BOSTON, Mass – Where does one start when discussing the future of the Boston Bruins? For the second consecutive year the Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs in disheartening, if not embarrassing, fashion. In 2009, Boston was bounced by the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. This year the Bruins reached the exact same point, elimination in the Eastern Conference semifinals in a seven game set. Both times the Bruins were the higher-seed and last season the Bruins were the Eastern Conference champions.
Last season the transition game and a lack of urgency early in the series against Carolina spelled the Bruins doom. This year the tide seemed to turn on an injury to David Krejci and a lack of killer instinct.
Two of the items for the Bruins failure are personnel related and two of them are cultural. A lack of transition was seemingly fixed by the trade-deadline acquisition of Dennis Seidenberg, but he missed the entire playoff series in 2010. However, unlike 2009, Matt Hunwick was available to this year’s Bruins and those two players were a lineup wash. Due to some high contracts and an injury to Marc Savard the club’s forward depth was limited and the horrible truth came out when Krejci went down. Observers of the last four games against Philadelphia could tell the Flyers had the more dangerous players on the ice than the Bruins did.
The cultural reasons for those losses confound even the insiders in the 2009 and 2010 Bruins organization. Boston should never had lost to the Hurricanes in 2009 and probably wouldn’t have if the team did not squander away three games after winning the first game of the series.
The 2010 season? If you haven’t heard about Philadelphia’s historic comeback by now, you’ve probably selected this web site by sheer accident. The old Bruins were known for being overachievers, like it or not this year’s Bruins will go down as one of the biggest choke artists in NHL history.
When you have two different players saying the club doesn’t have a “killer instinct” or they “don’t know why” they stopped playing after leading a series 3-0 you have a large problem on your hand.
Frankly after two years of this, you have to believe there is something chemically wrong with the dressing room and/or leadership.
Basically there is an argument for purging the Bruins management from top to bottom. Is a purge the correct thing to do? Is a purge even feasible to do as general manager Peter Chiarelli and head coach Claude Julien have brand new extensions in place for 2010-11? It appears both operatives will be given a chance to make good with this club. If the club goes into next year with a set management hand, the change will take place in the dressing room.
But make no mistake, the naming of Cam Neely as team president is a sign of change and everyone should be on notice.
Changing the dressing room is a plan fraught with pratfalls. The first move of likely many took place when Dennis Wideman was sent to Florida for Nathan Horton. According to www.capgeek.com with the deal the Bruins have seven forwards, a goaltender and two defenders who are each slated to count over $3 million on the cap in 2010-11. The club has 17 players under contract and has nearly $6 million left to spend, although the website has Zach Hamill at $1.3 million plus on the roster and that is no sure thing by any means. It is more likely the figures are 16 roster players signed with $7 million to spend.
The club does have four free agents in Blake Wheeler, Mark Stuart, Greg Campbell and Vladimir Sobotka who the team probably has interest in. You could also expect either Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin to push for a roster spot.
Chiarelli has room to massage the cap. Going into the draft it appears the Bruins have an excess of forwards and need a puck-moving defenseman. Unless a major salary dump is made the Bruins likely will not be major players in the free agent market and thus far made their splash re-signing their own players.
The players who could be moved to improve the club, such as Tim Thomas ($5 million), Michael Ryder ($4 million) and Marco Sturm ($3.5 million) are overpaid based on their contributions in 2009-10. (Note: capgeek.com reports Sturm has a no-trade clause and Thomas has a no-movement/no-trade clause). Yet it appears the Bruins will hold onto Thomas in hopes he can regain his Vezina Trophy-winning form and the Bruins will have to buyout Ryder and/or Sturm if they want to use their salaries to improve the club.
One potential avenue for improvement would be for the club to package a high-paid forward and Toronto’s first round draft selection in 2011 for a star defender with an eye towards Zdeno Chara leaving after the 2010 season as a free agent. All in all it portends to be a very interesting draft weekend for the Bruins and the decisions made over the weekend will have long-term implications.
Contact Tom.Schettino@prohockeynews.com
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