I honestly had no idea we'd be here right now. I had this series done, circled on the calendar as the final blow being last Friday because the Bruins were feeling it. I picked the Leafs in six, but after the first four games I thought there was no way that Toronto fights back.
Then Game 5 happened…
And here we sit. The Bruins fanbase (at least the ones on Twitter) are cutting each other's throats like it's Game of Thrones. One camp is overly positive and one camp is overly negative and the stragglers just don't give a shit. It's literally madness right now.
So the Bruins will fly back this morning because of a plane malfunction and isn't that just a perfect image for how this series is gone? The team is flying high and then they land and can't get their motor going.
I know that I'm pretty negative and it's basically becoming a staple of mine – but where is the positivity in this? Has anyone watched the team lately? Outside of Tuukka Rask, who is constantly showing up and performing? Even David Krejci has quieted down after he became "THE BEST IN THE WURRRRRRRRRRLD!!!!one11!!11".
I wiwsh I could come here and give you guys from "rah-rah" speech that would fire you up and bring some positivity to this, but I can't. I just don't have the energy for what the Bruins do anymore. This is a trend – the Stanley Cup winning team isn't the norm, it's the exception to the rule. Look at the previous years:
2009: The Bruins are the best team in the Eastern Conference with 119 points and sweep the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. Then Boston goes up against the Carolina Hurricanes and go down 3-1, battle back to tie the series up and lose in Game 7.
2010: The 6th seeded Bruins beat the Sabres in 6 games and had a 3-0 lead on the Philadelphia Flyers. David Krejci went down with an injury in game 3 and never returned. Boston went on to lose the series in 7 games.
2012: The 2nd seed Bruins take on the 7th seed Washington Capitals and lose in 7 games in the first round.
You see, we're used to the Bruins pooping their pants in the playoffs. I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible fan or whatever, but I believe in being a realist. Claude Julien is being out coached by a guy who thinks Jake Gardiner shouldn't even be in the NHL. Randy fucking Carlyle.
Little to no line changes, no in-game adjustments based on what Toronto is doing. Nothing. I think if Boston loses tonight, Claude is a goner. The sad thing is, it's not all his fault. Chiarelli signed a Stanley Cup winning team to a bunch of long term deals. When you have 90% of your roster locked up to long term deals (the "core", but in all honesty 16 players shouldn't be a core) they tend to pbhase out a coach who has been preaching the same thing for the past 5 years.
Whenever the season ends, I think changes need to be made to this team dispite how far they make it into the playoffs.
After the jump…the jump off of the bridge I mean….
Bruins Projected Lines
Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Tyler Seguin
Jaromir Jagr – Chris Kelly – Rich Peverley
Shawn Thornton – Greg Campbell – Dan Paille
Zdeno Chara – Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference – Johnny Boychuk
Adam McQuaid – Matt Bartkowski
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
DOY Flying Bear T-Shirt
You know the drill. Get your Flying Bear shirts for the playoffs people! We have Youth Medium to 2XL.
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