(Photo by USA Today Sports)
by Dakota Antelman
2014 for the Bruins started off great got rough in the middle months and ended even rougher. They ended the regular season with their second ever Presidents Trophy by virtue of their clinching the best record in the NHL.
They rolled into the playoffs and promptly defeated the Detroit Redwings to move to the second round where, after seven games, the Bruins season ended in a game seven loss.
From there the Bruins blew it up in the offseason. They did not pay Jarome Iginla and thereby lost him to the outbidding Avalanche. They drafted Czech forward David Pastrnak and then promptly traded Johnny Boychuck to the Islanders.
What has that gotten them? Well, whatever way you put it, with just four days left in 2014, the Bruins are 18-14-3 and out of the playoff mix...
1) Bruins fall to Canadians in second round
After their dominant dispatching of Detroit in the first round, many favored the league best Bruins to easily topple their French Canadian rivals.
The long and the short is that many were wrong.
The Bruins and Canadians split the first four games of the series. Though the Bruins then won game five to take a 3-2 lead, Montreal used superior speed and puck smarts to win Games Six and Seven.
2) Bruins trade Johnny Boychuck
On October Fourth, just days before the season began, the Bruins traded longtime defensive rock, Johnny Boychuck to the New York Islanders. Though they snagged a pair of second round picks and a conditional third round pick in either the 2016 or 2017 draft, many within the team and the fan base were unhappy with the departure of Boychuck.
A Bostonian of six years, Boychuck brought physical defense to the top of the defensive zone and played smart up against his own net. Without him, the Bruins defense has been marked with youngsters and penalty kill misalignments.
3) Zdeno Chara goes down with PCL tear
Without Boychuck, the Bruins needed their few experienced blue-liners to stay healthy. They took their first blow in trying to do that when Zdeno Chara delivered a hit on John Tavares and, in doing so tore his PCL, a ligament in his knee.
Chara missed over 7 weeks of play with the injury and even once he returned, he was nowhere near top shape
0 comments:
Post a Comment