It was a season of ups, it was a season of downs, it was a season of elation, it was a season of sadness, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I made that up and, yes, you can use it. The 2007-2008 Boston Bruins season has drawn to a close and since they didn’t win the Stanley Cup that can mean only one thing: they lost. However, this season was not a failure in the struggle to build a perennial cup contender. The Bruins have made great strides and have left their fans hungry for more and hopeful for the future.
To anyone who isn’t a Bruin fan, you may want to skim through this. My usual humour is present in much of the blog but a lot of it is meant in the spirit of a trip down memory lane for Bruin fans to recall just how much went on during this past season.
If this season had to be summed up for a film-maker, it would have to look something like this:
A professional hockey team who everyone has pegged as a failure before the season has even started manages to overcome adversity through character, chemistry and hard-work and, while they do not win in the end, they learn some valuable lessons about winning along the way. Also, they manage to travel back in time in order to round up several historical figures in a time-travelling phone booth to present them as their history project which allows them to stay together and form the band “Wild Stallions” which changes the world for the better.
Let’s take a moment to consider where the Boston Bruins were coming from at the start of last season. What were the complaints people had about the 2006-2007 club?
- It was too easy to play against. Not physical enough.
- The players looked as if they had given up.
- The coach couldn’t motivate his men and the team looked very disorganized and passive.
- The defence was the second most porous in the NHL.
- The team didn’t have enough depth or goaltending as Thomas fizzled.
- The Bruins weren’t scoring and on many nights looked like they had no drive in the offensive zone.
That’s some pretty damning stuff. The worst thing is all of it was true. It was enough to make one want to call a crisis hotline and chat away with the telephone operator for hours on end about how the team would be better if only they had made a few different decisions in the past. By the way, big shout-out to Claire, the nice lady at the crisis centre who never hung up on me.
The Bruins’ lazy play and a controversial choice of moustache made it come as a surprise to no one when Dave Lewis was let go. It was clear that GM Peter Chiarelli was willing to own up to his mistake in hiring Lewis and to rectify the situation even if his credibility took a hit for it. That meant that Bruin fans would be treated to several days of coaching limbo and the buzz started spreading like wildfire about who the next Bruin bench-boss would be. The two leading candidates seemed to be Mike Milbury and Claude Julien, the latter of which was let go by the madman in New Jersey and the former of which is, himself, a madman. Many people were annoyed when it turned out the defensive minded Claude Julien would be chosen. I doubt those people still hold that opinion and if they do, they’re jerks. All of them.
Claude Julien was the biggest key to turning this club around. His patented (patent pending) box plus one system taught Bruin players about structure, defence and discipline and it laid the foundation this club needed early on in the season. Julien’s willingness to rely on youngsters would also be an asset as well as that snazzy black and gold tie he has which, one has to admit, looks pretty bitchin’ behind the Bruin bench.
Other changes last summer were not as drastic as Peter Chiarelli had already built his roster in the previous season. The most dramatic change would be the trade which brought Manny Fernandez to the Bruins in exchange for Peter Kalus. Other than that, many players were simply re-signed or, if they were in the prospect pool, given contracts. The exceptions being Shawn Thornton, who would help in the grit department and Peter Schaefer (who was traded to the Bruins for Shean Donovan) who would help in the lame chin hair department. Also Petr Tenkrat and Stan Chistov would decide to play in Europe and Russia respectively. A few other minor tweaks would come during training camp as Glen Metropolit was signed as a free agent after a strong showing as an invitee and Petteri Nokelainen was acquired in exchange for Ben Walter, who I was glad to see go due to my mistrust of anyone with two first names.
But with so few changes and so little promise shown in the year before, it’s no wonder that no one had the Bruins pegged to participate in this year’s playoffs. Well, no one other than Tim Thomas, myself and a few other crazies, as far as I can tell. The Hockey News had the Bruins sitting dead last in the East. McKeen’s Yearbook had the Bruins 13th in the East. The Score projected the Bruins at 12th in the East. I projected the Bruins to score the seventh or eighth spot in the East (not bragging, just saying, you know). I await my medal for modesty.
Training camp opened up and everyone was hopeful that some young guns would emerge. Most of the roster spots seemed taken already but there were a few guys everyone had their eyes on to see if they could squeak onto the big club. David Krejci was the front runner followed by Mark Stuart and Milan Lucic. Matt Lashoff was also in the mix. Interestingly enough, Claude Julien decided to keep Krejci, Stuart and Lucic on the roster and I think that endeared him to the fan-base almost immediately. It would’ve been tough to imagine those guys breaking camp under Dave Lewis, though it would’ve been easier to imagine a dangerous line of Mark Mowers, Jeremy Reich and Jeff Hoggan getting 20 minutes of ice time a night under Lewis.
Any optimism that was being built up was quickly being eroded however as the Bruins would struggle in the preseason. After opening up the preseason with a win, which contained a fight by Big Z (probably just to show he was allowed to fight this year) the Bruins dropped their remaining games and finished with a 1-4-1 record. The games included an embarrassing loss to the Habs in which Plekanec scored a natural hat-trick. This would be an indicator of things to come. The preseason losses prompted me to write a short piece about how preseason records are poor indicators of how a team will finish in the actual season. Fortunately, that turned out to be the case for the Bruins.
Something else interesting happened during the preseason and that’s the appointment of Cam Neely to a Vice-Presidential position within the club. Some people saw this as a cheap tactic to convince fans that the club was really going to get tougher and others saw it as an honest attempt by Neely to learn about the hockey operations side of the business. I believed that Neely would not allow himself to be used as a cheap marketing tool and that he genuinely wanted to help with the running of the club. I think few people would see his presence as a ploy now and I think a lot of people probably think he had a lot to do with the attitude this team produced this year. That’ll teach people for being so cynical. Or will it? Ok, it probably won’t.
So it was under these circumstances that the Bruins began their usual opening season massive road trip (they say a computer does the NHL schedule these days but I think whoever wrote the programming hates the Bruins) and they opened their season in Dallas. The first game was a loss, the second game was a win, the third game was boring as hell and the fourth game went wee, wee, wee all the way home. Once the Western road trip was finished, it was apparent that this year’s Bruins were tougher than last year’s Bruins and they were more motivated too. Also, this road trip contained Milan Lucic’s first NHL goal and his first Gordie Howe hat-trick.
The home opener at the Garden would go well also with a one-sided victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lucic would fight Tarnasky in this game and he quickly became a fan favourite to the Boston faithful by beating Tarnasky into dust. Literally, the man turned into dust. It got better. Yup, everything seemed to be going well. A little too well.
That’s when the Bruins had their first run in with what I termed a small-market, Esperanto speaking club named the Montreal Canadiens. Of course the Bruins would be pounded by the Habs in this game (and seven more games throughout the regular season) and this caused me to print the following blog:
Despite dominating every aspect of tonight’s hockey game against the Montreal Canadiens, besides skating, hitting, scoring chances, special teams, goaltending, goals for, goals against, face-offs, amount of Gatorade drunk, blinking and breathing, the Boston Bruins were unable to rally from a deficit caused by an NHL record 189 consecutive unlucky bounces.
While some of the bounces were because of poor ice conditions, the vast majority could be blamed squarely on Mark Streit and team mascot “Youpi” who have been attending twice weekly voodoo classes. Before the game, Youpi and Streit were spotted furtively handing out lucky rabbit feet to all Habs players and coaches. They were also seen placing cement around the hands of miniature doll versions of Patrice Bergeron, Marc Savard, and Glen Murray.
I caught up with Glen Murray after the game: “Well, before the game began, Mike Komisarek came up to me and said ‘the Bruins will lose, stamped it, no erasies’, so I responded ‘no the Habs will lose, double stamped it, black magic’ but he got me when he came out with ‘the Habs will win, triple stamped it, white magic, lock the golden key.’ I told him you can’t double stamp then triple stamp but he just raised his hand to my face and skated away. So yeah, that’s probably when the momentum first shifted their way.”
Coach Julien had a slightly different take on the matter: “You can’t expect us to win when Jupiter is retrograde. I mean we’re the best but, come on…retrograde…calis.” Immediately after saying this, Julien promised an elixir that would negate the effects which held his team in check.
Manny Fernandez was back to his usual self. By that I mean he is again dealing with his recurring narcolepsy which renders him unconscious for several minutes at a time. During times of inactivity, face-offs for example, his narcoleptic state can go unnoticed, much to the shagrin of Bob Essensa, the Bruins goaltending coach. “I think you’ll find that when the goalie is conscious and his nervous system is working at the speed of at least a normal human being, his save percentage usually goes up. I haven’t given up hope on Manny and, if need be, I am prepared to attach a horn to his helmet that would go off every time he begins nodding in drowsiness.”
One odd side-effect of the curse used by the evil, malicious, and sneaky Habs was a reversal of luck of Dennis Wideman. While everyone else was robbed of their powers, Dennis Wideman seemed to actually gain powers. I call this the Superman II effect in honour of the tactic used by the man of steel to relieve the evil General Zod of his powers in the final moments of that film. But I digress; Dennis Wideman seemed to be the only bizarro player on the Bruins.
The next victims of the Big Bad Bruins will be the Chicago Blackhawks, who I firmly believe the Bruins will trounce barring bad ice, voodoo, unfavourable retrogrades, narcolepsy, the Superman II effect, and the presence of an annoying ex-baseball mascot named Youpi. I also believe the elixir will be ready by this Thursday. Beware, Hawks fans, for the wrath of the black and gold machine will be upon you next.
That pretty much sums up the attitude and tone that was required to survive the constant humiliation of being defeated by the Habs all season long. But that was just the start of the adversity for the Bruins. The most infamous moment of the 2007-2008 Boston Bruins season had to be Randy Jones’ hit from behind on Patrice Bergeron which, according to doctors, could’ve broken Bergeron’s neck and left him with a serious concussion and a broken nose and – less importantly – kept my inbox filled with hate-mail for a good solid month.
This would only be the beginning of the injury woes for the Bruins who, at various times in the season, were down the following players:
- Patrice Bergeron would play only ten games.
- Glen Murray would miss 19 games with groin problems.
- Zdeno Chara would miss five games near the last push for the playoffs.
- Aaron Ward would miss 17 games with various problems.
- Andrew Ference would miss 23 games due to a knee sprain and other problems.
- Andrew Alberts would play in only 35 games thanks to a dirty hit from Hartnell.
- Chuck Kobasew would miss nine games due to a broken leg.
- Manny Fernandez would only play four games due to knee surgery.
- Peter Schaefer dealt with various problems including a reaction to penicillin.
- Shawn Thorton would miss over a month with a broken foot.
And much, much more…
This gave several players chances to step up. It was now up to the likes of Krejci, Wideman, Stuart, Sobotka, Nokelainen, Kessel and others to fill the holes in the roster left by their injured peers. And fill in they would as the Bruins were able to fight through all of that adversity and clinch the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a win against Ottawa in their 81st game.
The Bruins would draw the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. The Canadiens, having beat the Bruins in all eight meetings in the regular season, would be heavily favoured against the underdog Bruins. But the Bruins managed to take the series to seven games thanks to teamwork and heart. The game seven loss in Montreal would end the season for the Bruins but the Bruins were able to clean out their lockers with their heads held high.
A summary of some memorable storylines from this past season:
1. The emergence of Milan Lucic as a fan favourite. Milan broke his nose twice this season, played with reckless abandon (one of those broken noses he did to himself by throwing himself into the boards just to prove how tough he is). He switched to number 17 and never looked back by endearing himself to Bruin fans. He also had a great playoff series and is one bad man.
2. The improvement of Dennis Wideman. Wideman started the year scratched by Claude Julien and ended the year as one half of the Bruins’ top d-pair. He had a good year offensively but he also proved he can handle lots of ice-time and was instrumental in the Bruins surviving injuries to Aaron Ward. He still has a lot of problems in the defensive zone and something tells me he falls down a lot in day to day life but he definitely broke out this year.
3. Tuukka Rask coming into the NHL and sticking it to the team that traded him (the Leafs) by defeating them 4-2.
4. The re-emergence of Zdeno Chara as one of the best defensemen in the NHL and a legitimate presence along both blue-lines. His performance would garner him a nomination for the Norris trophy (and, who knows, maybe he’ll win it).
5. Manny Fernandez’s knee gave out on him and caused him to miss an entire season. This, of course, was not surprising since Manny has been prone to knee trouble over the past few years.
6. Glen Murray fails to produce and spends the year snake-bitten. 2007-2008 is probably the year that people will associate with the final downturn in Murray’s play. It’s sad to say but he has certainly lost a step and will have much to prove next year.
7. The Bruins stand pat at the trade deadline and Chiarelli tells the club he has confidence in them. The fact that Chiarelli was unwilling to trade away assets in a year that the Bruins were unlikely to go on a cup run inspires faith in him from the fans.
8. Zdeno Chara and George Laraque attempt to fight with hilarious consequences. The two end up in the penalty box for delay of game instead of fighting.
9. Tim Thomas’ goaltending carries the low scoring Bruins in several games this year. One highlight for Thomas includes an incredible game against the Nashville Predators which caused opposing players to joke that Thomas had a Superman crest on his chest.
10. The appearance of Marc Savard, Tim Thomas and Zdeno Chara in the All-Star game gave the Eastern All-Stars a very Bruin look. Marc Savard, a former Thrasher, ended up scoring the game winner in Atlanta.
11. Carl Soderberg doesn’t show up for training camp after Hannu Toivenen is traded for him.
12. Phil Kessel is benched for three playoff games only to return to the series and catch fire. Did the benching light a fire under Kessel or would he have played that way anyways? We may never know.
13. Marc Savard and Tim Thomas play in their first playoff games. What satisfaction both of those guys must’ve felt.
14. The inspired play of Peter Schaefer in the playoffs and his apology to his teammates for not being there for them during stretches of the season.
15. The Bruins struggle when playing red teams, namely the Devils, Habs, Panthers and Hurricanes. They would overcome this somewhat near the end of the season but it was getting creepy for a long time.
Conclusion:
Despite having lost in the first round of the playoffs yet again, the Bruins have many things going for them. Their young core of Bergeron, Kessel, Kobasew, Lucic, Krejci, Sobotka, Nokelainen, Stuart, Wideman and others figures to only get better as time goes on. Tuukka Rask is winning AHL playoff games for the powerhouse P-Bruins (who are favourites to win the Calder cup). Several junior prospects and European prospects of high calibre are also waiting in the wings to move in and add to this club.
Take a look at the list of complaints located at the start of this blog that Bruin fans had about the Bruins two seasons ago. How many of those complaints can Bruin fans legitimately make now? The team is tough, young, full of heart, gritty, organized, defensive and it has direction. Is it any wonder that Bruin fans are now coming out of the woodwork (though it’s possible last Monday’s loss put some of them back into the woodwork) including Bill Simmons? Get the Bruin bandwagon cleaned out because as early as next year, it’ll be needed.
With Claude Julien, Cam Neely and Peter Chiarelli at the helm, the club seems to be in good hands. Already Peter Chiarelli is talking about adding more scoring and size up front. Without going into too many options available to Chiarelli or into the contract status of several players (that’s a whole other blog, coming soon), it’s safe to say that a pool of talent has amassed that should guarantee Bruin competitiveness for years to come.
Yes, the future is looking up for the Bruins in literally every possible way. Management, talent, prospects, character, this team has quality in all of those categories. Not only that but thanks largely in part to the O’Reilly-like Lucic, the club has regained its identity as a blue-collared bunch of characters. For the first time in over a decade, I can honestly say I am proud of the effort my favourite hockey team showed this year and I would like to thank them for their blood, sweat and man-tears.
I would also like to thank everyone who read my stuff throughout the season. I’ll still be blogging throughout the summer though probably not with the same frequency. But I do offer sincere thanks to everyone who put up with me and my addiction to bad science fiction references.
-Gerz
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