RALEIGH, N.C. - Too fast. Too skilled. Too tough.
Too much.
After dropping a 4-1 decision last night to the seemingly unstoppable Hurricanes before 18,878 at the RBC Center, the Bruins must win three straight games if they want to keep 2008-09, a season that included so much success, alive beyond next week. With as mighty as the Hurricanes have looked in three straight wins of their own, it seems unlikely the Bruins have any bullets remaining that can pierce Carolina's armor.
"Obviously, we're in a deep hole," said Zdeno Chara. "We all realize that. But you have to win four games to get to the next round. It's 3-1 and it's not over yet."
That said, the Hurricanes made the Bruins look like bantams for most of last night, with little resistance from the Black and Gold. The once-proud Bruins, now looking like paper tigers, have buckled at the exact point where winners strut their best stuff.
"I think our team has probably picked the worst time of the year to play their worst hockey," said coach Claude Julien. "When you look at the whole team right now, there isn't anybody that's played up to their potential. Obviously, out of synch. Our passes are not crisp. We're not in synch. You can see the frustration on the players right now. It's certainly getting worse.
"This is something that has to be resolved before the next game. We don't have much time to do that. You've come too far in the season to all of a sudden say, 'You know what? It's not working.' We've got to find solutions. That's got to come from coaches. And it's got to come from players."
Last night was a system-wide failure for a team that, even if it wasn't supposed to beat Carolina, was at least expected to show some fight. But in a stunning, uncharacteristic display of sloppy hockey, the Bruins let the Hurricanes skate around, through, and over them for all of the first period and most of the third.
Soon, the Hurricanes might be skating over their graves.
"Right now, our backs are up against the wall," said Marc Savard, who scored Boston's goal, a power-play strike (their first of the series) at 2:37 of the second period. "It's time to face that challenge. Or else it's going to be another long summer."
The Bruins survived a disaster of a first period and closed the opening 20 minutes down by only a goal. For spurts in the second, they had restarted their puck-possession game - chip pucks out, dump them in the corners, chase them down, start the cycle - and were ready for a competitive third period.
But like they have for nearly the entire series, the Hurricanes proved that they wanted it more.