No team in NHL history had won three seventh games and no Bruins club had lost the first two games of a playoff series and survived. Until this one did. Nobody was predicting that publicly last autumn, when the players came to camp with memories still raw from last season’s conference semifinals, when Boston blew a 3-0 series advantage and a 3-0 lead in the final game at the Garden. “It’s unfortunate,’’ said coach Claude Julien. “We can’t erase it. It’s there. We have to live with it.’’
The front office had resolved to move forward with essentially the same cast, signing veterans Dennis Seidenberg, Mark Recchi, Shawn Thornton, Johnny Boychuk, and Daniel Paille to contract extensions. But management also traded defenseman Dennis Wideman to Florida for forwards Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell during the offseason and signed forward Tyler Seguin, the second overall pick in the draft.
Though the season started inauspiciously with a 5-2 loss to Phoenix in Prague, the 12-day European excursion was valuable for team bonding. “We’ll be through some ups and downs during the season,’’ Recchi figured, “and the time we’ve spent together will help us ride those out.’’
The ups and downs had the quality of an old Revere Beach roller coaster ride. After winning seven of their first nine outings, five of them on the road, the Bruins dropped four of five in December, and then lost another four of five. Even after general manager Peter Chiarelli gave Julien a vote of confidence, speculation persisted that the coach might be fired if his team didn’t produce.
“Whatever’s being said out there or whatever goes, that’s out of my control,’’ Julien said.
The maddening undulations continued into February and beyond. The Bruins would win 9 of 12, including 6-0 and 7-0 whitewashes of Ottawa and Carolina, then lose four of five. They pummeled the Canadiens, 8-6, before a delighted home crowd, then lost to the Red Wings, 6-1, two nights later. They won six in a row on the road for the first time since 1972, then lost six of seven, three in overtime.
