Hurricanes leave Bruins in eye of storm

"I thought we played much better," he said. "We played smarter. The scoring chances we gave up weren't as high quality. Because we played smarter, we ended up getting some scoring chances ourselves. You go through bits of adversity like this and our team as a whole has been having trouble finding the back of the net, especially our goal scorers. But it certainly wasn't from a lack of effort or a lack of motivation or even a lack of execution."

When you've had two victories in your last 14 games, you have to take your encouragement where you can find it, but there's no disguising the fact these are trying times for Bruins Nation. General manager Mike O'Connell is unsatisfied with what he's getting from his club, owner Jeremy Jacobs weighed in on his unhappiness in yesterday's Globe, and yesterday team president Harry Sinden expressed his views.

Sinden referred to yesterday's first period as a "walk-through" by his team. If much of the spotlight has fallen on captain Joe Thornton and his linemates, Glen Murray (who scored Boston's only goal against the Hurricanes) and Mike Knuble, Sinden thinks the defense has plenty to answer for as well.

"I see a lot of things I don't like, things they could do better, and so does Sullivan," said Sinden. "Their positional play is not good. I think we have enough to have a better team than we have right now. Do we have enough to do much? I don't know."

He said the inconsistency is enough to drive anyone crazy.

"You play [a strong game] against Vancouver and then Philly and then Ottawa and never follow it up," he said. "They never follow it up."

Yesterday, the Bruins got down by a pair of even-strength goals (Radim Vrbata at 1:57 of the second and Eric Staal at 3:33 of the third) before Murray cut the lead in half on the power play with 10:20 left in regulation. Despite outshooting Carolina, 30-14, in the final 40 minutes, they couldn't get any closer.

Sinden said he understands the anxiety and restlessness Jacobs and O'Connell feel about the Bruins' current fortunes, and he shares their frustration.

"[Jacobs] is like any owner, he doesn't like losing and obviously we need some changes and we're going to get them he says," said Sinden. "We can't continue playing like this. The real problem here is figuring out what the reason is. Is it the way we play? Is it the players we're trying to play with? Is it some extraterrestrial factors that are bothering these players? The real problem is figuring out why we play this way. I'm not putting our players in the top two or three teams in the league, but we're getting beat by the bottom two or three teams in the league.

"There's no way you could say Calgary played very well. Calgary played a poor game and they beat the hell out of us. That's scary. They didn't have to do anything. [Andrew] Raycroft had an off night for him, but he could've stopped everything and we still couldn't have won. Calgary comes in and they're a very average team. There's something seriously wrong here when we can't perform at home against Calgary when they're playing poorly."

Sinden, as much as he is a presence in the front office, said he's not involved in the day-to-day workings of the team. He talks to O'Connell and assistant GM Jeff Gorton frequently but feels it's O'Connell's team to run.

"I'm on the outside here looking in," he said. "Mike bounces a lot of stuff off me and I tell him, but I don't know where it goes from there. It's up to him. It's disturbing. I think our talent level is in the top third of the league. It's certainly no less than half. I don't know what it is."

If, after the roster freeze lifts Dec. 27, O'Connell decides to make changes, Sinden said the coach won't be one of them.

"The coach is unbelievably involved," he said. "His heart and soul are in this. It's just breaking his heart. That's not the answer. We're going to let him play out this whole thing and let's see if they can get it together."

He said because it's the last year of the collective bargaining agreement, it's much more difficult to make deals. He believes the Bruins have enough talent to play much better than they have, and it starts with Thornton and his other top players.

"I don't think I would single him out except when you're the best and you slip, it's a lot different than when you're the worst and you slip," said Sinden. "It means a lot more when your better players slip than when the rest of your players slip. But he can't be nonexistent. He's got to be part of it."

Sinden said he has no plans to address the club. He said he thinks there are enough people in the players' ears.

"They're taking criticism from their coach, their manager, their owner, and now probably a little bit from me," he said. " How many more people do they have to hear from?"