"It's evident now that we are not winning hockey games because we are not playing the full 60 minutes," said second-year left winger Milan Lucic, who totaled a game-high six hits in his return from an undisclosed injury. "Most goals scored at this time of the year are scored by going to the net and chipping away, and we've got to do more of that."
"It's frustrating," added center Patrice Bergeron. "We have to figure out what's going on, bear down, and start winning battles. We lost it at the end of the first period. It wasn't any good in the second. The third was better, we started to win more bat tles, but . . ."
The Coyotes, aggressive in the trade market themselves Wednesday, moved to a 2-1 lead at 7:52 of the second when Nigel Dawes, just acquired from the Rangers in the Derek Morris swap, dished across the crease for Reinprecht to bang the puck by Tim Thomas at the open right side of the net.
The strike proved to be the winner, despite the fact the Bruins outshot the Coyotes, 17-7 (including 11-4 in the third period), the remainder of the night. Bruins coach Claude Julien, after watching his squad stumble around for the first 40 minutes, changed up his lines in the third period. The changes brought the desired change in play, but not the required finish around the net.
For a month now, the Bruins have been searching for their scoring touch, but it has only been there in spurts. They finished with 26 shots last night, the third time in the last four outings they failed to collect 30 shots on net. Overall, the effort was better, but only in spurts, and the offensive flow followed in frustrating lockstep.
"No reason in the world we can't score more than one goal," said a frustrated Julien, his forwards lacking not only in finish, but in net presence, the critical element of being able to stake out territory in prime scoring areas. "Right now we are in between everything."
