Smiling Joe Hesketh said:
I'll say it again: solid teams don't play this badly in the playoffs. Outscored 7-1 in the last two games. That's Canucks- level ineptitude.
Best regular season record means nothing. They got exposed in this series, by a team that they'll becseeing too much of due to the new playoff format. The 2008-09 and 2009-10 regular seasons were good too, but no one cares because of the way those playoff seasons ended. So this regular season is completely irrelevant now.
If they want to sniff postseason success going forward, they need to be retooled. Too old, too slow, no scoring...it wasn't pretty. They need significant changes.
I think it's best to save the "what should the Bruins do to fix their problems" for a non-game thread, and really, I'm not trying to be argumentative with you. We're all pissed off and disappointed. I'm *really* trying to gain some perspective here after what was, frankly, a crushing defeat.
In 2009-10, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. In 2012-13, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. They had one of the best overall records in hockey over that four year span. (also, in 2008-09, they went to the conference Finals and lost). CLEARLY they were a solid team, and still are. There is no rational argument that could be made that suggests that the Blackhawks, over that time period, were NOT a really, really good hockey team.
And yet in-between those two championships, they were ousted in the first round of the playoffs both times.
Heck, in 2011-12, they got beat in six games, losing game six at home to Phoenix 4-0.
The point is this: even really, really good teams can play lousy over short stretches, including the playoffs. The best team in the league over the last 5 years (Chicago) has been eliminated in the first round twice. Boston played very poorly in this series, nobody can argue otherwise. But they *did* hit 13 frigging posts, had one goal head towards an open net and hit their own guy's skate (Marchand), had another puck going into the net but a Canadien player batted it out of the goal with his hand. Meanwhile, Montreal last night got a goal off Chara's skate.
The Bruins were bad - came out with no energy in games 6-7, constantly fell behind, fell asleep on plays like Subban's goal coming out of the penalty box, etc. However, they were also *incredibly* unlucky. The goals (or non-goals) I just mentioned, plus one in game 6 where Rask was heading off the ice, turned to get back into the play when Montreal got the puck, but then just slipped and fell. I mean, you've got to be kidding me with that kind of thing.
So yes, bad performance by a really good hockey team. I'll save the "what should they do to fix things" discussion for the Bruins forum.