Bruins stand around and watch it fall apart

By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff, 1/9/2000

econd verse, same as the first.

The Bruins moved into the second half of the regular season last night and continued their free-falling ways, rubbed out by the lowly Islanders, 5-2, with a lineup of underperforming regulars, minor-league recruits, and scrap-heap hires who, try as they might, haven't provided sufficient support for the Bruins to be competitive in a 28-team league.

The head coach, Pat Burns, is frustrated, imploring one and all to look at his patchwork bunch and make the logical conclusion: Talent is low, chemistry lacking. The players say they're to blame, talk bravely about looking long and hard into mirrors, and bumble along to the next frustrating loss.

The reasons many, the answers few, the Bruins would not have a seed if the playoffs were to begin today. They are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, courtesy of an abominable 3-11-5 stretch since Thanksgiving.

The team that Sports Illustrated in September trumpeted as a potential Stanely Cup finalist now can't handle the likes of Nashville or the Islanders on home ice, where a sellout crowd of 17,565 last night witnessed yet another second-period collapse in which the Bruins were outscored, 3-0, and outshot, 21-8.

''Nobody's quit,'' said Burns. ''In our estimation - and I've spoken to players - no one's quit. If you keep on trying, good things will happen, sooner or later.''

Compounding the Black 'n' Gold woes last night was the loss of promising forward Andre Savage, who exited in the second period with a broken nose and what Burns labeled at least a low-grade concussion. Savage assisted on a first-period goal, a power-play strike by Joe Murphy, but then left a bloody mess when he was smoked by a Jorgen Jonsson elbow in the second.

''It's not devastating in my life yet,'' said Burns, referring to the sustained losing streak, then segueing into a quick recount of the lineup's losses and deficiencies. ''Some people are trying to make it devastating in my life, but it's not. We don't have [Sergei] Samsonov. We don't have a regular center, be that [Shawn] Bates or whoever. We don't have [Mikko] Eloranta. We don't have [Joe] Hulbig. We lost Savage. Does that not make a difference?

''It is difficult to build a chemistry. It is very difficult. Can't anybody see that?''

Whatever the relative merits of player inabilities, injuries, or whatever else (bad Causeway karma?), the paying customers see a team whose familiar names were supposed to be the building blocks of a promising future. Jason Allison is still here, albeit it with a bad wrist. Joe Thornton, Anson Carter, and Byron Dafoe remain in place. Samsonov has been out only two games with a wrenched knee. Kyle McLaren and Hal Gill, the young twin towers on defense, suit up for every game. Collectively, they were pegged as the wunderkinds who were going to boost the Bruins up the ladder of greatness. Suddenly, the ladder has no rungs.

Thus far, management has remained silent, except for 10 days ago when club president Harry Sinden took a late-afternoon flight to New Jersey to snuff out speculation that Burns could be canned. Word now is making the rounds that Sinden, the next night in Ottawa, following a second straight overtime loss, closed the locker room after the defeat and aired his ire before the players.

Loss No. 18 last night was highlighted by a second period in which the Bruins once again scrambled aimlessly around their own end. Dafoe got yanked in the middle of the barrage, once the deficit was 3-1, and the 4-1 deficit after 40 minutes made the third period only a matter of filling out the scoring summary.

''We played scattered,'' said McLaren, referring to the middle-period malaise, a carry-over from the second-period flop here against the 'Canes Thursday night. ''We're out there, and it's almost like we don't know each other. The system is there - and it works - but it's like, `Who am I out there with?' It's almost like you suddenly have blinders on and you're trying to find something.''

The schedule finds the mighty Maple Leafs here tomorrow night.

''At this point,'' said Dafoe, ''it almost doesn't matter what team comes in. What matters is that we're not getting the job done. It's mot the coach, I'll tell you that. It's the people in here who are not getting the job done, I can tell you that. We can't pass the puck anymore.''

This story ran on page D02 of the Boston Globe on 1/9/2000.
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