Raycroft unable to stop his poor play

SUNRISE, Fla. -- It's been a rough season for the Bruins in general, and goaltender Andrew Raycroft in particular.

Raycroft, the 2003-04 Calder Trophy winner as NHL rookie of the year, went into last night needing a good outing in order to again challenge for the No. 1 netminding job against Hannu Toivonen.

Instead, it was more like a nightmare. In part because of sloppy play in front of him, Raycroft gave up five goals on 26 shots -- including three on the Panthers' first five shots -- in a 6-4 loss to Florida.

Raycroft had been Toivonen's backup the last three games, and with the club in such desperate straits, coach Mike Sullivan has been forced to go with the hot hand.

Raycroft was candid about the current state of his game.

''It's hard to stay positive," he said. ''You go all week and you're positive in practice and you feel good and you're positive all the way through . . . right away, there's a breakaway back door in front and it's two goals against you in four minutes. Especially right now, it's pretty tough to stay positive when that's happening. I'm trying to keep my head as positive as possible and just sticking with it. We were able to keep it close, it just wasn't enough."

Raycroft's record dropped to 5-14-2. ''I've just got to stick with it," he said.

Samsonov sent home

Sergei Samsonov, who missed two games earlier this month because of a nerve problem that caused tingling in his hands, had to return to Boston last night because of inflammation in his rib cage. He is expected to be evaluated by the team's medical personnel today. Samsonov, who got off to a slow start this season because he was behind in his conditioning after experiencing migraine headaches, played arguably his best game of the season against the Capitals, sending the game to OT with his 15th goal.

General manager Mike O'Connell said he was optimistic Samsonov's injury wasn't serious. ''We got him on a flight and hopefully get him checked out and see what's going on, and then if everything is OK, he'll be back with us [tonight]. Hopefully, it's nothing major."

O'Connell said he wasn't worried the injury was the magnitude of that suffered by Joe Thornton in the 2004 playoffs, when torn rib cartilage severely hampered the big center. ''I don't think so," O'Connell said. ''He didn't have that kind of trauma."

Fitting him in

Veteran Tom Fitzgerald, a healthy scratch against Washington, suited up in place of Samsonov, and was minus-1 in 5 minutes 2 seconds of ice time.