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BRUINS 3, PENGUINS 1 [ Game stats ]
Boston, which hasn't had much good happen this year, had been out of the playoff hunt for weeks and the Penguins knew they would be facing Washington in the opening round of the postseason.
So, now with the Bruins missing the playoffs for the second time in four years, the evaluation begins.
''It's not something that's fun or you're proud of but it happens,'' said coach Pat Burns, of missing the playoffs for the first time in his coaching career.
It was a rough season from the start with holdouts, injuries, bizarre incidents, and inconsistency.
''The list goes on and on,'' said forward Steve Heinze. ''Nothing went right all year. It was like gas on the fire. Every time we tried something new, it got worse.''
Burns said the lowest point was the constant losing and the negativity that went with it.
''Then it was who's going to defend [themselves],'' he said. ''We talked about blame the last couple of days. I think I took some blame, I took a share of the blame, I certainly got finger-pointed for it. I took it on the chin, I shut my mouth. I continued doing my job. I did the best I could with what I had.
''I wouldn't change a whole lot. I don't know why we have to blame somebody but somebody's going to get blamed for it and there's no reason to. It's not management's fault that your top two or three players get injured. It's not their fault that their top goaltender can't come to terms either. I did support management in a lot of ways in that area. I remember talking to Byron [Dafoe] and saying, `You can't ask for that kind of money.' I walked a fence like I think a coach should walk a fence because you have to coach these players. You have to live with these players every day.''
Burns said he had major reservations about the year despite being picked by at least one major publication to go to the finals.
''I kept on cautioning everyone and telling everybody, `Don't get too excited after the exhibition season because it means nothing,''' said Burns. ''I knew going in we had some problems going into the season. There were some things that we just never recovered from.''
One of those problems was size up front. Burns said with key players unavailable, the size of the club was significantly diminished.
''Before [Brian] Rolston and [Mike] Knuble came over, we were probably the smallest team up front,'' he said. ''We weren't very big. It's hard to get something going forechecking-wise, we didn't have a very big team. We tried different styles, different systems and they didn't work. They worked for awhile but they just didn't work.''
Burns said he hasn't talked to management about his future. It's likely, however, that he will meet with president/general manager Harry Sinden and assistant GM Mike O'Connell in the near future and then will learn his fate.
His players have supported him and all said they want him back. It has been a tough year for them but even more difficult for Burns.
The Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 7:20 of the first on a goal by Alexei Morozov. Antti Laaksonen responded with a pair of strikes at 9:40 and 18:01 and center Joe Thornton sealed it with his 23d goal of the year at 17:54 of the second. That power-play tally gave him 2 points for the game, 60 for the season, and ensured that he would reach a $1.4 million incentive.
''It's nice to see Joe get what he had to get,'' said Burns. ''We tried to get [Sergei Samsonov] his 20th but you've got to shoot the puck to score 20 goals. But we tried to get him out there, and Laaksonen played a good game too. Everybody played pretty good tonight.''
This story ran on page D8 of the Boston Globe on 4/10/2000.
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he Bruins' season officially ended yesterday on a positive note - a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in a game that meant nothing to either club in the standings.