WickedBruinsFan's Blog

The Boston Bruins’ 2008-2009 season came to an abrupt end on May 14th when they lost 3-2 in overtime to the sixth seed Carolina Hurricanes. The first seeded Bruins forced Game 7 after coming back from a 3-1 deficit for the second time in two years. And the ending of the playoffs couldn’t have been written any better if it was in a soap opera storyline. Scott “One Punch” Walker ended the hopes of advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. The dream season ended. The playoff run was over, all in a blink of an eye.

It has been a little over two weeks since the Black & Gold from Beantown took the ice and the sting of losing in the playoffs still hasn’t gone away, at least for me. I suppose a loss in the second round takes more time to get over than a loss in the first round. When the Bruins lost to the Buffalo Sabres in the second round back in 1999, I didn’t think they would get by Dominik Hasek to advance at that time. This time around, the bottom line is the Bruins should have never been down 3-1 in the series against the Hurricanes. It’s as simple as that.

That is what makes this series loss extra bitter compared to last season’s first round loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The Bruins weren’t the underdog this time around and they dug themselves a 3-1 hole. Nobody else put them in that hole and they only climbed so far out of it.

Injuries might have played a part, but hockey fans know that is no excuse in playoff hockey. Hockey players are on the ice until a limb falls off. They don’t miss playing time because of a hangnail. They are the toughest athletes in the four major sports and the kidney stones and torn rotator cuffs are evidence of how tough they are.

Who knows what could have happened had the Bruins advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. It would have been a showdown between the two Black & Gold teams of the league and I doubt we would have seen a sweep.

I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of the Eastern Conference Finals. I couldn’t bear to look at the Hurricanes and any time I saw the Pittsburgh Penguins, my only thought was how the Bruins should have been on the other side of the ice. I watched maybe one game of the Western Conference Finals. I’m not sure if I’ll go out of my way to watch the Stanley Cup Finals. But being a hockey fan, I’m sure I’ll catch it at some point.

It almost feels like when the Bruins lost Game 7, they took hockey with them, or at the very least all the hockey that I cared about.

How many days until the NHL draft?

How many days until development camp?

How many days until training camp?

Those are the only questions occupy my mind lately because it's a lot better than asking, “what if?”

I will try to post more consistently in the off-season. It took me four days to write this post, and it came a long way from how it started. I didn’t want to relive the series and become the next Debbie Downer. But I did want to get some thoughts down and gain closure to the season.

In the meantime, take some time to see the boys of Black & Gold in the photo gallery. The photos from the second round were uploaded on Friday. I will get around to captioning the albums eventually.