Dispassionate hosts turn in true stinker
The Bruins served up a painful reminder yesterday that even though they’re in a reasonably positive position in the standings and have registered some very impressive victories recently against good teams, they’re not remotely close to a sure thing to make the playoffs, let alone get many postseason wins.
The B’s have shown they have surprisingly good high-end potential and are capable of being an excellent team. When they’re good, they’re real good.
And when they’re bad? Boy, do they stink.
It was a particularly odoriferous matinee at the Garden, where the Bruins hit one of the low points in their season with a 4-0 loss to the Eastern Conference’s last-place team, the New York Islanders.
For veteran forward David Backes, a fellow who shows up just about every night with an honest effort, it was a bit of a shocker.
“We just didn’t bring it,” Backes said. “It’s unacceptable on all our parts. We play some tough teams (recently), and we’re able to get two points playing some of our best games of the year. (Yesterday), I don’t know if we forget how hard it was or what we had to put into those games to get the results we wanted, but this was just an instance of us not putting enough in to get two points out.”
The frustration was chiefly born from the fact the Bruins seemed in control of the contest for the first 30-plus scoreless minutes, having limited the Islanders to just six shots on goal, none that could be seen as a genuine scoring chance.
Then the Isles scored three times in barely five minutes of the second period, getting little push-back from the B’s in the process.
“We had a six-minute stretch in the second period where we came off the gas a little bit,” Backes said. “There were ways they were taking care of their end and kind of lulling us to sleep. We kind of took the bait, and they capitalized on a couple of quick ones.”
Still, the Bruins have come back from 3-0 deficits before this season, and the message between the second and third periods was it could happen again.
“If they can score three in five or six minutes, there was no reason we couldn’t score three in five or six minutes,” Backes said. “It was our time to push and make something of this game.”
Instead, it was only the Isles who scored in the final period, registering their first shutout in Boston in franchise history.
“They were harder on the puck and tougher in the scoring areas,” Backes said. “They were scoring, and we were watching them do it. Just not good enough. There’s no excuse-making going on. It just wasn’t good enough from top to bottom and left to right. We’re not going to win many games playing like that.
“It we want to play the way we did (in recent wins) against St. Louis and Philly in here, we’re going to win a lot of games. We just can’t be Jekyll and Hyde on different days. We’ve shown we can do it. It’s imperative we do it every game or else you’ll see yourself falling in the standings.”
Backes conceded that the Bruins seem to play very well against good teams but let down against clubs like the Isles, who are well out of the playoff picture.
“It certainly has that sort of trend in how we’ve played (and) which teams we’ve gotten points against and which ones we haven’t,” Backes said. “It’s on us to bring it and have that pride every night; it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It’s the same two points on the line. We can’t play a different game if it’s the Islanders or the next game in Detroit or whoever the heck’s after that. It’s got to be a consistent effort.”
In fact, Backes thinks the B’s should simply forget about their current position in the standings.
“We should have a little séance and burn the standings,” he said. “Just kind of play each game for the two points that are there each night. Let someone with a big calculator figure it all out at the end of the year. If we concentrate on one game at a time, no matter who it is, then points add up and you get to play into April, May and June.”
Playing as they did yesterday, the Bruins will be two months into golf season by June.