Predators keep Bruins on skids

A mini slump? Maybe. Feel free to argue the proper terminology. However, the club can't deny its fortunes have clearly taken a turn for the worse. The latest example was yesterday's 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators at the FleetCenter.

All the scoring came in the first period. In the final 40 minutes, the Bruins outshot the visitors by a healthy 27-18 margin but were thwarted by the efforts of goalie Tomas Vokoun (32 saves) and handcuffed by their multiple trips to the penalty box.

The Bruins have dropped three in a row -- two in regulation and one in overtime -- and have only one victory in their last five outings (1-2-0-2).

"It's not that we played horrible," said right wing Glen Murray, whose line with Joe Thornton and Mike Knuble was the best combination on either side. "It's just that we can't seem to get a win. We know we're still playing well, we just have to get a win somehow."

It's not as if this one was ever out of reach -- except when the final horn sounded.

Thornton put the Bruins ahead at 6:26 of the first on his fifth of the season, converting a drop pass from Murray.

Just over a minute later, Nashville pulled even. Veteran defenseman Sean O'Donnell, with possession of the puck in his own zone, attempted a pass to Brian Rolston, but it was intercepted by Adam Hall. The right wing threw it across the slot from the right circle and David Legwand converted the relay.

"As soon as [O'Donnell] got it, I started skating out of the zone," said Rolston of the mishap. "I just put my head down because I thought the pass was going to [P.J. Axelsson]. I think the pass just went in front of me and I just wasn't ready."

The deciding goal came at 13:14 with one second left on a roughing penalty to Marty Lapointe. Rem Murray took a shot from outside the right post. Andrew Raycroft made the save, a scramble ensued, and Greg Johnson managed to backhand the loose puck in from the edge of the crease.

"I lost it after the first shot and they had two or three guys [in front] and it was just kind of chaotic really," said Raycroft. "I didn't really know where the puck was. I just tried to fall back and I wasn't able to. I made the play on the first one. It was just one of those things."

After the first, the Bruins allowed the Predators four more power plays -- three in the third period -- which made generating offense a far more difficult task.

"We've got to do a better job of controlling our own destiny out there," said coach Mike Sullivan. "We've been victims most recently of short lapses whether it be a five-minute span where we get away from what it is we want to do.

"The last few games the puck has ended up in the back of our net. I guess we've learned that lesson the hard way. We've got to be more disciplined as far as what we're trying to accomplish and we've got to stick to it for 60 minutes, not 55.

"[The rash of penalties] just takes you out of the flow," Sullivan continued. "I thought five-on-five we carried the play for most of the night. We just couldn't seem to roll lines over the boards because every time we really started to grab the momentum, we ended up in the penalty box. We've got to find a way to be more disciplined. Our team has done a pretty good job of that most of the year. [Today], obviously, we didn't."

Rolston logged 18:59 over 25 shifts, nearly seven minutes of which was killing penalties. He said so many opposing power plays make it a long night.

"It's tough when you've got to kill that much," he said. "It definitely takes the flow out of the game. You've got a lot of guys killing penalties and getting tired. It takes a lot out of you. It seemed like in the first period, we went to sleep on a couple of plays and they got a couple of goals. After that, I thought the majority of the time, we took it to them."

Having said that, he and his teammates don't believe that after such a good start the Bruins are about to go into a protracted slump similar to last year when they began 19-4-3-0 and then lapsed into mediocrity the rest of the way,

"We want to get a win and get back to feeling good about ourselves," said Rolston, "but I'm not concerned."