04/25/24
May 01, 2023
Bruins in Ruins: Fantastic Season Followed by First-Round Flop: The Boston Bruins amassed 65 wins and 135 points, the best single-season record in NHL history. The Florida Panthers were not impressed, sending Boston home Sunday night to a game-7 overtime defeat and first-round ignominy. Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe blames "days of uncharacteristic missteps, second-guesses and logic-defying gaffes " all doled out by their greatest foe, themselves."
Upset Sunday between the Panthers and Kraken
As a diehard B's fan, they killed themselves all series. Florida played well but Boston beat themselves.
posted by kokaku at 08:25 AM on May 01, 2023
Before that series started, man, you just knew.
And last night there were plenty of chances for it to go the other way.
When it went to OT, I knew the Bruins were done. What happened weren't no fluke.
B's fans had to leave the arena and head home into a cold hard driving rain. Suitable weather for the moment.
I'm not picking up parts at any suppliers today. The guys working behind the sales counters will not be in the mood to help anyone.
"Go get it at Lowe's and go fuck yourself."
posted by beaverboard at 10:20 AM on May 01, 2023
Memo to coaches and managers. Don't push to win an insane number of games during the regular season. Unless you have the likes of Jordan, Pippen and company on your roster.
TB Rays, c'mon back to earth a little bit. You don't want to end up like the '01 Mariners.
posted by beaverboard at 10:30 AM on May 01, 2023
I was rooting for the Bruins. When they went up 3-1 in the series, I thought it was over. How did they not revert to regular season greatness?
posted by rcade at 11:45 AM on May 01, 2023
It gets worse for the Bruins:
Bergeron and Krecji are almost definitely done. Besides them, Foligno, Bertuzzi, Nosek, Hathaway, Orlov and Clifton are UFAs. Frederic and Swayman are RFAs with arbitration rights. Depending on what happens with Mike Reilly, they have $1.875 million in buried cap. And they have just over $11.5 million of cap available and only 14 players under contract.
posted by NoMich at 01:43 PM on May 01, 2023
Florida had the best record / President's Trophy just last year. Yes they lost Huberdeau but upgraded to Tkachuk. Weegar was a big loss but lots of teams lose a top 4 defenceman before the playoffs. They had good bones, so to speak, I thought they had a decent chance before the series especially since it was already known the Bruins had some important injuries.
posted by rumple at 03:34 PM on May 01, 2023
I know Ullmark is the better goalie but I don't understand why, after alternating them all season, Ullmark started games 1-6. Also, the lineup worked for games 3 & 4. Why not let Bergeron and Kreijci continue to recover. Finally, Connor Clifton? Really?
posted by kokaku at 05:41 PM on May 01, 2023
NoMich, everyone knew this was their time or it was going to be a while. They were built to win a cup, knowing they were going to be a very different team next year.
posted by kokaku at 05:42 PM on May 01, 2023
Yep, they pushed in all their chips for this season. I couldn't imagine being a GM of a team in a hard cap league
posted by NoMich at 07:49 PM on May 01, 2023
Some might describe the ending of the Boston season as 'Hindenburg-like'.
In fact, Bruins broadcaster jack edwards did describe it like that.
posted by tommybiden at 09:08 AM on May 02, 2023
Jack Edwards is Chernobyl.
posted by beaverboard at 10:33 AM on May 02, 2023
Serious question: did Jack Edwards have a stroke recently? I've heard a few calls by him lately where he is speaker quite slowly and slurring his words pretty badly.
posted by NoMich at 06:00 PM on May 02, 2023
That was an exciting finish in Boston last night! I didn't have a rooting interest per se, but part of me did want to see a team as dominant as the Bruins were this season make a deeper run than they did. On that 6-on-5 at the end of the 3rd, the Panthers looked like they had everything under control, trying to find the equalizer.