Recapping the Season That Was for the Boston Bruins
It was a painful end to a promising season for the Boston Bruins in the year of our Patrice Berger— I mean in the year of our Lord 2021. After taking a 2-1 series lead over the New York Islanders on a Brad Marchand overtime goal, the B’s were swiftly defeated in their next three contests, unable to withstand the pressure of a persistent Isles attack.
Sure, the season didn’t end the way many fans wanted or expected it to, but there were still plenty of highlights from the regular season and first round, right? When I look back on this team I’ll think of the year in three distinct chunks.
First chunk
The black and gold began their 2021 campaign as one of the league’s hottest teams. On Feb. 24, they found themselves atop the East Division with 24 points and a record of 11-3-2, which included a 7-3 thwarting of the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe on Feb. 21.
David Pastrnak had recently returned from offseason surgery and notched a hat trick in that game, Brad Marchand was playing the best hockey of his career after recovering from offseason surgery of his own, the power play was clicking at a success rate of 30%, Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak were sharing duties in net and giving the team a chance to win every night and the defense, despite all that was said about the youth movement entering the season, was holding down the fort, surrendering the fewest shots against per game at 25.1.
They were really, really good.
Second chunk
If I had to compare this part of the season to something then I would compare it to the first two Star Wars prequels – they both stunk, I don’t even remember the names of the movies and they set up for arguably the best movie of the whole series in “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.”
From Feb. 24 until April 12 the Bruins were not an enjoyable team to watch. Over that stretch, the injury bug began to plague Boston. At one point or another, every single Bruins defenseman who took the ice on opening night found themselves out of the lineup while Rask ended up playing in a total of only 24 regular-season games. The effects were noticeable.
In the aforementioned time period, the Bruins ranked 27th in goals per game (2.48), 17th in power play percentage (18.6), 12th in shots against per game (29.6), 15th in total goals allowed (66) and 17th in points (24).
This was me during that stretch:
But alas, the Dark Side doesn’t always prevail. (I don’t know why I keep referencing Star Wars. I don’t even like the movies that much. I think they’re so overrated. Marvel is way better.)
Third chunk
Speaking of which, the perfect analogy for the last part of the season is Thor arriving in Wakanda in “Avengers: Infinity War.” It’s the best part of the entire movie series and it happens right before Thanos kills everyone.
Obviously – or this might actually not be obvious – Taylor Hall is Thor in this scenario. Along with the additions of Mike Reilly and Curtis Lazar, the Bruins looked like a different team for the final stretch of the regular season.
From April 12 to May 10 the B’s went 12-3-1 while garnering the most points in the NHL. They were scoring 3.56 goals per game while giving up only 1.88 which can also be attributed to the elite play of Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy.
After dismantling the Washington Capitals in just five games I had a lot of confidence in this group making a deep playoff run. Unfortunately, as we all know, that didn’t happen and I, like many others on Twitter, was quick to add my negative thoughts to the situation:
Looking ahead
The Bruins have a lot of decisions to make this offseason what with the pending free agencies of David Krejci, Rask and Hall. I have no doubt the Bruins core still has more to give but I can’t say how much and for how long.
Who knows, maybe Iron Man has to die in order for the group to reach their ultimate goal? I’ll let you guess who Iron Man is in this case.
