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A success or a failure?

May 24, 2014, 4:53 PM ET [43 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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The ice at TD Garden was still melting, not even a month after the Chicago Blackhawks won their second Stanley Cup in four years, when the expectations for next year’s Boston Bruins were laid out.

Reloading their deck with top-sixers Loui Eriksson and Jarome Iginla after falling just two wins shy of their second Stanley Cup in three years, it was Stanley Cup or bust for the 2013-14 version of the Black-and-Gold. OK, well at the very least, it was Eastern Conference Finals or bust. And that was deemed the absolute worst case scenario. Again, the absolute worst case scenario.

So, what exactly does it mean when the team falls one win short of that? Well, besides a major headache, an inevitable-yet-brief shying away from watching the playoffs for a couple of days (seriously, I willingly skipped last weekend’s games for perhaps the first time ever), and dozens of “I really don’t wanna talk about it” conversations with friends and family, of course.

It basically means you’re left with a basic question: was this season a success or a failure?

The obvious answer for most is that this year is and was a failure for the Bruins. All things considered, I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong with that commentary. The Bruins had a clear goal, and they fell nine wins short of that. That’s more than two rounds of wins short, mind you.

Boston’s playoff heroes of year’s past -- Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand -- went missing at the worst possible team. I don’t think that the still Cup-less Jarome Iginla skated with the desperation most expected from him given the stage of his career and the chance he had with this year’s Bruins squad. Zdeno Chara looked like a completely battered defender by the end of the Black-and-Gold’s season for the second straight. (Coincidence? You’d think not.) There were simply too many letdowns from the B’s players you leaned on for 82 games plus. Too many to call this year a smashing success, anyways.

At the same time, it’s hard to just wipe away what the Bruins did this year because of a Game 7 loss.

I mean, not to beat a drum similar to those of the Canucks and Capitals in previous years, this B’s club was an absolute machine throughout the regular season, winning their first Presidents’ Trophy since the 1989-90 season, and that was definitely not by chance.

“We fell short in the second round, which disappoints everybody so we want to reevaluate where we think we could improve upon and look at that as opposed to major overhauls,” Bruins president Cam Neely said at his year-end conference earlier this week. “I think when we have the regular season we had, especially the stretch from March into April, that wasn’t luck. We were a good team and we still feel we have a good team and maybe need a few tweaks.”

Led by their dominant finish to the season, which saw the Bruins take 46 of a possible 58 points to close out the year, the Black-and-Gold were as solid as a club can really be. They got Vezina-worthy contributions from Tuukka Rask (a goaltender that’s still just 27 years old), as he finished the year 36 wins (5th most in the NHL), and a .930 save percentage (2nd in the NHL). Center Patrice Bergeron had another Selke-worthy season, and even had his first 30-goal season since 2005-06. And then of course, the 37-year-old Chara turned in yet another Norris season, earning his sixth career nomination for the award given to the league’s best defenseman.

Behind the superstars, there were five Bruins that finished the year with at least 20 goals, and nine skaters that finished the year with at least 40 points. First-year full-timers Torey Krug, Dougie Hamilton, and Reilly Smith all shined for Boston in legitimate roles. Third line centerman Carl Soderberg has emerged as a legitimate weapon for the B’s heavily criticized third line. And perhaps most notable of all moving forward, Loui Eriksson finished the year looking like the Eriksson were sold on last July, not the concussion-recovering Eriksson that B’s fans for most of the 28-year-old’s first season donning the Spoked-B.

With all that considered, I think it’s equally hard to say that this year was a failure.

The Bruins are still a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, and that’s due to a system that many teams, including the Canucks, who just hired Bruins assistant general manager Jim Benning to take over for the recently fired Mike Gillis, want to emulate. That’s something the B’s hang their hat on.

“People do want to copy [the Boston model] because of the success we have seen,” B’s owner Jeremy Jacobs said earlier this week. “These are enviable positions to be in. I love being here after a season like we just had. Disappointment in the playoffs and our objective is the Cup, it isn’t necessarily to have the best team during the regular season as it is to win the Stanley Cup. We will continue that objective and I think we will continue to grow from here.”

And though the Bruins will arrive to camp in September a bit older, and with summertime questions to be answered, their window for future success isn’t closing just yet, according to Neely.

“I feel, because of the way we played in the regular season, we haven’t fallen off the cliff. We didn’t play as well as we needed to play in the second round, and from my perspective, it’s — as a group, we didn’t play the way we were playing in March and in April,” Neely admitting earlier this week. “We still have — our core group, aside from maybe Zee, our core group is still relatively young. You’re talking mid- to late-twenties, maybe. And Zdeno is still, in my opinion, the best defender in the game. So I still think we’re in our window. We just have to recognize what we need to do to make our team better, whether it’s guys playing better or whether we’re adding different players.”

What the B’s do this summer in regards to everything -- trades, free agents, re-signings, and what have you -- will certainly change next year’s expectations. But maybe, with a week gone by since the Habs ended Boston's bid for a second Cup in four years, it’s possible to revisit calling this year a colossal failure.

For a quick minute, anyways.

Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.Anderson[at]gmail.com
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