The Boston Bruins, led by general manager Don Sweeney, have turned their attention to what could be an extremely interesting offseason, even though they still acknowledge that they are “bitterly disappointed” that they were not able to continue their Stanley Cup Playoffs run past Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Second Round, which they lost Friday to the Florida Panthers. The Bruins have $20 million in salary cap space for the upcoming season. Some of that space will need to go toward securing a long-term contract for restricted free agent goalie Jeremy Swayman, which Sweeney called a priority. The remaining portion will go toward trying to bolster a team that ultimately lacked sufficient offense to make it to the Eastern Conference Final.
“We’re bitterly disappointed that we did not push this, to the very least, to a Game 7, to extend that series, to continue to challenge for what our ultimate goal is, and it’s to win at the most important time of the year,” Sweeney said. “We put together a team that was very, very competitive in the regular season. We fell short in the playoffs in some areas that certainly this summer we need to continue to address.” Sweeney said the team will be “aggressive” in trying to get better. “We are in a situation where we can look to add to our core group of guys, and that includes also some of the younger guys, as [Bruins president Cam Neely] mentioned,” Sweeney said. “But we are going to be aggressive, to be able to complement what we currently have in some areas.”
The Bruins managed to score no more than two goals in any of the previous five games, with the exception of their five goals in Game 1 against the Panthers. As a result, they ended up with just eight goals overall in Game 6 of the best-of-7 series. “We were unable to finish in quality chances, and in some cases, guys that usually do finish in quality situations of that nature,” Sweeney said, “and it reared its head at the most inopportune time.” Despite knowing Boston wouldn’t be very good offensively—especially after losing centers David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron in the summer—Sweeney had assumed Boston would score enough goals this year.
But the Bruins went “dormant,” as he put it, during the series against the Panthers, especially on the power play, which converted once in 16 opportunities. That’s something that will be a priority in the offseason.
“This game is fast,” Neely said. “We’re not as fast as we’d like to be. Some of that had to do with last offseason, what we were really kind of hamstrung in trying to accomplish. I think Don and our pro staff did a really good job last season and built a team that competed the way that they did.
“But there’s areas where we still need to improve. And we’re going to address that this offseason, for sure. We need to get a little faster and I’d like to see a little more 50-50 puck battle wins. That’s an area where you have to want the puck more than the other team.”
Sweeney acknowledged it’s paramount, at this time of year, to find a way. Boston couldn’t.
