Boston Bruins: Is This Stretch Of Adversity Worse Than 2009-10?

It was Tuukka Rask who said he was not sure whether to cry or laugh in the wake of a Feb. 6, 2010 shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks that gave the Boston Bruins 10 consecutive winless outings.

The same Rask did not even make it through his entire start in another maddening matinee Saturday, when the Bruins dropped an identical 3-2 decision to the New York Islanders in regulation.

With 9:01 gone in the second period, and the game tied at a goal apiece, Rask went down with an apparent groin strain and promptly gave way to Tim Thomas. Thomas would repel 11 out of 13 shots faced, but one shot too few, as the Bruins whiffed on their 10th consecutive attempt to compile a simple, two-game winning streak.

This abyss of inconsistency, in which time Boston has gone 10-11-2, has lived to see 23 games and 51 days. It has grown to extend its tentacles to three different calendar months. It is all but taking on a strength, life, longevity and rotational force that could rival the hurricane that constitutes Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Most critically, the Bruins’ funk of seven-plus weeks has overlapped with the loss of what could now be as many as five of their regulars to injury.

Nathan Horton has not seen action since Philadelphia’s Tom Sestito biffed him in the brain and gave him his second confirmed concussion within the last year on Jan. 21. Rich Peverley, who endured a knee injury in Montreal on Feb. 15, has missed the subsequent eight games and will likely be out until April.

Johnny Boychuk returned for Saturday’s tilt with the Islanders a week after being temporarily sidelined with his own concussion (via Ottawa’s Chris Neil). But his reinsertion coincided with the deletion of fellow defenseman Andrew Ference, who left Thursday’s bout with New Jersey prematurely.

With Rask—who will not accompany his team to New York for Sunday’s visit to the Rangers, or for Tuesday night’s road tilt in Toronto—Boston now has at least one injury in every position. And Daniel Paille, who drew a Pyrrhic penalty on the Islanders’ Steve Staois in Saturday’s third period, could be the third forward to join the injured reserve.

It is one thing to be pressing the likes of Jordan Caron, Josh Hennessy, Carter Camper or Lane MacDermid into offensive service when none are nearly ripe enough for NHL action. But the Bruins are now looking at plugging in two AHL-caliber forwards along with a barely AHL-caliber backup goalie in Michael Hutchinson.

When Hutchinson suits up on Sunday, it will be the first time someone other than Rask has backed up Thomas (or vice versa for that matter) since Dany Sabourin patrolled the bench doors in a March 7, 2010 game versus Pittsburgh.

That game, which naturally bears another melancholy, injury-related memory, occurred precisely 104 weeks (or, almost two full years) to the date of Sunday’s match in Manhattan. And for the better part of that 2009-10 season, with Manny Fernandez a thing of the past, Rask and Thomas constituted a reliable tandem that kept an incessantly injury-plagued band of skaters afloat.

Suddenly, that long-lasting luxury has been dented for at least two games and three days, possibly longer. It is the last, climactic phase in a rampant rash of ill health and ill luck that did not show much disturbance until Horton was hit by Sestito.

At that point, the Bruins were 45 games into their season and one week into their streak of streaklessness. A little more than one-fifth of their schedule has elapsed since then, and while they are still first in the Northeast Division and second in the Eastern Conference, one has to wonder how thick the ice is entering springtime.

At the most trying point of the 2009-10 regular season, namely the 10-game winless skid, the Bruins at least had an Olympic break to look forward to, followed by another full calendar month and change with which to stamp their playoff passport.

And to reiterate, they had both of their goaltenders healthy enough to play and perform at a rate that had them both within the NHL’s top 10 on both the goals-against average and save-percentage leaderboard.

Conversely, beginning with their tilt with the top-dog Rangers, these Bruins are about to cram their last 19 regular-season games into a span of 35 days. Their only set of consecutive off-days will include a travel day across three time zones for a three-game, four-night road swing through California.

This franchise’s last venture to the Golden State? That happened in January 2010, just as their protracted win drought began and well before their recovery from it.

Unlike two years ago, making the postseason is not exactly in question. Securing home ice for at least the first round and establishing a favorable rhythm to commence the postseason is.

Without at least 11 established NHL forwards and a comfortable goaltending insurance policy, one has to wonder if the Bruins can percolate exactly what they need in the homestretch.