Bear Down: It's Bounce-Back or Bust for the Sinking Bruins

by Rick Valente

The Boston Bruins are in trouble, folks. They are in the midst of a 29-game slump in which they have won consecutive contests only once, and have allowed over three goals per game. Tim Thomas has gone from the best goalie in the NHL to a below-average keeper with a .849 save percentage and a GAA just below 4.00 in his past five starts. Zdeno Chara looks like his skates are on the wrong feet and has been handling the puck
about as well as Lebron James handles his public image. Also, Rich Peverley is out with a major knee injury and is not guaranteed to return to his normally fancy self for the playoffs, Rask is out until the postseason at best, and I am getting a serious Savard-like vibe with this Nathan Horton concussion. Add in the minor injuries that seem to happen every single night at this point (Bergeron, Boychuck, Ference, Pouliot, McQuaid) and this team is drifting further and further from the Stanley Cup favorites that they were back in December. It's officially time to worry, Boston.


With 30 games left to play in the season, I wasn't very worried at all; the team was stalling, but the Bruins hit a rough patch every year and come out no worse for the wear come playoff time. With 20 games left to play in the season, I was getting a little a peeved with their play, but I just knew this was the calm before the storm. Seven games and five losses after that, I am now officially worried that this might not be their year.

The lamp is getting lit too often behind Tim Thomas.

Don't let the fact that the Bruins are slotted in the two-seed of the Eastern Conference fool you. There are currently nine teams in the NHL who have more points than the Bruins, four of which are in the east. It is by the dumb luck that all four of those teams are in the same division that the Bruins are looking at a home series to start the postseason. However, even that is not a given at this point.

The Senators are currently two points behind the B's and have played one more game than the division leaders. If the Bruins continue to play the way that they have been since January, Ottawa would only have to play above-average hockey in order to take over the Northeast Division. How confident would you feel about the Bruins repeating if they entered the playoffs as a seven-seed? It's not an unrealistic scenario at all.

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Truth be told, I don't think that the Bruins are going to blow their lead in the Northeast, and I think that they will make a deep playoff run in the spring. However I am certainly not as confident in that opinion as I was earlier in the season, and I don't think Bruins fans are taking this downturn as seriously as it should be taken. Would you be confident with this team heading into a seven-game series with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or New York right now? What about St. Louis, Vancouver or Detroit? To win the Stanley Cup, Boston is going to have to win a playoff series against at least two of those six teams, and probably three. It's going to take a significant turnaround for this team to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions.

Will Thomas come back to life once the limelight of playoff hockey shines in his crease? Will the walking wounded be able to make an effective comeback, and will the roster repel further bites from the injury bug? Will Big-Z finally put his skates on the right feet? I certainly hope so, because if not, there will be no Stanley Cup hangover to worry about next season.

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