To say that the 2020-21 Boston Bruins season had its up and downs would be an understatement.
Boston came out of the gate on fire starting the season 10-1-2, before cooling off and even falling into the danger zone when it came in regards to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Of course, the Bruins made the playoffs, beating the Washington Capitals in five games in a first-round series, before losing their second-round series to the New York Islanders in six games.
Despite it being an up and down season for the Black and Gold, here are three storylines that stick out as the 56-game season went along.
1. Bruins suffered many injuries on defense.
This ended up being one of the top stories on nearly a daily basis as to try to figure out who would play in the next game and who would miss it. Things got so bad for the Bruins that general manager Don Sweeney had to go to the waiver wire to get Jarred Tinordi from the Nashville Predators.
Brandon Carlo suffered the biggest injury when he took a nasty hit from the Capitals, Tom Wilson, on March 5, which required a hospital stay for the 6-foot-5 Boston blueliner. It caused him to miss almost a month and had Wilson suspended for seven games.
Matt Grzelcyk dealt with various injuries that caused him to miss 19 games, Charlie McAvoy missed five games in April with an injury and 24-year-old Jeremy Lauzon broke his hand in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, which caused him to have surgery and miss nearly a dozen games. Kevan Miller made the Opening Night roster, but only played in 28 games in the regular season with injuries also.
Connor Clifton, Tinordi, rookie Jack Ahcan, Urho Vaakanainen, and John Moore all did not make the roster out of training camp, but filled in at different times during the season as needed.
When Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara left in free agency last offseason, the Bruins were betting on their young defense, but as the season and playoffs went along, they realized (at least we hope) that some of the young guys were not ready and their depth was not what they thought it was.