Lowly Coyotes upset Bruins

It is often said that certain teams ‘peak at the right time of the season’.  The Boston Bruins are doing just the opposite.  On Thursday night it was one of the NHL Western Conference ‘cellar dwellers’, the Phoenix Coyotes, who handed Boston their latest setback with a 2-1 decision at the TD BankNorth Garden.  The loss was the Bruins’ 9^th in their last 12 games.

The only good news for the Bruins was that they didn’t lose any ground to their closest Eastern Conference rivals with the New Jersey Devils idle and the Washington Capitals losing to Toronto. Boston has dominated the East all season long, but they’ve been far from dominant lately.  Recently acquired Mark Recchi gave this assessment following the contest:

"The guys realize this is not good enough and especially this time of year."

Boston’s double digit lead in the Eastern Conference is down to six points over red hot New Jersey, but Bruins’ coach Claude Julien said that the standings were the least of his team’s concerns at the moment:

"I can give you all the excuses, but there shouldn't be any. If we are spending too much time looking at the standings, we aren't going to be able to get out of this."

Bruins’ defenseman Aaron Ward empathized with the anger of the Boston fans, and hoped that the addition of Recchi to the lineup would pay dividends:

"I keep coming back to the same answers and the same games, and I don't know what's ... going on. No offense, but this is disparaging to sit here and have to talk to you guys about this. ... Hopefully the injection of new blood in this team can spark something."

The Coyotes and Bruins traded goals in the opening period, with Chuck Kobasew getting Boston on the board first at the 7:09 mark assisted by Patrice Bergeron and P.J. Axelsson.  Phoenix would answer less than five minutes later when Scottie Upshall tallied on the power play assisted by Joakim Lindstrom.  The Coyotes would break the deadlock midway through the second period when Steve Reinprecht scored from Nigel Dawes and Peter Mueller.  A scoreless third period later and Phoenix had completed the 2-1 upset victory.

Neither team did much on offense, with Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov stopping 25 of 26 Boston shots—including 11 in the final period—to secure the victory.  The Coyotes only managed to put 18 shots on Bruins’ goalie Tim Thomas, but the two goals they scored was enough for the win. 

The Bruins will host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday with an eye on the out-of-town scoreboard where the New Jersey Devils will be playing at the New York Islanders.  Boston will then head out of the road playing Sunday at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers and Tuesday against the Washington Capitals.  Phoenix will continue an East coast road trip, playing Friday against the Buffalo Sabres, Sunday against the New York Islanders and Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.