BOSTON - The Boston Bruins might still yet make the playoffs.
They have a key game Sunday against the New York Rangers, one of their closest pursuers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and remain in control of their fate, but the B’s remain one of the enigmas of this NHL season.
For sure they suffered a devastating blow with the loss of top centre Marc Savard to a concussion on that shoulder-to-the-head hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke.
But how to explain their complete lack of competitiveness against the Penguins in a 3-0 loss Thursday night?
They got their revenge on Cooke when the B’s Shawn Thornton beat him up two minutes into the game. That had the crowd buzzing.
But the Bruins were pathetic after that.
Captain Zdeno Chara tried to rally the troops by fighting Mike Rupp and gesturing to his teammates on the bench. The score was still just 1-0 at the half way point of the game.
The response? Boston defenceman Mark Stuart took a hooking penalty 17 seconds later.
It was an incredibly telling moment in terms of where the Bruins are emotionally right now.
“We all have to look in the mirror and ask, ‘Did you do your best?’” said Chara.
The list that did would be incredibly short.
Last year, the B’s looked like the team to beat in the East and it would be their year to advance to the Stanley Cup final. They lost in the second round, but, surely, they would be good for a while, right?
Instead, they appear to be another cautionary tale in the salary-cap era of how fleeting a chance to do something special can be.
HEAR AND THERE: Mea culpa: At one point, I described Cooke’s hit on Savard as a blatant elbow. Brain cramp. It was not, of course. It was a shoulder hit. If it had been an elbow, he would have been suspended. Thanks to the passionate and attentive readers who pointed that out...Thornton hasn’t seen Savard lately, but has been text messaging with the fallen forward. “He’s not feeling great. He’s feeling awful, to tell you the truth. Not doing well at all.”
REVELATIONS: Going into Friday night’s games, the three teams holding down the last three playoff spots in the Eastern Conference had all given up more goals than they had scored (Ottawa Senators, -17; Montreal Canadiens, -1; Boston Bruins, -6). You had to go all the way down to 10th place in the Western Conference to get to the first team that had given up more goals than it had scored, the St. Louis Blues (-3).
SPECULATIONS: This is going to be a great race for the Calder Trophy between Colorado’s Matt Duchene and Buffalo’s Tyler Myers. Duchene is finishing strong, leading the rookies in scoring and has really buffed his defensive game in the second half. He’s plus-11 since Feb. 1...Why have the Canadiens won six in a row? How about almost half (13) of their last 30 goals coming from third- and fourth-liners?
THE BUZZ: With three days off between games in their Western Canada swing, the Detroit Red Wings opted to go to Kelowna, B.C., where GM Ken Holland and G Chris Osgood own homes. The Wings attracted 5,000 people to practice Wednesday and Thursday and fans were asked to make donations to the local food bank. Eight tons of food worth $39,400 were collected and there was another $3,700 in cash donations. That’s a nice story.
JUST WONDERING: If the Calgary Flames miss the playoffs, does the Sutter clan get shown the door? How can you argue otherwise given the lack of production of their acquisitions?...Edmonton G Nikolai Khabibulin, out for the season with back trouble, was back in court on his DUI charge in Arizona. He got pulled over in his Ferrari. How does a guy with back trouble get in and out of one of those things?
THE LAST WORD: Paul Kariya scored his 400th goal Thursday night and had his picture taken with the puck. Defenceman Mike Weaver scored his first goal in almost three years and had his picture taken with his puck, too. It was Weaver’s fourth career goal, leaving him a bit behind Kariya. “I think (teammate Roman) Polak was working it out,” said Weaver. “I have to play about 49,999 more games in order to get (400).”
chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca
