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It seemed that everybody in the Hub held out hope that the Boston Bruins, mired by inconsistencies and sometimes plain old rotten luck, would somehow get it all together in time for the playoffs. But time eventually ran out on the painfully hit-or-miss B’s, as everything came to a bitter-yet-fitting end in a 3-2 shootout defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday night.
The Bruins failed to get any help from the Philadelphia Flyers, daytime losers to the clinching Ottawa Senators, leaving the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference to either themselves or Pittsburgh Penguins (in Buffalo against the league-worst Sabres). And though the Black and Gold were in need of help, they had to focus their energies on an attempted improbable upset over Ben Bishop and the Bolts.
Boston failed to score in a scoreless first period despite a 10-6 shot advantage and two power play opportunities, and it was the Lightning that found the back of the net by way of Jordan Marchessault’s first NHL goal. The Bruins answered Marchessault’s goal, an unassisted tally at the 5:08 mark of the second period, just 52 seconds later, as Loui Eriksson connected on another strong net-front effort for his 22nd goal of the year, bringing the B’s and Bolts even.
But early in the third, as the Pens-Sabres game went final with the Penguins winning and thus eliminating the Black and Gold of Boston, you could just see the energy fall out of the B’s.
Tampa Bay defender Nikita Nesterov struck for his third goal of the season 5:14 into the third period, putting the Bruins in a one-goal hole with legitimately nothing to play for.
It was one of the Bruins’ lone bright spots in 2014-15, Brad Marchand, that refused to go down without a fight, as he tied things up with just 1:06 to go with his 24th strike of the year.
Neither team could find the back of the net in the five-minute overtime frame, while Victor Hedman scored the lone goal of the shootout, as the B’s posted one last 0-for in the shootout.
Random thoughts and notes
- So, it’s over. Mercifully, it’s over. And this was without question the absolutely strangest year of Bruins hockey I’ve ever witnessed. We’ll go into a more in-depth discussion about this over the next few days, but it just never felt as if this team hit its stride. Every time you thought they turned the corner, every time you thought that key piece was ready to contribute, something happened. They were constantly derailed by odd happenings or self-destructive tendencies in their own end, and these guys just did not have any sort of noticeable identity. They were just another faceless, average NHL team.
The whole thing just felt real bizarre for all 82 games.
- At the same time, you can’t help but wonder what could have happened had the Black and Gold found a way to get themselves into the postseason picture. I wrote this a few weeks ago, and I still feel the same-- the East is wide open. There’s no clear favorite, and the matchup game is everything.
An extra point here and there and you could have been squaring off with the Rangers in the first round. And while I think that the Rangers are an immensely talented club, undeniably so, they’re also a club that Tuukka Rask and the Bruins have played extraordinarily well over the last three seasons.
Crazy to think what could have been had the Bruins scored on more than nine of their 60 shootout attempts this season or kept teams at bay in the final minute. Too. Many. Points. Left. On. The. Table.
- If there’s a guy you feel bad for in all of this, it’s Tuukka Rask. He’ll never admit it, of course, but he was absolutely run into the ground by the Boston coaching staff. Why? Well, two reasons-- he’s that good and they needed him, and they simply never seemed to trust backup Niklas Svedberg. But even with the exhausting pace, the 28-year-old gave the Bruins everything he could and kept them in way more games than most goaltenders in this league would.
- Who do you root for now? It’s been one long while since the Black and Gold have been on the sidelines for the postseason, and this is definitely an unusual position to be in, I’ll admit. Honestly, I’ll toss my hat in for the New York Islanders. It’s been downright incredible to watch this team’s progression over the last few seasons, I think their fans are some of the most loyal and passionate in all of hockey, and I think it’d be awesome to see Nassau Coliseum get the send off it deserves.
Up next
Well, nothing on the ice. But off the ice, it’s going to be an absolutely gongshow. That’s not necessarily a good thing, either, to be honest. There’s a lot of different ways the Black and Gold should go this offseason, but the direction they could go is a complete mystery (and that’s kinda scary). That comes back to the group in charge of those decisions, too. Will it be the near decade-long braintrust of Peter Chiarelli and Claude Julien? I honestly have no idea. But something’s gotta give with the Bruins though, and with a long list of free agents both restricted and unrestricted, there’s a great chance the B’s will look nothing like they did this season when camp opens next fall. That’s not all bad though.
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