More than 48 hours have now passed since the indescribably shocking conclusion of the Eastern Conference Semifinals series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. I had promised a quick return the following afternoon but just couldn't muster the energy to reflect upon the disaster quite yet. But, here I am, ready to propose to you a rather simple question, but one you may find difficult to answer:

Who deserves the blame for this monumental failure?



Your options, with a few thoughts of my own:

HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN

* Didn't have a helluva lot to work with in terms of talent, was essentially forced to try to get blood from a stone.

* Has now been behind the bench for three straight game seven losses.

* Deserves credit for guiding team to playoffs for three straight seasons.

* Outcoached dramatically in the past two conference semifinals.

* Always afraid of making changes, both in terms of personnel and strategy.

* Took until game seven to remove Dan Paille from the first line, only to give him 19:20 of ice time...more than every forward on the roster not named Patrice Bergeron.

* Didn't recognize how worn out Tuukka Rask was becoming, and left a Vezina Trophy winner on the bench to rot.

* Told us "safe is death" prior to game seven, yet put his team in prevent defense mode when up by a score of 3-0 with a 14-4 shot advantage.

THE PLAYERS

* Gave half-hearted efforts throughout the entirety of the season.

* Forgot to show up for game five.

* Fired 11 shots on Michael Leighton in the last 45 minutes of play in game seven.

* Sorely missed David Krejci in the second-half of the series, in addition to Marco Sturm and Dennis Seidenberg.

* Committed untimely, undisciplined penalties at an alarming rate over the final four tilts.

* Milan Lucic possessed the oft-mentioned "killer instinct", but majority of his teammates rested on their laurels with a 3-0 advantage in both the series and the final game.

* Blake Wheeler couldn't win a battle in the corner if his life depended on it. Then again, there are a number of Bruins you could probably say that about.

* Mark Recchi and Miroslav Satan were arguably the two top forwards for the B's. The duo has a combined age of 77.

* Stopped skating with a 3-0 lead, came out for the second period as though they just overdosed on sedatives.

* Couldn't find a way, with four tries, to put the Flyers down and spare themselves from being connected to the most embarrassing failure in the history of postseason hockey.

GM PETER CHIARELLI

* Never acquired a top-flight winger to replace Phil Kessel for the 2009-10 season.

* Lucked out with the Miroslav Satan signing having such an impact in the playoffs.

* Traded away/failed to re-sign a heap of underappreciated locker room leaders (Aaron Ward, PJ Axelsson, Shane Hnidy).

* Botched the trade deadline by shipping Derek Morris out, reeling Seidenberg in from Florida but failing to acquire a forward to aid the lowest scoring team in the NHL.

* Conversely, Chiarelli didn't give up the farm/his abundance of draft picks for a quick fix.

* Handcuffed himself and the team significantly by handing out bloated contracts and NMCs/NTCs by the bushel.

So in what direction is your finger pointed? I look forward to your thoughts and your added reasons for why/why not to blame any of the aforementioned individuals.

JC

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