the time,'' said Burns, sharing some of the comments he offered his players. ''I'm telling you, we'll look at the tape [today], and we'll see the same mistakes from the same individuals ... it's very frustrating.''
The Bruins are now a stupefying 1-6-3 in the 10 games since the February All-Star break. They are six points behind the Rangers in the hunt for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. They have but 18 games to go in the 82-game season and are now a grim nine games below .500. They have 19 wins, more than only the Islanders, Thrashers, and Lightning in the 28-team NHL.
''I can't seem to get any answers,'' said Burns, at a loss to explain how his club could play well for nearly a full two periods and then so thoroughly collapse. ''Maybe you people can, but I can't. How do you control a hockey game for 37 minutes ... the game plan can't be that bad, otherwise we would have been blown out in the first 10 minutes.''
In the quiet, funereallike dressing room, the players continually said Burns was justified in his anger. The 2-0 lead validated the game plan. They had the framework to win. Their downfall could be traced mainly to two things: poor decisions and, once more, an obvious failure to move their legs. Once Benoit Brunet pierced their bubble with a shorthanded strike with 3:44 to go in the second, they unraveled, outshot by the Habs, 16-11, the rest of the way.
''We're very fragile, just look at the way we play,'' said team captain Ray Bourque, who made a nice one-handed feed in the first that sent Sergei Samsonov off for a breakaway goal. ''We're having a hard time holding it together for 60 minutes. It doesn't take much to shake us.''
The standing knockout punch came with 5.6 seconds to go in the second. After Rob Tallas turned back a Saku Koivu belt from the right circle, Shayne Corson snaked through a defense of Shawn Bates and Hal Gill and potted the 2-2 tie.
After that, the third period was predictably morose. Ex-Bruin Sergei Zholtok wristed in the winner with 8:11 to go in the period, walking out front, faking a slap, and wristing in an 8-footer. The Bruins resisted the play with their Dead Men Walking defense. Corson then struck for his second of the night, taking advantage of a Tallas-Dave Andreychuk miscue at the side of the net. With 1:18 to go, Martin Rucinsky finished off a shorthander for the 5-2 closer.
''We messed up,'' said dependable Don Sweeney, among the very few positive contributors this season. ''We continue to make mistakes, over and over, and sooner or later that's going to bite you in the backside.''
The explanation, of course, could be as simple as saying these Bruins just aren't good enough to compete on a night-to-night basis.
''You can't be here as player believing that or saying that,'' said Sweeney. ''That would be a defeatist attitude, and you just can't have that.''
Burns bristled at the question/suggestion that perhaps the players aren't listening to him.
''Don't ask me that [expletive] question,'' said Burns.
The same questions, night after night. No real answers.
When does the season end? April 9.
It can't be any clearer than that.
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