By Jordan Long
The Boston Bruins’ season came to a close in game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay scored 3 unanswered goals after Boston took a 1-0 lead. The Bruins season was decent, but they fell short of the ultimate goal, bringing a Stanley Cup back to the city of Boston. According to Bostonherald.com, Boston Burins’ center Patrice Bergeron said, “It’s very disappointing with the team that we have and the way we played all year. Obviously we believed we had a great team and disappointed we couldn’t do a lot more. We believed we had a better team.”
Boston knew going into the series with Tampa Bay they would have to play at their very best. Tampa Bay was the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Game 1 Boston won 6-2 but 4 straight losses ended their season.
The Boston power play was not the reason they lost this series. They were able to set it up and score. Boston was 5 for 12 on the power play or scoring on 41.7% of their chances. Looking at that, Boston should have won this series.
The power play kill wasn’t respectable. Boston allowed Tampa Bay to score a power play goal every game. The Bruins tried to shoot the puck to the other end of the ice but Tampa Bay blocked those opportunities for scoring chances. Tampa Bay was 5 of 19 or scoring on 26% of the time.
This series as a whole, Boston wasn’t able to do much at full strength. They had their chances but they only scored 7 goals on full strength. puzzling since this team is full of talent and can outskate most defensemen for scoring chances. They have forwards Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Rick Nash, and David Pasternak who can all light the lamp.
Next year, the Bruins will have the same team. There are only 2 unrestricted free agents in forward Rick Nash and goaltender Anton Khudobin. This is a Stanley Cup type of roster even if Nash and Khudobin sign elsewhere. Next season it should be Stanley Cup Final or bust for the Bruins. They have all summer to think about this series loss. Hopefully this will motivate them.
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