''I love Pat Dapuzzo, but . . ." said a disconsolate Green, who, after Mogilny's goal, picked up a 10-minute misconduct for venting his frustration over the decision.
''It's frustrating. [Madden] was down low, and that made it tough for me to get down low -- and besides, as the visiting team's player, he's supposed to let me get down first.
''Like I say, frustrating, especially when it's Pat, a great linesman."
One-third of the way through the 82-game season, the Bruins are officially on the endangered species list. They have lost nine of their last 10 games, and they are slipping into ''also-ran" status in the Eastern Conference.
It's so bad now that they can't even execute the simple lineup at the faceoff dot. Thornton, on in relief of Green, was poised to pull the puck straight back, ideally out of harm's way, but Madden quickly jerked the puck back between his legs for Mogilny to rip home.
Bizarre. And ugly. And all too predictable.
Meanwhile, not much really changes amid the losing. General manager Mike O'Connell has tinkered a little with the roster, moving out Dave Scatchard, Colton Orr, and Shawn McEachern and bringing in David Tanabe, Dan LaCouture, and Zdenek Blatny.
But nothing changes. The L's pile up like logs at the hearth of broken promises. Once one of the grittiest, proudest franchises in the NHL, the Bruins have taken on the aura of the Washington Generals, and virtually every opponent transforms into the Harlem Globetrotters. Meanwhile, the club's ad campaign has turned into a sad joke, telling fans, ''It's about the Cup!," or leaning on schmaltzy lines such as, ''It's called Bruins!"
