The Bruins set a high standard for themselves with a historic regular season, but Boston didn’t live up to that standard in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Black and Gold had a 3-1 series lead over the Panthers, but Florida came back and eliminated the Bruins in Game 7 at TD Garden on Sunday. It was a shocking loss that had Boston thinking about its future much sooner than it anticipated.
Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci told reporters Tuesday they first would spend time with family before coming to a final decision on their hockey futures, and while players like David Pastrnak and Linus Ullmark admitted they played hurt during the first round, they weren’t using that as excuses for their lack of execution.
Ullmark played six games in the series, and Jeremy Swayman got the start in the final game, but Boston’s goalies weren’t playing at the level that made them winners of the William M. Jennings Trophy and in Ullmark’s case, a Vezina Trophy favorite. The eighth-year goalie played in the second postseason of his career, and he knew how much of a missed opportunity the Bruins’ playoff elimination was.
“This is a special group,” Ullmark told reporters at Warrior Ice Arena on Tuesday, per a team-provided transcript. “It’s always going to be one of those things where you care so deeply for each other, and you just want the best for each other, and you want to be there to support and be able to help and pull the ropes the right way. Looking at it now, this is going to be one of those things that’s going to haunt me. It is. God’s honest truth. Being in a position that me and Sway are in as goalies when we are not good enough, it shows. It’s very easy to see that. It’s pretty evident. That’s also the beauty of it. When you’re on your A-game, that also shows.”
On his desire to run it back, the 29-year-old added: “For sure. We’re going to run it back hard next time. That’s all I can think about. The motivation and the inspiration that you get from these ones is huge. All I can think about right now is I want to get back into the gym, get back on the ice, and just run it right back and show them that that was a fluke and that we’re better than this.”
The Bruins now prepare for a longer offseason than they hoped for, and the front office has to make multiple decisions to decide what the 2023-24 team will look like.
