Is falling short of a postseason passport for
the third year in a row, i.e. failing to raise a bar that had nowhere to go but
up, really more merciful than failing to win a single series for the first time
in four years?
The Providence Bruins and their parent club
from Boston saw their respective seasons end a mere 10 days apart. For the
first time since 2006, right before Peter
Chiarelli became the organization’s new general manager, neither the AHL
nor NHL Bruins will play in May.
Safe to say this was, collectively speaking,
the Black and Gold family’s most frustrating finish in recent memory. But who
brooked the brunt of the bitter taste?
On the one hand, you had Boston coming into
the 2011-12 campaign in the new role of defending champions and certifiable
favorites to go deep again. The outlook subsequently fluctuated in accordance
with a hangover-laden October, otherworldly November and December, iffy January
and February and then a hasty homestretch recovery.
But by April 7, they were repeat Northeast
Division champions and raring to defend their crown against a mystery squad
from Washington that had similarly traveled to every corner of the high-low
spectrum this season.
The Capitals fan base is really in the same
position that its New England counterpart was in at this time a year ago. It is
starved for a solution to incessant spring shortcomings, especially in Game 7s.
The men in uniform and head coach Dale Hunter, a midseason replacement
for Bruce Boudreau, have proven
themselves equally bent on clearing that hurdle. But on their end, Claude Julien’s pupils did not do
nearly enough to live up to their label and laurels.
As a consequence, a mutually tight-fisted,
best-of-seven arm-wrestling bout culminated Wednesday night with Washington
taking a 2-1 overtime decision in Game 7 at TD Garden. It marks the earliest
end to a Bruins season since Julien’s first year as head coach in 2007-08.
One hour-long Amtrak ride away in Rhode
Island, a former Capitals skipper in Bruce
Cassidy finished his first year as P-Bruins head coach the same basic way
he finished his second and third campaigns as Rob Murray’s assistant. His team treated its rooters to victory in
the final home game while knowing that it would, indeed, be the last AHL game
at the Dunkin Donuts Center until next October.
But that scenario was hardly what many
pundits, and certainly any loyal fans, were expecting this past October. With a
foundation built around March 2011 goaltending acquisition Anton Khudobin, the import of such AHL veterans as Josh Hennessy and Jamie Tardif and a new voice behind the bench, the P-Bruins
appeared primed for a return to the Calder Cup bracket.
Not to be. Unlike the parent club, the Baby
Bs saw their 2011-12 season unfold much like 2010-11, with an unspectacular
autumn giving way to a vain cramming session in the second half.
It didn’t help that they were plagued by
injuries, costing significant man games to the likes of Tardif, Maxime Sauve, captain Trent Whitfield (a la last year), Nathan McIver, Matt Bartkowski and Andrew
Bodnarchuk, just to name a few.
The missed time by the later three was
especially detrimental early on as Cassidy was forced to resort to a blue line
comprised almost entirely of professional rookies and sophomores. Without the
NHL-seasoned McIver and Bodnarchuk, who is now nine career games shy of the franchise
record, the P-Bruins set a tone by losing their first three games, all on home
ice, by a cumulative score of 15-3.
From there, Providence never skated more than
two games above .500 and would finish in the middle of the Eastern Conference’s
non-playoff picture.
Boston had its own health problems when the time
came for its second season. Clutch scorer and power forward Nathan Horton was officially declared
done till next year shortly before the Washington series, having been out of commission
since a Jan. 22 concussion.
Backup goaltender Tuukka Rask saw his last lick of game action on March 3, when he
went down with a lower-body injury. That, combined with Khudobin’s own ailment,
forced the Bruins to acquire Marty Turco
for the mere sake of giving Tim Thomas the breathers he needed in advance of
the playoffs.
Thomas looked relatively unaffected by his
heavier-than-desired workload once he engaged Washington’s Braden Holtby in a seven-part arm-wrestling match. But for multiple
reasons, especially an underachieving power play and quiet top-six scorers, the
Bruins strike force could not mollify the Capitals’ rookie.
Game 7 was even tougher without faceoff
connoisseur Patrice Bergeron’s
specialty service. The alternate captain and longest-tenured Bruins skater was
openly playing through an injury that forced him to play wing rather than
center and very likely prevented him from burying a would-be winner in
overtime.
Still, the rest of the team could have done
more to overcome that hindrance or even prevent it from happening (Bergeron
appeared to sustain his pain during Game 5).
Could Cassidy’s pupils have done more to
surmount the injury-induced adversity they endured over the last six-and-a-half
months? Even more so than Boston could have defied its problems?
That question is likely the key to answering
the title question as to which Bruins team left more on the table in 2011-12.
