Bob Birge, Pro Blogger

Hockey Night In Connecticut

A blog focusing on the New York Rangers and all things hockey (also Yankees and Giants) with a New York attitude from a fan of 40 years whose greatest highlight came when Mark Messier lifting the Stanley Cup on June 14, 1994

Bruins' Struggles Worsen

March 16, 2012

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Have the Bruins been handed some cosmic payback for goaltender Tim Thomas' decision to boycott the reigning Stanley Cup champions' visit to the White House on Jan. 23?

Maybe it's nothing more than coincidental, but it is kind of funny how the Bruins have struggled since then. On Jan. 22, Boston posted a 6-5 shootout win in Philadelphia to improve to 31-13-2, matching a high-water mark.

Since then, however, Boston is just 9-14-1. That's more than a quarter of the season, which is more than a slump. And the beginning of the slide can be pinpointed to a 5-3 loss at Washington the day after visiting the White House.

The Bruins suffered a 6-2 loss at Florida on Thursday for their season-high fourth straight defeat. They have been surrendering a ton of goals, giving up 21 during the losing streak.

Boston has lost four straight games in regulation for the first time since a five-game skid on Jan. 18-29, 2010.

Doubting Thomas blamed the losing streak on bad breaks.

"It’s Twilight Zone-ish,” Thomas told the Boston Herald. “I don’t know what we did, but we did something to put luck not in our favor. A lot of times you get the luck that you work for. It’s not that we’re not working, but I haven’t seen a run of bounces like this in a long time."

Gee, Tim. Maybe you ticked off the hockey gods by blowing off the president.

Boston's lead over the Senators in the Northeast Division is down to just one point and the Bruins have used up almost all of their games in hand. They now have just one left on Ottawa.

If the Bruins are overtaken, they will give up home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs and could possibly drop down to No. 7 in the conference standings.

Ottawa, which really hasn't been playing that well itself (2-2-2 in the last six) could climb into the No. 2 spot. If the season ended today, Boston and Ottawa would be matched up in the first round of the playoffs..

If it wasn't for their strong first half, the Bruins actually could in danger of missing the playoffs entirely.