MONTREAL — People in the U.S.A. can blame U.S. President Barack Obama for a lot of things, like high unemployment and a slumping economy, but when it comes to the Boston Bruins slumping offence and a rise in their goals- against average, they’re talking out of their backend.
The Bruins are 3- 5- 2 since goaltender Tim Thomas snubbed a visit to the White House when the Commander in Chief honoured the Bruins for their Stanley Cup championship, but as far as B’s defenceman Andrew Ference sees it, his club’s struggles have nothing with the ultra-conservative Thomas standing apart.
“I don’t think anybody on our team associates any of that stuff with on- ice activity. Obviously there is going to be people in the media that will connect (them), or fans for that matter. You can’t blame them,” said Ference, who is a left winger when it comes to politics.
“Everything that goes on in a locker room isn’t known to people on the outside and that’s why assumptions are made. To people in the locker room and people that are close to the team, I think that it’s a pretty clear distinction between what goes on on the ice and what goes on off it. There’s really no correlation.”
Still, people will connect the dots.
Heading into Wednesday night ’ s game against t he Montreal Canadiens, Thomas was 3- 2 in the six games he’s played since he gave Obama the hand, with a save percentage of .905.
His save percentage before the White House snub was .940.
But Thomas’ performance is more a reflection of a Bruins team that has lost its way lately.
“Our identity is being a much better team without the puck than we have been lately,” said Boston coach Claude Julien. “We’re a checking team that scores and when we don’t check well, we don’t score as much. When we don’t check well, teams score on the rush. We’re an easier team to play against. When we’re tough to play against, we always have layers and teams have a tough time scoring goals on us. We frustrate teams.”
The Bruins were coming off
another loss to the New York Rangers Tuesday night which looks like it put the Rangers in control of t he Eastern Conference.
The Blueshirts played the way the Bruins would like to be playing these days.
“Our guys kind of saw our team in theirs,” said Julien.
“Identity isn’t something you talk about. You are kind of what you do,” said Ference. “Each year it’s up to the team to set a goal of what they want to be. You have to do it night in and night out. Teams with a true identity have the same characteristics throughout their entire lineup, not just a few guys doing one thing our a couple of lines doing one thing. It’s a matter of everybody doing it and doing it often.
“You talk about identity and getting it back. It’s really about doing what you’re told and doing what your team set out to do and set out what it wants to be and having some consistency in it. No matter what you want your identity to be, any team does that is going to have success.”
The Habs were having their own drama going into Wednesday’s game.
Winger Andrei Kostitsyn, who played just four minutes Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, appeared and made his discontent clear.
He wasn’t happy Canadiens coach Randy Cunneyworth is making sounds like he’s the only guy turning the puck over or making bad decisions.
“I understand what he wants. He wants to chip the puck and put the puck behind the defenceman and play in his zone. I tried to do it last game but still stayed on the bench. It’s nothing different,” said Kostitsyn, who said he was “freezing” on the pine.
Cunneyworth wasn’t making any apologies.
“Let me put it this way and I’ll be clear. We need 20 guys playing the kind of hockey at this time of year that allows us to win games, OK? That’s desperate at both ends. If we can see the desperation in their game, we know mistakes are going to be made.” chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca Twitter: @Cj_stevenson