In the end, it all comes down to goaltending, doesn't it?

	CHIRPIN'
	"If we win the Cup, I think this will pay off. If we don't, in my mind I don't think it will pay off." -- Bruins' captain Joe Thornton on the firing of coach Robbie Ftorek.
	THE NUMBER
	189:10 The Florida Panthers' home scoreless streak, until they managed to end it against the Minnesota Wild.
	WHO'S HOT
	Ottawa forward Marian Hossa. In the past six games, he had 9 points, 4 of them goals.
	WHO'S NOT
	Montreal center Yanic Perreault has one goal in his past 18 games.

Stanley Cup championships come down to it. Succeeding during the regular season comes down to it.

On Wednesday, Robbie Ftorek found out that a coach's job security comes down to it, too.

The Bruins have employed seven coaches during the past 12 seasons. Only one of them -- Rick Bowness, now an assistant in Phoenix -- got them as far as the third round of the playoffs. That was back in 1992. Since then, Boston has won a total of two playoff rounds in 10 years.

The Bruins have made a habit of blaming their bench bosses. Truth be told, their big failing has been between the pipes.

They still haven't gotten over Andy Moog or had a netminder as good.

They've had a revolving door of goaltenders. Remember Blaine Lacher? Former Vezina winner Jim Carey, who went from best to worst in a single season? Jon Casey? Vincent Riendeau? Rob Tallas? John Blue? Bill Ranford past his prime? And the list goes on.

Byron Dafoe lasted the longest -- five seasons. And it was no coincidence that when he was injured and played only half of the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons, the club failed to make it to the postseason. Pat Burns was almost fired during the 1999-2000 season and eventually was early in the 2000-01 campaign. His successor, Mike Keenan, finished out the year, but when the team didn't qualify for the dance, Keenan wasn't renewed. Dafoe's absence was a major factor in both coaches' demise.

Dafoe was healthy last year -- Ftorek's first -- but he has had very little playoff success. After the Bruins finished at the top of the Eastern Conference standings, there were high hopes for the team to go far into the postseason. But upstart Montreal and their buzzsaw forwards knocked them off their pedestal. Jose Theodore, who was so-so early in the series, outdueled Dafoe late to win the series.

Fast forward to this year. Dafoe was let go to unrestricted free agency without so much as an offer from his former employer last summer. The Bruins traded for Steve Shields and hoped John Grahame could emerge as the No. 1 guy. He didn't and got traded to Tampa Bay, where he's helping that team make it to the playoffs for just the second time in franchise history.

Since entrusting the No. 1 job to Jeff Hackett, acquired from Montreal in a three-team deal that sent defenseman Kyle McLaren to San Jose, the club's fortunes have been mixed. His first game -- on January 25 -- was a 1-0 overtime victory against Philadelphia. It looked as if they finally had the missing piece of the puzzle. But Hackett has been as inconsistent as his teammates -- including Shields -- and ultimately it contributed to Ftorek's firing.

It's not all Shields' fault or Hackett's fault or Dafoe's fault or anyone else in that position. This year, especially. The defensive play in front of the netminders has been nothing short of ridiculous on most nights. But the goalies have not been good enough to compensate for spells of defensive dysfunction. Last summer, with a number of goalies on the market, the Bruins elected to take a pass on renewing Dafoe. Fine. No problem. But in making that decision, they had an obligation to find someone better. They didn't. And Ftorek, like so many other coaches before him in Boston, is paying for that mistake.

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