Black and Golden opportunity was lost

May 16, 2009|On hockey, Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff

Scott Walker's shot, the one that so abruptly and emphatically ended the Bruins' season, went high into the net behind Tim Thomas at 11:22 Thursday night, and it took all of about 90 seconds for the vast majority of the sellout crowd to bolt the building on the west side of Causeway Street. It had to be our city's record for arena evacuation, stuff that could encourage Homeland Security to partner with NESN to produce a tape on effective crowd management.

Talk about the granddaddy of buzzkills. In that one smack of Ray Whitney's looping and tumbling rebound, the Bruins went from would-be Stanley Cup semifinalists to crushed second-round tomato cans. The near-silence in the TD Quickdrain Garden added an eerie, almost haunting backdrop to the harsh reality that 2008-09 would be yet another season to end Cup-empty in the Hub of Hockey.

And though it's hard enough for an organization to pack bags after an unfulfilled season, it was all the more difficult for the Bruins and their fans, given that they made it to Round 2 this year and then, for a variety of reasons, exited the action with the added disappointment that they made the very least of a very good opportunity.

"Absolutely," agreed a blunt Peter Chiarelli, the Bruins' general manager, chatting on the phone yesterday afternoon from his home in the 'burbs. "Obviously, you always look for a silver lining - you've gained experience and you've learned lessons. But at the same time, in this business you know that opportunity doesn't come around too often. I'm confident that we have a good foundation here, and we'll succeed in the future, but at the same time it's a business and you want to seize all the opportunities possible - and I don't think we did that."

In the next few days, Chiarelli and his front-office cognoscenti, including coach Claude Julien, will code and finalize the complete list of their May 2009 failures, while making note, along with the rest of the hockey world, that the Hurricanes weren't all that bad. However, for a team that finished first in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, its success rooted in the league's best defense and a prosperous offense (No. 2 to Detroit), the second-round dismissal was both rude and jarring for a franchise that began to believe it could win its first Cup since 1972.

Were the Bruins truly Cup capable? Obviously not. No matter how spunky, speedy, and surprising ly savvy th e Canes were, the Bruins should have beaten them. The fact that they lost is proof enough they lacked the kind of roster depth, fortitude, and talent it takes to succeed over four grueling rounds, by far the most demanding postseason test in professional sports.