By: Mike Dunshee
The Bruins gave a rather lackluster effort Saturday night in the final game before the All-Star break falling to the Ottawa Senators 3-0 in Boston. Goalie Hannu Toivonen got the start against Ottawa, his first back to back starts in over a month. Despite the loss, it a good argument could be made for Hannu as the Bruins best player on the night as he received little help from his teammates. Hannu made many an above average save to keep the Bruins in the game throughout before Ottawa sealed it with an empty net goal by Dany Heatley. Heatley, who has been one of the hottest players in the league of late, scored twice, his first goal one of the rather soft variety that was Toivonen’s low point of the evening.
Through the night the game was a physical match as a hit from behind by Christopher Schubert on Paul Mara got Mara chasing Schubert down and throwing punches that Schubert wanted no part of. Only minutes later Andrew Alberts received a game misconduct for hitting Ottawa forward Chris Kelly from behind in back of the net.
Ray Emery needed to stop only 18 shots to record the shutout as Ottawa dominated the play on both ends of the ice. It was a disappointing night for the Bruins and continued what has been a season long trend for Boston; they have beaten the weaker teams in the league but have been continually beaten by the stronger teams in the league. Taking this into account it is hard to see Boston as better than a 7 seed in the East and much more than first round playoff fodder at best.
