Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Panthers pummel Bruins, creep up on Boston’s No. 2 seed

Tomas Kopecky, Ed Jovanovski, Tim Thomas, Shawn Matthias

Florida Panthers’ Tomas Kopecky (82) is congratulated by teammate Ed Jovanovski (55) after scoring as Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas skates nearby during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Boston on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011. Looking on is Panthers’ Shawn Matthias (18). (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

AP

For much of the last month or more, the Boston Bruins’ biggest worry was losing their division lead to the Ottawa Senators. Now there might be concern that the Northeast Division title might not equal the second seed.

That’s because the current third-ranked Florida Panthers absolutely handed it to the Bruins tonight, beating them 6-2. That loss narrows the gap between the two teams to just two points, as Boston has 83 standings points and Florida has 81.

(Sure, the Bruins hold tiebreaker advantages that mean that the Panthers will almost certainly need to finish with one more point to take the second seed, but that doesn’t seem unrealistic right now.)

Of course, the bigger threat is losing the Northeast altogether. Boston has just one point and one game on hand on the Ottawa Senators, with the only good news being that the Sens have struggled a bit recently too (a pedestrian 5-3-2 in their last 10 games).

Tumbling Thomas

It might be too easy to point to Tim Thomas’ White House snub as the turning point, but either way, the unorthodox goalie has been struggling - which is especially troubling since Tuukka Rask is far from returning.

Thomas carried an atrocious set of March stats into tonight’s game (.852 save percentage and 3.74 GAA) and allowed six goals on 30 shots against the Panthers.

***

It’s not fair to lay it all on Thomas’ feet - surely Boston’s offense and defense carry plenty of blame - but the bottom line is that the Bruins need to figure things out fast or their mid-season domination will be nothing but a distant memory.