Thanks For Playing: Boston Bruins

Each spring 16 NHL teams play for Lord Stanley's Cup. At the end one team is left holding the cup while the other 15 teams can only think of what might have been. 

This is about one of the 15 teams who wasn't so lucky. 

How They Finished: 

49-29-4   102 points  1st in Northeast Division, 2nd in Eastern Conference

What Went Wrong: 

To paraphrase Barry Melrose "Boston's best players weren't their best players in this series." And that's why the Bruins are done for the spring.

Last year Boston's forwards were able to oppose their will against their opponents and wear them down en route to winning the Stanley Cup. This year that wasn't the case.

Look at the stats of their top forwards in the first round last year against Montreal compared to this post-season against Washington.

Milan Lucic: (0G, 2A) (0G, 3A)

Patrice Bergeron: (2G, 5A) (0G, 2A)

David Krejci: (1G, 0A) 1G, 2A)

Brad Marchand: (1G, 4A) (1G, 1A)

Chris Kelly: (3G, 3A) (1G, 2A)

Rich Peverly: (1G, 4A)  (3G, 2A)

The only player that was better in the first round this year compared to last year was Peverly. Bergeron, Kelly & Marchand were nowhere as good as last year.

Lucic and Krecji were a little better statistically than last year but those two needed to be the best players for Boston especially with Nathan Horton out of the lineup due to a concussion. Between the both of them they had one shot on goal last night in game seven.

Because of the struggles of the Bruins forwards Boston's power play also struggled in the series. The Bruins were 2 for 23 against Washington with the man advantage. Only Chicago's power play has been worse in the playoffs.

I know last year the Bruins were able to overcome their inept power play to win the Stanley Cup but eventually it was going to catch up with them. In this series it finally did.

The other thing that hurt Boston was they weren't able to get to Braden Holtby early in the series. The 22 year old rookie was brilliant in the first two games of the series, turning away 71 of the 74 shots he faced.

Because of his performance in net Washington was able to gain a split in Boston. Not only that but Holtby's play in net gave the Capitals confidence, letting them believe they had a chance to win this series. 

Where Do They Go From Here: 

Despite losing in the first round things still look good for the Bruins going forward.

Boston has a little over $5 million in projected cap space going into next season and most of their core players are under contract.

Of all the forwards who are free agents (Chris Kelly, Daniel Paille, Greg Campbell) the Bruins will have to decided which of three will return.

My guess is Boston would love to re-sign Kelly but after making over a little over two million this past season he is due for a raise. For what it cost to bring back Kelly they could just re-sign Campbell and Paille and let Kelly hit the open market.

Of course one thing the Bruins could do to save cap space is trade Tim Thomas.

Now I know reading that last sentence sounds ridiculous after every thing Thomas has achieved but hear me out.

He is due to make $5 million next season in the final year of his contract. He'll be 38 at the start of next season and his no movement clause expires on July 1st.

Thomas's backup Tuukka Rask is a restricted free agent who I expect the Bruins to re-sign. With their projected cap space just being over $5 million Boston has to decide if it's financially worth it to bring Thomas back for another season.

Whether Thomas returns or not next season the Bruins are still a pretty good team. They played a lot of hockey over the last two years and like every defending champion it finally caught up with them.

I expect them to rest up this summer and come into training camp next fall primed to make another Stanley Cup run.