At right price, Mogilny could be right fit

Can't anybody here shoot straight?

So it goes with the Bruins these days. They've buttoned up many of the holes along the blue line, and they are doing a much better job of moving the puck out of their zone, which is to say you can watch them now without hearing the Three Stooges theme song blaring in your head.

Defensively, halfway through the season, they are respectable. Trouble is, it took them most of the first half to get there.

Of late, it has been the attack zone that has turned into Boston's twilight zone, and if the Bruins don't overcome their scoring dilemma in a hurry, the sun will set on their 2005-06 season in the next couple of weeks. They'll need more nights like last night at the Garden, where they finally showed some offensive pop, including a pair of power-play goals, in a 4-2 win over the mighty Ottawa Senators.

To that end, general manager Mike O'Connell said he has been giving serious consideration to picking up Alexander Mogilny, the aging Russian sniper who cleared waivers yesterday at noon. Mogilny, who will turn 37 next month, has been an expensive and underperforming part of the Devils this season, leading New Jersey boss Lou Lamoriello to place the former Red Army star in the league's buck-a-book bin.

''We discussed him at length," O'Connell said, speaking a couple of hours before last night's game. ''We looked at it seriously, definitely -- not just in the light of our trouble scoring on the power play, but our trouble scoring in general."

Had the Bruins hired Mogilny yesterday, by dropping a claim his way, they would have been responsible for the approximate $1.75 milion he is due for the remainder of this season, and the $3.5 million he has coming to him in 2006-07. The Bruins, along with 28 other franchises, passed on Mogilny at those prices.

However, if Mogilny is now designated to play in Albany, the Devils' AHL affiliate, he could be had for 50 cents on the dollar if the Bruins, or another club, put a claim on him once Lamoriello attempted to call him back to New Jersey. The commitment then would be roughly $850,000 for this season, and $1.75 million next. The Devils would be on the hook for the other 50 cents on the dollar.

''That," said O'Connell, sounding much perkier about the prospect of Mogilny wearing a spoked-B at those numbers, ''is a different story."

Mogilny suffered with hip woes while with Toronto in 2003-04, leaving him with little production and even less negotiating leverage in the summer of 2005, when he was an unrestricted free agent. Shockingly, Lamoriello nonetheless signed him up for the guaranteed $7 million over two years, due to the fact that: 1) Mogilny had a prior successful stint at Exit 16W, including a Stanley Cup in 2000, and 2) Devils winger Patrik Elias contracted hepatitis A while playing in Europe during the lockout. In part, it was Elias's return to the lineup the other day that led to Mogilny being waived.

Despite his offensive struggles, and despite missing four games in November because of a concussion, Mogilny ranks third in New Jersey scoring, with 12 goals and 25 points in 34 games. Not numbers to knock anyone out, but as of this morning, Sergei Samsonov and Patrice Bergeron lead the Boston roster with only 29 points.

In their last 11 games prior to last night, the Bruins had scored but 21 goals in regulation. One of the underlying truths of the new NHL is that teams must score on the power play. No surprise then that the Bruins had been held without a power-play strike in nine of the last 16 games leading up to last night. In their last eight games leading up to the visit by the Senators, the Bruins were a paltry 3 for 40 (7.5 percent) on the man-advantage.

The Bruins used the power play to take a 2-1 lead early in the second, Brad Stuart slapping home a blistering long-range, one-timer off a Brian Leetch feed. Later, Brad Boyes drilled in another long-range slapper, after a rushing David Tanabe dished the puck to his right and rushed to the slot to provide a screen on Boyes's 10th strike of the season.

''We practice that one a lot, bring it up ice and kick it to the wing," said Tanabe, becoming both a presence on the ice and in the locker room. ''I still don't know if I got a piece of it before it went in, but it doesn't matter."

Most nights, the missing ingredient down low on the power play, in front of the net, has been grit. Some of the Bruins' bigger bodies, especially Glen Murray, have to make themselves more of a presence in front, take some punishment, fight for pucks. And in those rare instances when they are left unprotected, set up with good chances, they have to bury them. This a team short on both grit and touch. They finished 2 for 6 on the man-advantage, the first time since Nov. 23 they scored more than once on the power play.

So, yes, Mogilny is old, and his touch is fading, and he has never been known as a leader. But he still has a little bit of the killer's touch around the net, and that commodity has been in scant supply on Causeway Street.

At the right price -- sale! -- the Bruins may have little choice but to attempt to bring him aboard. The Blue Jackets, lower in the standings, would have an earlier crack at picking up Mogilny, and he could be an interesting fit with fellow Russian Sergei Fedorov. Part of the attraction in Boston, no doubt, would be placing him on a line with Alexei Zhamnov, an attempt to turn around the latter's own sputtering game.

True in the NHL old and new: Defense puts a team in position to win, but ultimately the 2 points are awarded to the team that scores the most. If that sounds simple to the point of being trite, then you probably haven't watched the Bruins much this season.