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The 2014-15 season was a year of hits and misses for the Black and Gold.
In spite of a 96-point season, the Bruins saw their seven-year postseason streak come to an end, realized that their core may be aging faster than they originally anticipated, and ultimately saw their general manager take the fall for the club’s shortcomings. In the month of May, we’ll take a look at the season of every player on the B’s and their future with the club heading on into 2015-16.
The series continues with versatile bottom-six forward,
Danny Paille.
The Basics
Player: Danny Paille
Age: 31
2014-15 Stats: Six goals, 13 points, minus-9 rating in 71 games played.
Contract: $1,300,000 cap-hit through 2014-15 season.
How he got here: Acquired via trade with Buffalo Sabres in Oct. 2009.
Overview
Boston forward Danny Paille is one of those classic team guys. Like Gregory Campbell, Paille’s linemate of five years in the Hub, Paille would do literally anything head coach Claude Julien asked of him. That was known from the get-go, too, especially when the Bruins tried their best to force Paille into a top-six role on a line with Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi moments after acquiring him from Buffalo in 2009.
But Paille, again like Campbell, was at his best on Boston’s fourth line, a line that at the height of their play in 2010 to 2012, and with Bruin-turned-Panther Shawn Thornton, earned the moniker of the best fourth line in hockey. 2014-15 was different, though, and that went beyond Thornton’s departure. Paille just wasn’t nearly as effective as the cap-strapped B’s needed him to be in that role, and while Paille bumped from line to line, his year ended with nine straight did-not-dresses as a healthy scratch.
That was tough for Paille, so often a go-to guy on a go-to line, to handle, too.
“I think a lot of it is chemistry, and we just didn’t build off too much chemistry,” Paille said of the line’s year-long struggles to be anything more than a disaster. “I think we rotated a number of guys, and at the end of the day, you want to try to play the same certain style, but you have to continue producing some way. If it’s not scoring, it’s another way. But normally, as a line, we succeed with obstacles that are surrounding us. Unfortunately this year, they got the better of us. It’s definitely a huge hit to take at this point, but at the same time, you’ve got to enjoy the good times, too.”
Paille’s 13 points in 2014-15 were his lowest since 2010-11, a year in which the Welland, Ont. native suited up for just 43 games. He played in all but 11 games this past season.
The Good
In a season of almost all negatives for No. 20, Paille’s best performance undoubtedly came in a two-goal effort against the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden back on Mar. 8. Both of the goals, which matched a single-game career high for Paille, came in the B’s second period, with the first coming on a shorthanded breakaway while the other came with a helper from Max Talbot and Campbell.
Oddly enough, too, for a player whose Bruins career will always showcase (er, maybe there’s a better word there) his inability to capitalize on numerous prime offensive chances, Paille’s final shift as a Bruin ended with him actually recording a goal in a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Mar. 22.
Paille also hit an impressive milestone on Opening Night, suiting for his 500th game at the NHL level.
The Bad
It was pretty much all bad for the 31-year-old, really. But if there’s one moment that stuck out, at least for me, it had to be Paille’s simply unfathomable start to the year in terms of goal-scoring, or lack thereof. Not only did it take Paille 21 games to score his first goal of the season, but it would also serve as his only goal in the first 57 games of his season. And, like, he played with centers like Bergeron and
Carl Soderberg for brief periods of time over that stretch, too. Unheard of!
The Future
As the Bruins continue to transition to a younger, more skilled team, Paille is an unlikely candidate to return. And in spite of a six-year tenure with more positives than negatives, Paille knows that.
“I mean, when things don’t end well, you always expect the bad, but we’ll see,” Paille said of a potential return to the Black and Gold for a seventh season and beyond at the B’s year-end media availability. “Not too optimistic but we’ll see how things go. I don’t know what the future will hold, but at the same time, I’ve got to think about what’s best for my family, myself, and my career at this point.”
Still, the former Sabre can’t help but look back on B’s tenure in a positive light.
“It’s been a wonderful time,” said Paille. “Obviously it’s not a season that I’d like it to end to, but it’s been wonderful, and if it continues, great, but I think when I look back here, we competed for a number of years and played some good hockey. It’s been a tremendous time, and it’s unfortunate we ended the season the way we did, but overall, it’s been a great experience and I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
His struggles were noted this season, but I still think that Paille has the resume, wheels, and the smarts to be an effective fourth-line penalty-killing winger for a club out there, too.
Previous Bruins Year in Reviews
Gregory Campbell
Brett Connolly
Milan Lucic
Reilly Smith
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.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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