“Unfortunately,’’ said coach Claude Julien, “right now we are looking at end results as being really important.’’
In other words, it’s time for the best team in the Eastern Conference in the regular season last year to find a ripcord in this mind-numbing freefall. Their play is predictable, their overall execution and attack weak, their fate all but certain. Only a Milan Lucic goal, his first in more than two months, prevented them from being blanked at the side of Lake Erie, and by the time he nailed in a Marc Savard relay, the Sabres already had a pair of goals in the bank.
About the only chance of winning the Bruins have these days is to escape with a 1-0 victory, but that is something they haven’t done all season. Their record when scoring one goal: 0-13-2. It could be time to recruit Harold Ramis for a consult.
A critical part of the last night’s slip-and-fall was penalty trouble, yet another redundant theme the last three weeks. They were assessed three minors in the first period, the third of which led to a Thomas Vanek strike that proved to be the winner. Savard, back after missing eight games with a wrenched knee, was whistled for a high stick at 16:29 and Vanek’s 16th of the season was in the net only 63 seconds later.
“We just have to stay with it, and bounce back [tonight],’’ said Savard. The Kings this evening will be on Causeway Street, where the Bruins will try to prevent a seventh straight loss.
Earlier in the period, with only 4:01 gone, the Sabres struck for their first goal, Henrik Tallinder whistling a long-range wrister by the screened Tuukka Rask. Dennis Wideman, on the ice for all five Carolina goals last Sunday, was also present for the first by the Sabres, but he was just one of the many bodies that blocked Rask’s vision.
“I saw him getting the puck and I got myself in position,’’ said Rask. “But I didn’t see it until it was too late and I didn’t have time to react.’’
