Seemingly about to surrender the first goal of the game in the opening period Thursday, Bruins goalie Tim Thomas did what he does best.
He got desperate.
With Panthers forward Nathan Horton about to stuff a cross-crease pass from Stephen Weiss past Thomas into the Boston goal during a 5-on-3 Panthers power play, the goalie did an acrobatic spin and managed to swiftly get his stick on the puck.
Some 22 saves later, still locked in a scoreless goaltending battle in the shootout, a desperate Thomas flopped over backward and was able to kick his pads in the air to prevent a fluttering puck from crossing the goal.
Although the reigning Vezina Trophy winner ultimately blinked first in his gladiator goalie battle with the Panthers’ Tomas Vokoun — yielding a backhand goal by Cory Stillman in the fourth round of the shootout resulting in a 1-0 Florida victory (recap) — it has become apparent that Bruins skaters could probably use a healthy dose of the same competitive desperation with which Thomas is playing.
“I was just thinking to myself, don’t let them make it that easy for them,” Thomas said of his creative save on Horton. “I couldn’t get over in the traditional manner, so I did the flop. It’s not like I practice it, but in desperation mode it comes out.”
While Thomas was getting creative and acrobatic to earn a second consecutive shutout and run his personal shutout streak to 172 minutes and 28 seconds, the Bruins offense did not seem to be locked in a similar desperation mode.
If Bruins forwards arrived at the net with the same passion and resolve to score as Thomas is displaying to keep opposition pucks from staying out, Boston would be a much better hockey club.
Yes, the Bruins did launch 40 shots at Vokoun. But the vast majority of those shots were from the perimeter. There was not a whole of activity by Boston forwards crashing the net in front of Vokoun.
“It was a lot of shots, but not a lot of quality shots,” center Patrice Bergeron said.
Sixty-five minutes of hockey. Four chances in the shootout. Yet, for the third time in six games, nothing on the scoreboard for the Bruins.
“It’s the most important part of the game, it’s the part that wins and loses the games. We have to bear down. To a man we have to do it," said forward Blake Wheeler, who has no goals and just a single assist during the last six games.
There will no doubt be games in which his teammates bail him out, but right now Thomas deserves a better fate. He has given up just four goals in his last five games, posting a 0.98 goal-against average during that stretch, but the Bruins have gone just 1-2-2.
Here are two other lessons from a night when the Bruins could take satisfaction in getting one point but still were left wondering how they did not get a second:
THE PANTHERS CREATED THE PERFECT BEAR TRAP
Thursday night’s contest was perfectly aligned as a traditional “trap” game for the Bruins.
With the B's having taken a 3-0 victory over the defending champion Penguins on Tuesday, it was likely that there could be an emotional letdown for a game against a struggling Florida team.
But while the Panthers may be the NHL’s most forgotten franchise — a puck equivalent of the Milwaukee Bucks, Kansas City Royals or Houston Texans — the South Florida team has consistently given the Bruins fits.
Thursday’s game was the 60th all-time between the Bruins and Florida, with the Panthers now leading the series 26-25-6-3.
Perhaps more surprisingly, the Bruins actually have a losing record (11-13-3-2) hosting the Panthers.
Boston won three of the four contests last season, outscoring Florida 14-5 in the process. The Bruins seemed to be in similar control Thursday as the Panthers didn’t generate their first shot until 9:33 had elapsed in the opening period and Florida had only a single shot in the second period.
Yet, suddenly in the third period the Panthers controlled play and outshot the Bruins 14-8 to stay in the contest.
“We knew they would come out strong. They pushed hard. That’s what they had to do,” Bruins defenseman Derek Morris said. “Once we settled things back down it was a pretty good period.”
THE B’S STILL FEATURE A KILLER PENALTY KILL
The Panthers only had three power-play chances, but the Bruins were still hard-pressed to continue their excellent penalty-killing.
After racing out to a 6-1 shot advantage in the opening period, Boston suddenly found itself facing a 5-on-3 Florida power play for 71 seconds.
With Thomas making four saves and Bergeron, Morris and Mark Stuart working to clear the zone, the Bruins were able to survive the extended two-man disadvantage.
“Anytime you can kill a penalty like that, guys come back to the bench and everyone is congratulating the players for a big kill,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “It was a good kill for us.”
Boston killed one additional Florida man-advantage and has now shut down 31 of the last 32 opposition power plays. All in all, not a bad night for the Bruins, who ended a four-game homestand 2-0-2, picking up six of a possible eight points.
“You never want to just turn away from a game like this and say we did everything we could,” Julien said. “I’m going to leave a little bit of space here for our team to say how we’ve got to find a way to score some goals. We’ve just got to improve somewhere in our game so those things happen.”
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