Regardless of who you want to attribute it to, the Boston Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup campaign stood out for a lot different reasons. After years of playoff futility, the Boston Bruins proved to be resilient as they survived game seven after game seven en route to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 39 years.
While there has not been a Stanley Cup since then, the Bruins have maintained a level of consistency and success matched only by few. A new found perception of this team as being one built to have continued success and being a consistent contender for Stanley Cups every year had been achieved. While some felt they saw the Boston Bruins current predicament inevitable, it is unbelievable how everything has changed since losing game seven to Montreal only seven months ago.
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There’s no getting around it; the Boston Bruins have went from being viewed as Stanley Cup contenders to nothing more than a pack of wounded animals. While a lot of these wounds are self inflicted, there is no feeling sorry for the Boston Bruins. Having established a perception outside of their native Boston as being bullies and relying on an approach to the game that sometimes is not the most entertaining, every one is licking their chops at a team referred to as the “Beasts of the East” in recent years.
The lowest moment of the season occurred on Saturday night in what was another listless performance in Columbus; summarized by continued concerns of lack of effort and players not living up to what has been expected of them. Peter Chiarelli proceeded to place Matt Fraser on waivers and in some people’s mind it may have been an attempt to send a message to a team that ended up being good enough without the services of Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic to dominate one of the best teams in the East on Monday night.
“That was a great example of how we have to play, pretty much for the rest of the season, it’s pretty simple,”~Zdeno Chara
Even without their most recognized players, the team went out and generated consistent scoring chances while doing what a functioning Boston Bruins team does best, and that’s neutralizing the strengths of their opposition and using it to their advantage. Now, the Boston Bruins could easily could come out tonight in another huge divisional tilt against Toronto and allow the obstacles from both within and outside of this team to be their downfall once again or they rely on what helped them be so successful only a few short years ago and that’s desperation.
Maybe a friendly reminder of the consequences for mediocre effort for a team that even though was put in a vulnerable position to start the season thanks to management; still possesses the sheer talent to be a playoff team and at least contend for a shot at the Stanley Cup. For this Boston Bruins team in 2014-2015, however, they have transformed into a team of underdogs who has to truly adopt the one game at a time philosophy moving forward because the window is rapidly closing.