Bruins, Julien 'Baffled' By No-Goal Call Against Panthers

BOSTON (CBS) - Bruins coach Claude Julien got a trip to Disney World from his players and a shiny new watch from his general manager Don Sweeney and team president Cam Neely on Thursday during a pregame ceremony commemorating Julien passing Art Ross for most wins in franchise history.

He also got a text from an unnamed fellow NHL coach during the Bruins' 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers at TD Garden, but the message had nothing to do with Julien's milestone.

"I've got another coach that texted me, and there was, 'WTF, How can that not be a goal?'" Julien explained. "That's coming from somebody who's neutral."

The neutral coach wasn't the only one confused by the ruling by the officials at 8:03 of the third period. The Bruins were already doing their best to squander an important game by blowing a 1-0 lead on the strength of an even-strength goal by old friend Reilly Smith and a shorthanded goal by Smith's linemate Vincent Trocheck in the second period.

They didn't need any help from the officials.

Then Patrice Bergeron thought he tied the score 2-2, when he flipped in a rebound between Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo and the left post.

But the ruling on the ice was no goal so the officials needed conclusive evidence to overturn the call and give the Bruins the tie. After a lengthy review and several showings of the play on the Jumbotron, the call was upheld. A couple more replays on the video screen and the ice was pelted by debris. If only the Bruins could throw the puck in the net right now the way those sodas hit the rink.

"I think you need to call the league because I can't explain it either," Julien said. "I'm as baffled as you are right now, and I looked at it many times here before coming out here. It looks like it's in. It looks very conclusive."

Jussi Jokinen scored 2:53 after the no-goal call for a 3-1 Florida lead and the Bruins' hopes of pulling within one point of first place in the Atlantic Division were dashed. Now the Bruins have to worry more about the one-point lead they hold on Detroit, which defeated Montreal to creep close to third place in the division.

Uncounted goals or not, the Bruins again didn't play well enough to win or prevent their losing streak from reaching a season-high five games.

"Bottom line you have to find a way to score a goal and we didn't do that," said Bergeron, who hasn't scored in eight games for a Bruins team that has scored seven goals during its five-game skid. "I mean you can talk about that goal that they took away as much as you want, but at the same time it's the rules and you have to find it within yourself to battle back and to get that goal."

The Bruins have been robbed by inconclusive videos two nights in a row. Lee Stempniak thought he had a comeback-starting goal against New York on Wednesday, but Henrik Lundqvist's glove save was ruled clean on the ice and upheld because the replay didn't show the puck over the line (although the puck was in the glove and the glove was over the line and ... well you know). It's enough to think a black cloud is hovering over the Bruins. And they have a right to be frustrated. Never mind the Bruins' disgust with the call, which was so blatantly wrong it caused that neutral coach to text like a teenager. Even Luongo couldn't bring himself to say he made the save.

"I don't know. At first when it happened I didn't think it was in," Luongo said. "And then obviously I saw it on the Jumbotron a couple times, so I wasn't quite sure exactly what had happened there. But either it was great to get a break going your way there."

Teams with playoff aspirations make their own breaks. The Panthers had a borderline goal taken away from them against the Rangers on Monday. Florida went on to lose then but they bounced back with a strong performance and won in Boston for the first time since 2011.

The Bruins have had a couple calls go against them. But all the complaining and texting and suggestions to call the League aren't going to make up for the mess the Bruins are in right now. They're not scoring and they're not defending. They're trying to get by with Adam McQuaid and Torey Krug as a second defense pair, and those two combined for a minus-5. They're trying to shuffle their bottom nine forwards until a line can get going and provide some support for Bergeron's line, which hasn't been all that hot lately either. Ryan Spooner's first even-strength goal since Feb. 4 might've been a sign of life, but it might've been more of a temporary shock to the system than something could sustain the Bruins and keep them in their playoff spot.

"You can't expect to win when you play like that," said goaltender Tuukka Rask, who without the help of video review has done all he can to keep the Bruins afloat. "And you know it's commitment. You commit to a game plan and you do certain things, it gives you success. And then if you don't, you can't expect to win."

The Bruins can't expect to win and they can't expect to get credit for goals just because they look like they might be in the net. But Julien can expect to have plenty of time to use those tickets to Disney this spring if the Bruins don't find a way to squeeze some offense out of its underachieving forwards and protect Rask's crease better against teams with more skill and speed. A second straight season out of the playoffs might bring more than a "WTF" text from upper management for Julien and several of the players.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.

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