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Game 81 of 82 is in the books, and the Boston Bruins are on the outside looking in.
On the second leg of a back-to-back that began with Wednesday’s listless shutout loss at the hands of the Washington Capitals, Tuukka Rask and the Bruins couldn’t match the Florida Panthers in their season-series finale, falling to the ‘Cats by a 4-2 final at BB&T Center in Sunrise.
Given the B’s need for a win to keep pace in a wild Eastern Conference, the Bruins came into this one with the desperation you’d expect, peppering the Panthers’ Roberto Luongo for 12 shots in the opening 20, and with the Bruins and ‘Cats combining for 12 minutes in penalties (six each).
But the Bruins, held to zeros across the board in their last showing, were in the business of goals.
And they finally got themselves back on the board, any board, with a goal behind Patrice Bergeron’s power-play strike 15:02 into the middle frame. The goal, good for Bergeron’s team-leading 23rd of the season, came on a net-front chip with the helpers credited to Loui Eriksson and defenseman Torey Krug. Bergeron’s marker also put an end to a 139-minute goalless drought to the Bruins, with their last goal coming 19 seconds into the second period of Boston’s 2-1 shootout win over the Maple Leafs last Saturday, a goal also scored by Bergeron.
But one Brett Connolly penalty later, the ‘Cats matched Boston’s power-play goal with one of their one, as Aleksander Barkov connected for his 16th goal of the season. It was an all-around ugly goal for the B’s to surrender, too, as the Panthers danced around Chris Kelly while Dennis Seidenberg backed off the shooter, instead opting to slide back on his knees and prevent the pass. It all ended, of course, with Tuukka Rask, in his 69th game of the season, surrendering a goal, and inevitably cursing up an absolute storm underneath his mask.
At the end of 40, and with the Sens winning in New York, the Bruins needed goals and points.
Jonathan Huberdeau gave Florida the lead 4:02 into the third as he turnstiled Zdeno Chara before booping a shot off Rask’s mask and into the Boston cage for his 14th of the year. (Yes, I said booping, and no, there was no other way for me to really explain that goal besides ugly.)
Four minutes later, former Bruin Brad Boyes made it 3-1 in Florida’s favor, and things were looking pretty awful for the Bruins, who with a loss would officially lose control of their destiny.
The B’s found life, however, by Brad Marchand’s top-shelf snipe on Luongo with just 6:45 left in the third, a goal that put an end to a 15-game goalless skid for the Boston agitator. It was also the Bruins’ first goal from a forward other than Patrice Bergeron since Eriksson’s third-period strike against the Detroit Red Wings last week. Or, in legitimate number form, 190 minutes and 56 seconds ago.
In a fitting manner, the B’s allowed another at their own end, as Massachusetts’ own Jimmy Hayes scored his 19th of the season, effectively putting an end to Boston’s comeback bid.
It was a goal that exploited yet another defensive-zone meltdown from the Bruins, a former rarity.
After a nifty play Torey Krug play to keep the puck out of danger, Dennis Seidenberg, with the puck at his own blue line, decided to attempt a dropback pass (with two Panthers behind him), essentially giving the Panthers a shooting gallery chance against the 28-year-old Rask.
Completely unexplainable, really, and a microcosm of the entire season.
With the loss, the Bruins officially dropped to ninth place in the East, and now need help from the Flyers versus Ottawa and a win in Tampa on Saturday, to extend their postseason streak to eight seasons.
As Jim Morrison once sang, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near.…
Random thoughts and notes
- So, here we are. The Bruins are officially on death’s doorstep. It’s far from shocking if you’ve followed this team this season, but it is at the same time. I know that sounds confusing. But how many times did it look like the Black and Gold were finally out of the woods? Or that they were ready to blow the chasers out of the water and build themselves a little bit of a lead. Hell, they did that a few weeks ago!
This is easily the strangest year/team I’ve ever covered in terms of their ability to constantly get in their own way, and perhaps the strangest that I can really remember in my 23 years on Earth.
- On that note, here’s something really, really strange. No, strike that, straight-up bizarre. The Boston Bruins, on life support and in desperate need of a win tonight, were absolutely manhandled by the Panthers, a team that’s been out of contention for over a week now. Now, I know that teams love to play spoiler this time of year, but there were prolonged stretches where the Black and Gold were undeniably flat. Considering the magnitude of this tilt, that’s borderline impossible to imagine.
The only explanation I have? These guys are fried and just know that they’re not going to make any sort of noise, even if they get it. It’s a defeatist attitude, I know, but is there any other way to explain it? This club just does not have the ‘extra gear’ you need to be anything memorable this time of year.
- Fourth-line forward Gregory Campbell was a healthy scratch for the Bruins tonight (and was just as effective tonight as he was in Washington on Wednesday night). So, let me get this right here, just for the sake of clarity: Campbell went from being a healthy scratch to finishing fourth among forwards in time on ice in D.C., and then back to being a healthy scratch? Does anything of this make sense? Of course not. And just in case you’re late, welcome to the 2014-15 Boston Bruins.
Up next
It’s Game 82 in Tampa Bay on Saturday night, and with three teams (the B’s, Sens, and Pittsburgh Penguins) vying for two remaining playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, everything’s on the line for the Black and Gold. And, as outlined earlier, the Bruins are in need of help.
The simplest route: they’ll need the Philadelphia Flyers to upset the Sens on Sat. afternoon, and then win their game in Tampa. The alternative, more difficult route for the Black and Gold: The Penguins lose to both the Islanders and Sabres (this one in particular is a funny joke, I know), and the B’s win and get in. But if the Penguins gain one of a possible four points and the Bruins win in regulation or overtime (but not the shootout), then the Bruins will have tied the Penguins in the tiebreaking regulation/overtime win category. In which case, it would go to the head-to-head matchup between the B’s and Pens, which the Bruins took, two games to one. Yes, I have a headache, too.
And the Bruins could get all the help in the world, too, but they’ll still need to find a way to beat a Tampa Bay squad that’s won 31 of 40 at Amalie Arena this season. Buckle up.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com