The Boston Bruins did not win their final game of the regular season, and that’s totally OK, really. Falling to the New Jersey Devils by a 3-2 final on Sunday, the loss meant absolutely nothing to the Black-and-Gold. They had already clinched the Presidents’ Trophy by way of their Saturday afternoon win against the hapless Buffalo Sabres the day before. With 81 games in the books, the Bruins were crowned the league’s top point getter, finishing the 2013-14 season with 117 points.
It was the organization’s first Presidents’ Trophy since 1989-90, and just the second in their 90-year history. This, obviously, is cause for an acknowledgement of some sort, you’d think. I’m not saying, “Hey, set up a parade route from here to Fenway.… But at the same time, it’s asinine to think of the Presidents’ Trophy as a ho hum accomplishment for the B’s given their offseason of change and ‘gee, I hope this works’ investments or lack thereof on the blue line. Completely and utterly asinine.
And even that may be an understatement.
In an offseason where the Bruins lost their top-line right winger of three years to free agency (Nathan Horton, moved a three-year pro that went on to finish with the third most points in the NHL this season (Tyler Seguin), the Bruins finished with 54 wins in 82 games. Their excellent wasn’t even closed to being matched in the Eastern Conference. Nor was their consistency.
“I tend to look at things, like, over a longer stretch.There’s been a lot of really good performances by players on this team,… general manager Peter Chiarelli noted in his pre-playoff address to the media on Monday. “Like I think the kind of — we’ve got this Seventh Player Award, which everyone’s talking about — there were six or seven candidates for it. I don’t think there’s ever been that many candidates for it. So it speaks to kind of the performances across the board.…
Again, this is a team that lost two members of its top six over the summer, let Jaromir Jagr and Andrew Ference walk, and banked on Jarome Iginla, Loui Eriksson, and Reilly Smith fitting into the Bruins’ team-first concept. For a team that went to two Stanley Cup Finals in three years with the old core, that took guts. And everybody knows it.
“I can understand the criticism,… Chiarelli admitted when asked about the Seguin trade in retrospect. “When we make a trade, we look to see how we improve our team, and we went into that whole venture to improve our team and we have improved our team. So there’s no real vindication — it’s about improving our team and finding ways to improve our team, and that was one way. And there’s no secret to the quality of player that we traded. It was not a surprise that he’s doing what he’s doing. On our side of the ledger, it’s about improving our team, and we thought we did.…
Improving, as it turned out, was putting it lightly in regards to his club over the last 82 games.
For perspective, the Bruins never lost more than two games in a row at any point this season. Over the course of an 82-game grind -- with back-t0-backs, travel days, and everything else thrown in there -- that’s a legitimately insane accomplishment in today’s league. It seemed as if nothing slowed this Bruins team down, either. They managed goaltender Tuukka Rask’s ice time, and had eight (eight!) different players on their roster make their NHL debut this year. They were a machine.
But because three of the last Presidents’ Trophy winners have bowed out in the first round, it’s an accomplishment you should try to avoid if anything. Pay no attention to those 117 points! Pay no attention to a team that scored the third most goals in the league while allowing the second fewest into the back of their own net during the regular season. Pay no attention to a team that realistically could have a Selke, Norris, and Vezina winner on their roster by the summertime. Forget about the fact that Julien and company made the right switches to transform the club’s power play from boring, predictable and outright lethargic to absolutely lethal with either unit out there.
Those people are right -- you’re better off squeaking into the postseason as a wild card. Right?
Has the hockey world become that cynical? OK, no, don’t answer that. Has the hockey world become that hung up on lazy narratives and curses/hexes/voodoo/omens? OK, again, don’t answer that.
Maybe this is what happens when you live in a world of athletes giving you cliche quote after cliche quote; “Blah, blah, this isn’t our goal. We only want the Cup, yadda yadda yadda.… That’s cool, we get it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s something you should brush off if you’re a fan. Not in the least. With nearly a week before the start of the Bruins’ bid for their second Stanley Cup in four years (great scheduling by the way, NHL), fans in the Hub have more than enough to give a tip of the cap to what this team was able to accomplish in 2013-14.
For a day if nothing more, really.
“It’s something that we certainly are proud of, if you want to say that. We worked really hard this season and we wanted to play as best as we could and I think we accomplished that,… said Boston captain Zdeno Chara. “But after [the regular season], it’s going to go back to square one and no matter what you do in the regular season you still have to play a certain way to be successful. It’s something that for sure you want to follow up on but you can’t be thinking now that you are going to get more room or more respect. It’s going to be, I think, even tougher.…
In the eyes of the Bruins’ captain, there’s an even bigger target on his club’s back now. Opposed to? The Bruins are the defending Eastern Conference champs. Everybody gets up for a game against the B’s at this point. That’s a by product of what Chiarelli, Julien, and the on-ice talent has done, too.
While I understand that what the Bruins did would in essence become nullified by an early exit (dare I say at the hands of their first round opponent, the second wild card Detroit Red Wings), but every once in a while it’s nice to stop for a second and smell the roses, and right now, they smell great.
Well, until Friday, anyways. That’s when they’ll be replaced by intense panic attacks.
Enjoy.