Joe McDonald, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Bruins can't afford to let points get away

BOSTON -- General manager Peter Chiarelli tried everything he could to improve the Boston Bruins prior to Monday’s trade deadline.

He worked the phones tirelessly in the weeks leading up to the deadline, but other GMs were either asking for too much in return, and some simply didn’t want to deal with the Bruins. Their rationale was simple: Why help Boston improve when it continues to fight for a playoff spot, because if the Bruins reach the postseason they will be a dangerous team.

When the deadline came and went, Chiarelli slightly improved the Bruins, acquiring a veteran leader in Maxime Talbot and a prospect in Brett Connolly. During Wednesday’s practice, Connolly suffered a broken right index finger that will require surgery; he’ll miss six weeks.

It’s as though someone is sticking pins in a Chiarelli voodoo doll this season.

In their first game since the trade deadline, the Bruins suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames Thursday at TD Garden. Boston did earn one point, which keeps the Bruins two points ahead of the Florida Panthers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers also lost a shootout Thursday, 4-3 to Dallas.

Suddenly, however, there are more teams breathing down Boston’s back.

The Philadelphia Flyers scored three goals in the third period Thursday to beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1. The Flyers now have 68 points, one ahead of the idle Ottawa Senators and four behind the Bruins.

The Bruins have 19 games remaining in the regular season and their upcoming stretch of games -- 10 in 16 days -- is crucial for their playoff chances. It starts when the Bruins host the Flyers on Saturday at TD Garden.

“We realize we have to separate ourselves from the bottom teams and try to gain some ground,” Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said. “We have 10 games in 16 days coming up here and we realize that’s very important. Today, our effort was really good and we battled hard. We got three goals and most nights that’s enough to win the game, but not today. It’ll be a real important stretch for us, and the guys are really up to the task.”

With Thursday’s loss, the Bruins fall to 2-7 in shootouts this season. Fortunately for Boston, there are no shootouts in the playoffs.

“They suck. They suck,” coach Claude Julien said. “Yeah, that’s my version of shootouts.”

It didn’t help that the Bruins had seven penalties, and the Flames scored a pair of power-play goals. Calgary also blocked 37 shots with the Flames’ Kris Russell leading the way with 15. Still, this was a game the Bruins should have won.

Boston’s Loui Eriksson scored his 15th goal of the season, but he fanned on a pair of quality scoring chances. Linemate Carl Soderberg had a few chances, too, but couldn’t convert.

“It was ready to play, played hard, played well,” Julien said of the team’s overall effort.

“But again, the challenge of our lack of finish is probably the biggest concern right now. We had the better of the game tonight, five-on-five. There’s no doubt we played a lot more in their end than they did in ours.”

If the Bruins believe that the effort was there, then they’re on the right track for the stretch run. But they need more than one point each night to earn a playoff spot. Boston is in a situation where it must win these types of games.

“We know this is our season,” Milan Lucic said of the upcoming games. “If we want to be in the playoffs, this is the most important time of the year for us to get our game going and get the points and not give away points, kind of like we did tonight.

“I’m more than confident with the group that we have it’s a matter of being confident in those areas where we’re creating scoring chances and burying them.”

The teams behind the Bruins desperately want to override them. The teams atop the Eastern Conference who could be a potential first-round foe for the Bruins would like to see them implode down the stretch.

“We’re in a battle here to make the playoffs. It’s as simple as that, and we’ve got to make it happen,” Julien said. “No matter what the challenges are, we’ve got to make it happen.”

For the Bruins to be that dangerous team in the playoffs, they need to start winning games sooner than later. Boston needs to sprint into the postseason, not crawl.

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