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Nathan Horton

Closing the book on the 2011-12 Boston Bruins

Last year, I drove from Boston to Rhode Island to watch both the Eastern Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Final Game 7s. I figured that if I had the chance to watch my favorite team growing up win a championship, I would want to witness it with my dad, the person who influenced me to fall in love with this crazy sport. Of course, the Bruins won both games and I watched it all in with my dad and younger brother right beside me. Somewhere amongst the celebrations, the hugs and the complete shock, I recall my dad telling me to take everything in that’s happening, because there will never be another run quite like the one we had just saw.

Think about it: a total of 25 games including three Game 7 victories, two series of coming back from a 0-2 deficit and a first round victory that was clinched without scoring any power play goals. The 2010-11 Boston Bruins weren’t just good, they were lucky and every single fan who watched any of those games could have told you that. It was magic.

On Wednesday night, Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals between the Bruins and the Washington Capitals, that same mentality of thinking that the team was special, perhaps invincible, last year in the postseason ended up becoming the worse possible thing for every Bruins’ fan’s psyche.

Are the Bruins underdogs in the Eastern Conference again?

On Sunday, the Boston Bruins clinched the Northeast Division title with a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers, the reigning number one seed in the Eastern Conference. With the win, they would lock themselves into the #2 seed with three games still remaining. Although the number may indicate that the Bruins are the second-best team in the Conference, their overall record says otherwise.

Tell me who you think the top two teams in the Eastern Conference are. Here, I’ll answer my own question; it’s the Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Think again about who the top three teams are and you’ll hear some arguments for both the Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers. However, many would believe that a trip to the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals runs through either the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh or Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Bruins might be the defending Stanley Cup champions, but they’re already the underdogs to repeat as Eastern Conference Champions, let along back-to-back Cup winners.

This is accurate. The Bruins are underdogs. Again.

They were last year, too.

With six games remaining, some important decisions looming for Claude Julien and the Boston Bruins

It might be safe to say that out of the six Eastern Conference teams still in the hunt for the playoffs, the Boston Bruins have the most difficult schedule of remaining regular season games. The Bruins will first host the 9th seed Washington Capitals, just two points out of playoff contention before heading to New York for back-to-back games against the all-but-eliminated Islanders and a Rangers team which they’re winless against this season. After that, the Bruins will come back home to play the streaking Pittsburgh Penguins, travel to Ottawa to face the team closest to catching them for the Northeast Division lead and close out the season back in Boston against the Buffalo Sabres who are 7-1-2 in their last ten games.

A bit daunting when you think about how inconsistent the Bruins have been at times during the season, eh?

The good news is that the Bruins could potentially clinch a playoff spot in their next game with a win or overtime loss against Washington on Thursday. The bad news is that the division, along with their potential first round opponent, is far from being decided. Pair that with some tough decisions that Boston coach Claude Julien will face regarding starting goaltending and resting key players and you have to think: this will not be an easy two weeks for the Boston Bruins.

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Defining the 2011-12 Boston Bruins season

It’s been difficult trying to define the 2011-12 Boston Bruins. Although most of the names are the same, this isn’t the same team from last year.

How could that be?

The Bruins have been a wildly inconsistent team. They started out struggling with a 3-7 record before absolutely dominating their opponents in the months of November and December, finishing out 2011 with a 22-3-1 record in the final two months. Then, mediocrity hit. The Bruins went 56 calendar days without back-to-back victories, playing .500 hockey, alternating wins with losses at a pace that could be described as just average. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t all that great either.

Now that the Bruins are once again on a winning streak, has anyone come any closer to finding out exactly who these Bruins really are?
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