Game 69: Bruins 5, Hurricanes 2

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Thanks to the wonders of 7:30 meetings, your humble blogger is a wee bit late for tonight's tilt between the Canes and Boston Bruins, so we begin with the third period.  At this point the Bruins lead 2-1 on goals by Patrice Bergeron and Johnny Boychuk; the Canes goal is a power-play marker by Eric Cole that also marked Jamie McBain's first NHL point with an assist.  We pick it up with twenty minutes to go...

:45 3rd: Bruins lead 3-1; Recchi 15 (Krejci) They don't make 'em much more disheartening than that.  Not fifteen seconds after the Canes blew a couple of golden opportunities thanks to some seriously good saves by Tuukka Rask, they give up another goal in the first minute of a period.  Mark Recchi was in the penalty box but a stroke of good luck resulted in him coming out at the exact time the puck reached the penalty box.  Recchi used a decoy to beat Manny Legace high to the glove side to re-establish a two-goal lead.

1:53 3rd: Canes make it 3-2; Cole 8 (Sutter, Ruutu) We've got us a hockey game again.  Erik Cole is doing all the heavy lifting tonight, although this one was a gift from Rask, who failed to cover the puck after a badly-forced clearing attempt ended up on Tuomo Ruutu's stick along the far boards.  The puck was hacked at about five times before Cole cleaned it up and shoveled it into the net to cut the Bruins' lead to one for the second time tonight.

8:10 3rd: The Canes are all over Rask so far in the period.  We're not even halfway done and they have ten shots already.

9:48 3rd: Bruins lead 4-2; Ryder 16 (unassisted) And all that effort goes for naught.  The B's are back on top by 2 after Brian Pothier momentarily loses his hockey sense and telegraphs a pass right onto Michael Ryder's stick.  Ryder had all day to pick a corner and he went low to the far side to beat Legace and give the B's a 4-2 lead.

12:27 3rd: Bruins lead 5-2; Krejci 15 (Satan) The B's forecheck has been relentless since the Ryder goal, and it paid dividends again when Miroslav Satan forced a turnover behind the net and fed David Krejci in the low slot.  Krejci spun around and got himself free, and the spin-o-rama faked out Legace and allowed Krejci to fire the puck home from the top of the crease to give the B's their first three-goal lead of the night.

End 3rd: After that opening flurry to start the third period, the Canes really petered out, only mustering two shots after the ten minute mark to top the B's 12-11 in the period.

Postgame: Manny Legace sat in his stall waiting for the inevitable media throng to descend, and what we got when we made our way to the back corner of the locker room was one of the bluntest, most self-flagellating assessments I've ever heard.  Legace minced no words in saying he was horrible and he lost this game, but the consensus of everyone else (including Paul Maurice) was that the team didn't do nearly enough to support their goaltender.  It was a veteran move from a guy who's been around the block a few times, and who knows that time is fleeting.  In Legace's words, channeling Roy Williams, the Canes now find themselves "frickin' ten points" back of the Bruins, and you can hear the desperation in their voices as they know they blew a golden opportunity.

Perhaps Legace took this harder than his teammates since this is the first time since his early-November signing that he's been witness to such a self-implosion on home ice.  These losses were commonplace at the beginning of the year, but not so much since Legace's arrival, which makes it more painful to a guy who has done an admirable job keeping his team in the race for the better part of five months.

After winning eight in a row at the RBC Center, a streak that came to a screeching halt Saturday night, the Canes have now lost two straight and have been outscored 9-2 in the process.  It goes to show how far back the team set itself in October and November and why they find themselves in the predicament they do now.

Click for audio from Legace (must-listen), Jamie McBain and Erik Cole.  Maurice's press conference is attached.

The four-game homestand wraps up Thursday night when the Washington Capitals, minus the suspended Alex Ovechkin, come to town for the second time this season.  We'll be back then (for all three periods) and hope you will as well.