Krejci and Pouliot have combined for eight shots, a minus-five rating, and zero points in their last four games.
Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton was two-for-two in fights, but it wasn't enough to spark the team's offense in a 6-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday.How many of you tortured yourselves and watched the full 60 minutes of Wednesday night's Bruins game?
You deserve a gold medal for sticking through that debacle.
For the first time this season, the Boston Bruins knew exactly how it felt to be on the losing end of a Grade A shellacking as they fell 6-0 to the Buffalo Sabres at the First Niagara Center. Patrick Kaleta and Ville Leino succeeded getting under the Bruins' skin and even the officiating played an unexpected role.
What's being labelled as "the worst call of the year" turned a 1-1 game into a 2-0 Buffalo lead and only grew worse from there. The referees thought Rich Peverley interfered with Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller to cause the puck to fly past him, but replay showed Peverley barely grazed Miller's left arm as the puck got past his stick.
It was just one of those games where nothing went in Boston's favor except for being on the winning end in fighting majors, which did them no good.
The Bruins showed their frustration on the ice and in the locker room. CSNNE.com reporter Joe Haggerty tweeted that while forward Milan Lucic was answering questions an incredibly loud expletive was heard coming from the shower area and I highly doubt it was because someone forgot their favorite body wash.
We can only hope that Wednesday night's embarrassment serves as a major wake up call. Since the start of February the Bruins have been outscored 12-5 with the third line in MIA mode.
With concussion plagued Nathan Horton out of the lineup, Bruins coach Claude Julien has been forced to move some guys around. First Julien slide Peverley into Horton's spot on the top line with Lucic and David Krejci, but when that didn't work, he moved Krejci down to the third line with forwards Benoit Pouliot and Jordan Caron and center Chris Kelly into Krejci's normal spot on the revamped top line.
The line tweaks worked Sunday against the Washington Capitals as every player on the top two lines recorded points in a 4-1 victory, but the third line remained invisible as it tallied five total shots - with four coming from Caron. Against Buffalo they combined for four shots, a minus-five rating, and no points.
You would think by moving Krejci down would make the team deeper, but he's posted nothing but zeros on the scoresheet in his last four games. Don't blame it all on him though. Pouliot hasn't scored since Jan. 10 against Winnipeg and has no points in his last six games and Caron who's been floating between Providence and Boston last found the back of the net on Jan. 12 against Montreal.
The Bruins need to discover how to play like a dominant team again with everyone giving 100 percent. As simple as that sounds sometimes it's not always that simple.
Amanda Bruno can be reached at abruno@repub.com
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