Let's get one thing straight, no matter if Tim Thomas or Marty Turco started in net this afternoon for the Boston Bruins, there was no way they were knocking off the freight train known as the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pens (42-21-5) won their season-high ninth game in a row, 5-2 at the CONSOL Energy Center thanks to three assists from Evgeni Malkin, a goal and two assists from James Neal and a strong outing from goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (34 saves).
Despite having played yesterday afternoon-and having lost to the Washington Capitals-Thomas (7 saves) got the puzzling start. He didn't last long, although that wasn't really his fault. Pittsburgh scored twice in the first 7:12, the third time in five games that the B's have been down 2-0 within the first nine minutes. Even worse, it was 3-0 Penguins by the end of the first period. Enter Turco (20 saves) to start the second. He actually played fine which makes you wonder why he didn't start in the first place since Thomas is dead but I digress.
Arron Asham (4th of the season at 3:24), Matt Niskanen (4th of the season at 7:12) and Neal (31st of the season at 18:48 on the power-play) made for a completely embarrassing first period by the Bruins, who couldn't do anything except get hurt and take penalties.
Adam McQuaid (upper body), Max Sauve (lower body, in his NHL debut) and Patrice Bergeron (blocked a shot) all exited the game with injuries but never returned. That left Boston with 10 skaters on the bench.
David Krejci (19th of the season) showed some pride for Boston when he cut it to 3-1 at 1:56 of the second period. Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic assisted on Krejci's snap shot for a goal.
Chris Kunitz (20th of the season) answered for the Penguins at 4:27 as he one-timed a pass from Neal. Malkin had the second assist, on the first goal allowed by Turco in a Bruins uniform.
Krejci scored again at 10:01 on a wrist shot from Lucic and Seguin to trim it to 4-2. Boston never gave up but Pascal Dupuis (18th of the season) put an exclamation point on the nice win for the home team when he scored with 3:53 left in the game. He went in on a breakaway thanks to passes from Jordan Staal and Deryk Engelland.
Boston gets one more crack at what could be the Eastern Conference's top team-four points behind the Rangers-on April 3 at TD Garden. One thing is clear, the Bruins don't want any part of the Penguins in the playoffs, particularly if Sidney Crosby ever returns and is healthy.
The B's have two more games on the road and they are both in the Sunshine State: Tuesday in Tampa Bay and Thursday in Sunrise (against the Panthers). Boston split the first two games with the Lightning, who have been probably the biggest disappointment in the East this season since they took the Bruins to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last spring.
All we can do right now is cross our fingers and toes that the B's can start to get more guys back in their lineup, otherwise there will be many more gongshow games like this one. Andrew Ference returned today but they still sorely miss Benoit Pouliot, Daniel Paille, Nathan Horton, Rich Peverley, Tuukka Rask, etc. Who knows if they'll all be back this season?
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