Raycroft insists there is no need to worry
While most of the Bruins were signing autographs and posing for photographs with fans during the annual Wives' Charity Carnival at TD Banknorth Garden yesterday, goaltender Andrew Raycroft was undergoing an MRI on his right leg.
Raycroft, who earned a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night, was forced from the game with 42.5 seconds remaining after tweaking the area below his knee.
Reached yesterday afternoon, Raycroft said he didn't yet have results of the test but was feeling better.
''I'm doing good," said Raycroft. ''It's still a little sore and stuff. It's definitely nothing with my knee. It feels more isolated. It's just one area now instead of my whole leg. It feels better than it did [Saturday], so that's a good thing."
Raycroft was optimistic he would be available to start tomorrow night's game against former captain Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks.
''As long as there is nothing structural," he said. ''If there's no ligament damage or anything like that and it's just kind of the way it feels now, then I'll have to suck it up and just go."
Tomorrow night, the Bruins begin the second half of their roller-coaster season, and whether their 2005-06 campaign will extend beyond April 15, when the regular season ends, remains to be seen. At 16-19-4-2, there's a great deal of work to be done.
It will be all the more difficult with center Alexei Zhamnov out for a significant stretch because of a broken left ankle suffered Saturday night. Goalie Hannu Toivonen is on the shelf because of a sprained right ankle suffered Thursday night, and defenseman Nick Boynton, although he's skating, is still out because of a fractured kneecap. The only people working harder than the players to try to get back into the playoff race are the club's medical staff.
Left wing Sergei Samsonov should be back in the lineup against the Sharks after missing two games because of the flu, and defenseman Ian Moran, who underwent left knee surgery Nov. 3, could begin skating this week.
Despite the depleted lineup, center Travis Green said he believes there are plenty of things to be positive about.
''We've shored up defensively," said Green. ''We're not giving up the same chances. Our team is really working hard. I like that we're competing.
''I still don't think we've found our stride offensively. You go through stretches during the year where your penalty killing isn't getting the job done or your power play can't find the back of the net. It happens. As long as you stick to it, it's not like we're not trying, and everyone knows that. We're trying and it just doesn't happen sometimes. It's nice [the power play] got some results [in a 4-2 win Thursday night against Ottawa]."
It doesn't hurt that Boston already has played 24 of 41 road games. The Bruins have four contests remaining in this seven-game homestand, during which the team is 2-1.
''We've had a tough schedule with the road games, but that's not an excuse," said Green. ''It's nice that we're at home now for a little while.
''We need a real big push. It's not enough to play good, we have to treat each game like it's a playoff game now. You can't get too far ahead of yourselves; you can only win one of them at a time."
When the Bruins woke up yesterday morning, they were still in the Northeast Division basement, tied with two other teams at 38 points, and with 10 teams ahead of them in the standings fighting for eight postseason spots.
''It's not easy, because there are a lot of teams in the same position we are," said Green. ''There are probably 10 teams right now that are preaching the same stuff, saying the same stuff in their room, and probably only three or four of them are going to make the playoffs. We want to be one of them.
''We obviously haven't had the first half that we wanted to. You look back now and we've probably blown 5-7 points that we should've had that we didn't. If we had those points, we wouldn't be sitting here saying we're on the outside looking in. We'd be right there, but every year, there are teams that lose tough games and we're one of them right now. We have to just make the ground up."
