Bruins’ painful playoff exit — like the Leafs’ — is certain to linger
BOSTON — The Bruins fell painfully at the last hurdle in their Stanley Cup run, but their battered and bruised players proved to be truly Boston Strong.
Forward Tyler Seguin said he had no regrets after what he called a long, short year. But plenty of pain.
“It’s going to take a little while before we can realize the accomplishment that we had in making it to the finals again, but right now it doesn’t feel good,” coach Claude Julien said, in the wake of Chicago’s Cup-clinching 3-2 comeback win on Monday night.
Added Seguin: “I’ve never felt anything like this. I’ve never cried for as long as I’ve known until tonight.”
The city of Boston began looking forward instead of back Tuesday. The moving makeshift memorial to the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings was slated for removal from Copley Square to be moved to the city archives for cleaning and archiving.
Like the rest of the city, the Bruins were rocked by the devastation of the attacks. On a sports level, their schedule was disrupted. On a personal level, they saw their home and neighbours under duress.
A tightly knit team felt the pain of its city. “We had more reasons than just ourselves to win a Cup,” said Julien.
They came close in a series that saw three overtime games. Chicago outscored Boston 17-15, with four games decided by one goal and the other two separated by two goals.
The Bruins got off to a great start to the season, going 13-4 through January and February. But they only won two of their last nine games as the season wound down, their schedule and psyche disrupted by the bombings.
The ups and downs led Julien to call his team a Jekyll-andHyde outfit. That continued in the playoffs, where players like Seguin and Brad Marchand failed to retain their regularseason scoring form. Among the positives: Forwards Gregory Campbell and Patrice Bergeron added to the Bruins’ tradition of toughness. Campbell finished a shift against Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference final despite breaking his leg blocking a shot. Bergeron played Game 6 of the final with a broken rib, damaged cartilage and separated shoulder.
“Big-time courageous effort,” Julien said.
Captain Zdeno Chara, Nathan Horton, Jaromir Jagr and a host of other Bruins were also hurt.
Forward David Krejci finished with 26 points (9-17) in 22 games to lead playoff scoring for the second time. He had 23 points (12-11) in leading the Bruins to their 2011 title. The Czech becomes the first player since Colorado’s Joe Sakic (1996, 2001) to lead the league in scoring in multiple post-seasons.
Goalie Tuukka Rask made fans forget the departed Tim Thomas, finishing the 2013 playoffs with a 14-8 record, 1.88 goals-against average and a league-leading .940 save percentage in 22 games. Rask also tied for the league lead in shutouts (three) with Los Angeles’s Jonathan Quick. The lanky Finn restricted the high-flying Penguins to two goals in the Eastern final and the Blackhawks often needed multiple deflections to beat him. Now the Bruins have to re-sign the restricted free agent and fan favourite.
Forward Milan Lucic, a healthy scratch late in the season, led all players in the Stanley Cup final with six points (4-2) and had nine points (4-5) in his last 10 playoff games.