Things looked pretty good for the Boston Bruins after their first
playoff game. They traveled to Carolina and withstood the opening
fury of the Hurricanes for the first ten minutes of the initial
period. Byron Dafoe was strong in net and (we'll leave off all
the tropical storm theatrics and symbolism and just say that he)
withstood the storm.
In game one, in spite of the ferocious body checking of the
'Canes Keith Primeau, Kevin Dineen, and Gary Roberts, the Bruins
did not falter, and the game remained scoreless through two
periods. Eventually the Bruins began to give as good as they got,
mostly in the person of Ken Belanger. Belanger was the Bruin who
rose to the challenge of Primeau and Roberts, delivering board
rocking checks equal to the home team's, and generally patrolling
the ice to prevent any liberties against the Bruins skilled
players and defensemen. Ken topped the effort off by
scoring the second goal of the game, as part of a 12-3 shot
barrage in the third period. Belanger took a pass from Jason
Allison behind the net and swooped around for a far-side
wraparound play, catching Irbe a little deep in his crease. But
Carolina never stopped battling, and they didn't let the results
of the first game affect them.
The Bruins skated off with a 2-0 win, on goals from their
checking line players, Rob Dimaio and Ken Belanger, and all was
well with Bruin Nation.
Well, it didn't last. In the next contest, the persistent
Ex-Whalers came back to tie the game at two and win in overtime.
The bubble of Byron's invincibility was burst, and while the
Bruins skated away from the South with a split -- the goal of any
away team -- hopes of a short series that were buoyed by Bryon in
game one were dashed by game two.
In that game, Carolina, having lost veteran Ron Francis to an
ankle problem in game one, rolled out their secret weapon: Robert
Kron! Kron (sounds like a villain in a barbarian movie) was a
healthy scratch in game one and he has been in and out of Paul
Maurice's doghouse. But he has been a certified and licensed
Bruin killer for years. He is a veteran and opportunistic player
who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time --
for the Bruins' sake, that is. In game two, a centering pass from
the corner by Bates Battaglia dinged off Kron and through Dafoe's
wickets in the third to tie the game and force overtime Kron
wasn't even looking when the puck hit off his skate and
went in.
Surely, back in the friendly confines of the FleetCenter, the
Bruins would take the next two games and a commanding lead in the
series. Surely? More like hardly. Carolina scored after just
one minute, with the fastest playoff goal in franchise history
(not like that is an immortal accomplishment). Though the Bruins
came back and took a 2-1 lead, the Hurricanes were far from done.
Despite outshooting the 'Canes 8 to 2 in the final period, the
Bruins could not dent Arturs Irbe, who has at least played even
with his Bruins counterpart (both have surrendered six goals, but
the "when" of the goals is the difference between the teams).
The usually steady Dafoe surrendered a "slippery" one by letting
a centering pass from behind the net by Robert Kron sneak under
his stick, off his glove, and right between his legs. Who was
that? Robert Kron? Can you say "Slowly I turned" -- or do we
save that for games with Buffalo?
Of course, the fact that Andrei Kovalenko was sitting on Byron's
head at the time of the goal, supposedly speared by Darren Van
Impe but in no way forced into the crease, didn't matter to the
referees or to the video replay flunky in the booth. All that
mattered was that the puck slithered into the crease before
Kovalenko entered the blue zone and interfered with Dafoe.
No, what really mattered was that the Bruins were unable to make
up the deficit in the remaining 17 minutes, and managed to look
extremely inept in the final minute after pulling Dafoe for an
extra attacker. Earlier in the game, Bruins fans were hurling
Delaware North culinary debris at Keith Primeau, but at the end
of the game, the beer cups were targeted, inappropriately, at the
home team.
What was that about friendly confines? Since its opening, the
FleetCenter has been playoff death. In its first year the Bruins
lost in the playoffs to the Florida Panthers, an expansion team.
The second campaign coincided with end of the Bruins 1,000,000
year stretch of consecutive playoff appearances. In the third
year, under coaching messiah Pat Burns, the Bs bowed to the Caps,
losing all three home games. Now the Bruins are 1-5 at the Fleet
in playoff games with this loss. To make matters worse, the
Bruins overall home record against the 'Canes is 1-6-2. Any
chance they could play the next game in Hartford?
When a team loses two games in a row in the playoffs to a team
that finished with a worse record, somebody is not producing, or
at least not out producing the other guys. Most of the pointy
fingers have been waving in the direction of Dimitri Khristich,
whose ice time declined to about seven minutes in game three.
Decreased ice time is almost always a symptom of Pat Burns'
displeasure, and Pat Burns' displeasure is usually directly
attributable to fancy passing and a lack of skating.
But the real bottom line is that few of the Bruins' top four
forwards have been doing justice to the work of their centers,
Jason Allison and Joe Thornton. Anson Carter has come closest.
Carter is an explosive player. What that means is that most of
the time, he is putting in a great effort, and trying hard, and
hitting and skating, but perhaps with little finesse and not much
result on the scoreboard. Then when you least expect it, he blows
a goal into the net, perhaps just as you were wondering if he
could ever control the puck cleanly.
Steve Heinze has also given that Steve Heinze effort, but he has
fumbled more passes than he has converted, and he is seeming to
get lost among the big bodies on the ice. His best moment in game
three was getting manhandled by Kevin Dineen and drawing a
penalty. He poked in a goal to send the Bruins into the lead in
Game 2, but he hasn't been the kind of presence the Bruins have
needed from a first line winger.
Sergei Samsonov has done the best of the four. Sammy has two
goals in three games, but he still is prone to giveaway passes at
bad times, trying to make the kind of plays that Burns calls
"fancy." One of those gifts eventually ended up in the Bruins
net.
The checking line has been its usual tough defensive self, with a
little help from Mr. Belanger. But in game three, a crucial
mistake on the line change between Robby Dimaio and Anson Carter
left the Bruins with six men on the ice for a reputed 30 seconds,
and even two referees won't miss that penalty. Carolina scored
on the ensuing power play to tie the game, and the Bruins never
recovered. Now that's something -- a too many men on the ice
penalty hurting the Bruins in the playoffs. Who ever heard of
such a thing?
Ray Bourque, though he is a hero and a warrior, has looked all
too human. The ravages of age are affecting the edges of Ray's
game, though they haven't come anywhere near his heart. But Ray
has had a little more trouble keeping the puck in the zone, and a
little more trouble tying up those forwards without resorting to
some extra tug and pull. Last night, Ray was thoroughly outraced
by Keith Primeau, who turned a steal into a breakaway by leaving
Ray in the dust. Ray was lucky to only get two minutes for his
takedown of Primeau, rather than a penalty shot.
The fact is that neither Ray or the 'Canes Paul Coffey can
dominate game-in and game-out like they have in the past. Their
teams must understand that fact to do right by these players, who
are hockey heroes like nobody else left in the game, now that
Wayne Gretzky has retired. The Bruins have to stop leaning on
Ray, and instead have the young bucks carry the load, so that Ray
can pick his spots to shine and win games with his still-deadly
point shot. He just can't carry all the water all of the time
anymore.
But if in the playoffs, it all comes down to who wants it more,
every player on the Bruins apparently wants it more than team
management, who did not spend one extra dime to prepare the team
for the postseason, in spite of the availability of any number of
players who could have helped the Bruins. They can call it
loyalty to the players in the locker room. They can call it not
taking risks with the franchise's future. They can call it
anything they want. The bare fact is that although Harry Sinden
and Mike O'Connell ask the players every year to dig a little
deeper for the playoffs, THEY NEVER DO. They never dig a hand
into their wallets to bring in the player who will make a
difference. They didn't do it for Cam Neely's teams, though he
asked. They didn't do it for Adam Oates' teams, although he
pleaded. And they did not do it for Pat Burns. Because for
Bruins management, it has been enough to say "we made it"
and collect the gate receipts for three or four playoff games.
Because on Causeway Street, it is all about the bucks, not about
the banners.
All in all, the Bruins have played pretty well, but with very
little of that extra zing that is needed to advance in the
playoffs. The Hurricanes, on the other hand, have exceeded
expectations, or at least those of Bruins fans, and have taken
back the home ice advantage. The next move belongs to Boston.
