Boston Bruins Face Elimination from the Playoffs
The Boston Bruins were just three games away from making their eighth straight playoff appearance. Then the Bruins just didn’t play to their abilities. Call it bad luck, call it poor timing, call it bad management decisions, or poor coaching, or the players just not wanting to win it.
With tonight’s 4-2 loss, the Boston Bruins fell out of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference with just one game left to play in the regular season.
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Now, there is still a chance that the Boston Bruins can make the post-season. But it stands at just 15.3%, nearly seventy points lower than where it was two games ago. The Bruins have to win on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Even if the B’s take out the Lightning, they’re still going to need some help to get into the playoffs. They’ll need the Pittsburgh Penguins to drop their final game of the season (which is possible the way they’ve been playing), and the Ottawa Senators will also have to drop their final game (That’s more unlikely with how hot the Sens have been in the final stretch).
If all three things happen, the Bruins end up with the eighth playoff spot. That’s two too many if’s for the Bruins to hope for.
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This has been a seriously up and down time for the Bruins. The Bruins found themselves out of playoff contention just a month ago, and they came back with some solid performances. Now, all that hard work has been cancelled out by two bad games, and the work of two goaltenders.
If the Bruins miss the playoffs, they’ll have to address an issue that hasn’t been this bad in the past. The Bruins have seemed to have forgotten what it’s like to crash the net. They have to play on the edge of goaltender interference to get those pucks. The Bruins just haven’t done that this season.
They’ll also need to figure out what their malfunction is when it comes to Braden Holtby. The Washington Capitals goaltender blanked the B’s in all three games this year, and the ramifications of those losses are staring the team in the face tonight.
Sure, this was an injury filled season for the Bruins. They were without the services of Zdeno Chara and David Krejci for considerable periods of time.
The Bruins once prided themselves on having nine NHL ready defensemen. That once great reservoir of Bruins blueliners dried up quickly. Season ending injuries, and a trade that still has many Black and Gold fans scratching their heads over.
Well, the Bruins can still pull it out. They can still make the playoffs. It’s just no longer in their control anymore.