from Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald,
That missing element? Hunger. It was gone when the Bruins went up to Montreal for Game 6 in that series and seemed quite content from the outset to forget about the business at hand and aim to win Game 7 at home. We all know how that worked out.
Any sense of urgency was missing at key points of last season’s non-playoff campaign. Emblematic was their second-to-last game of the season at Florida when all they had to do was win a period to stay alive in the playoff race, against a Panthers team that had already been eliminated from playoff contention. And we all know how that went down.
That’s not to say everyone quit. Zdeno Chara played the last week on a broken fibula. Brad Marchand battled to the end. Bergeron remained Bergeron.
But that intangible team quality, that desperate drive that was so evident in their two runs to the finals was not there. Sure, the team battled significant injuries all year. But with a little more will, they could have got themselves into the playoffs in that final week.
Why that grit disappeared is anyone’s guess, but there was a slow elimination of the leadership group ever since they lifted the Cup in 2011.
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