NAY: B’s will lose Game Seven as their luck runs out

Six years ago, the New York Yankees took the field at Fenway Park poised to sweep the Boston Red Sox and win their fourth American League pennant of the decade.We all know what happened instead.Did the Yankees all of a sudden become terrible? No. Did the Red Sox turn into individual Supermen? Again, no.What you saw was a series where the Red Sox – not that far behind the Yankees all season – caught a couple of breaks and then caught fire. I hate to say this, but I think we’re seeing it again.I don’t see the Bruins winning tonight. Like the Yankees, the Bruins had their shot – in Game 4 of this series – to cast the Philadelphia Flyers aside. But just like the Yankees in ’04, the Bruins couldn’t close. And because the Flyers got their big gun – Simon Gagne – back just when the Bruins lost two of theirs (David Krejci and Marco Sturm), that win was enough to kick-start them back to even.Neither Krejci nor Sturm is going to make anyone forget about Alexander Ovechkin. The two of them, combined, finished with 89 points – 20 fewer than Ovechkin had all by himself. Krejci (17) and Sturm (22), between them, were 11 goals behind Ovechkin’s 50.But on a team that struggled all season to put the biscuit in the basket, asking the Bruins to do without 39 goals – just when you need them most – is asking a lot.This is a roundabout way of saying the Bruins were never good enough, in the first place, to jump out in front of Philly, 3-0. Let’s not forget that until a few days before the season ended, Boston’s playoff spot was far from assured. They defeated the Sabres for the same reason they jumped out in front of Philly: Buffalo’s big gun (Thomas Vanek) was on the shelf. And by the time he got back, the Bruins were in control.Looking at things objectively, the Bruins got lucky in Game 1, blowing a 4-2 lead in the third period and winning in overtime when Marc Savard – operating on pure adrenaline, to be sure – sniped one home. Game 2 was also a nail-biter, and Game 3 was too, until late in the third period.The Bruins won, but you were never totally comfortable about it. Once the breaks started going Philadelphia’s way, the Bruins simply didn’t have enough in reserve to overcome it.The Bruins aren’t bums. This isn’t lack of effort. It’s lack of available talent. It would be nice if you could simply suggest that coach Claude Julien fiddle with his lineup, but how’s he supposed to do that? How’s putting Tim Thomas in net going to help? His goals-against average this season was a respectable 2.56, but the Bruins have scored one goal – that’s right, one – in six periods of hockey. And that came with the B’s up a man because they’d pulled Tuukka Rask. In fact, their last two goals have been scored that way.So this isn’t a goalie problem. It’s much deeper than that.Philly completes the comeback tonight.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.