Not since before the turn of the decade have the Boston Bruins had a year as tumultuous as 2014. They went from reigning finalists and regular-season “champions” in April to a team confronting cap constraints, injuries and an identity crises.
Fourth-line reformation, with special emphasis on injecting speed, was a primary discussion topic in the wake of Boston’s Game 7, second-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The club’s subsequent parting with free agent Shawn Thornton after a seven-year alliance was one ice-shaking step toward answering those calls.
Other questions and concerns, however, surfaced from the failed follow-up to a solid 2013-14 regular season. An unprecedented stumble by this core’s standards to start the current season has, at best, preserved those issues and, at worst, generated new ones.
While the calendar year was not exclusively acrid for the Bruins, all of 2014’s top developments leave them with no shortage of critical thinking tasks for 2015. Their status as an NHL heavyweight has all but gone on an indefinite sabbatical—a hiatus that could be tricky to terminate.
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Al Daniel
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December 29th, 2014 by Al Daniel Leave a reply »
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