At the Bruins’ recent ‘end of season media availability,’ it was an emotional moment for many of the players, evident from the comments made by both the veterans and the younger players. Beginning with the captain, Brad Marchand who held nothing back in his remarks on the season’s end. “Obviously, it’s disappointing when you don’t achieve your goal, regardless of where the expectations were to start the season, not internally. I think internally, we all expected to have a good year. But from the outside noise and kind of where everyone projected our team to be, you know, we grew a ton. There were a lot of things we had to overcome this year. A lot of changes. We had a ton of new guys, a lot of young guys come in, and we lost some huge pieces with [Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci]. Some of the older guys, the way we came together, and what we built, the team, and coaching staff did an incredible job at putting a game plan in place that was going to allow us to have success, and we grew so much as a group, but at the end of the
year, we were doing so well, and we thought that we could get it done and that’s the tough thing about playoffs is that you know, you’re one play away from changing the series and changing the outcome. There’s a lot of things you can look at in this series that if we would’ve capitalized on an opportunity or two, it could have been a much different series and it’s tough to see it end the way it did when you look at that, but definitely a lot that we can take away and be happy about and look forward to improve upon next year. I think with the base what we have and now that new outlook of our group and the new core, you can look at next year and be excited and look to improve upon that. So yeah, I don’t want to sit here and say it was a huge success this year because at the end of the day, we play for a cup, and that’s what you build for the entire season is an opportunity to be in the playoffs and to ultimately win. So we accomplished a goal by getting in the playoffs, but you know, we didn’t accomplish the ultimate goal.” With Marchand entering the final year of his contract, when asked he commented: “I can’t believe how quick it came. It’s not on the table. It will definitely be a conversation at some point and we’ll go from there. Obviously, I’ve been here for my whole career and would love to continue that. We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
David Pastrnak did not have the usual performance expected from him, and ended up with eight points (4 goals 4 assists) in 13 playoff games. His comments regarding the playoffs and the team’s progress included: “Yeah one hundred percent. I’m super proud of the group. We got much younger, we had some experienced guys who came in who have won cups and did an unbelievable job that any player could learn from. Guys that grabbed the opportunity, they came in and did a good job so I’m very proud. A lot of people were saying that we weren’t going to make the playoffs or that we’d be in the wild card spot, and I think we put ourselves in a good spot going into playoffs. It’s definitely a much younger team, and it’s a good experience for some guys to get that first playoff series win and good motivation going into the summer for next season.” Pasta also revealed that he suffered a couple of groin injuries this season, and strongly expressed that Boston is definitely his home away from home.
Charlie McAvoy commented on the season ending with, “You know, it’s tough. It’s never easy, a lot of processing, a lot of different emotions you feel. You always hate when the ride’s over, we wish we were still playing. But the more you internalize it and look at it, and the overall picture of what the season was, and what this group
was, you start to see a lot more positives come to mind of what we were able to put together this year. I think the biggest thing is just, you know, with what transpired over the last offseason and the pieces that we lost. And then seeing what this group was able to accomplish, you know,
putting that together over the offseason, you had a lot of young guys step up, which I think is the most important thing is. You’re seeing the depth from within your organization start to start to show itself, which was massive for us this year. Seeing a lot of guys step up and create roles for themselves. You know, and the veteran guys that we brought in were outstanding for us, and great people and leaders. Sort of what this team was able to accomplish and putting it together in the offseason, you know, what people might have thought we would have done and what people might have thought we could have done in here. I think we were able to really beat a lot of those expectations, we were able to put something special together, and for that I’m just so proud of everybody.” McAvoy liked the year he had, and was comfortable in his leadership role. He also mentioned that his shoulder injury (Acromioclavicular joint) affected his play, but he was able to deal with it.
Goaltender Jeremy Swayman reflected on his performance this season with: “I think, a lot of growth. That’s what I’m most excited about, and to be a part of a longer playoff run to understand what it takes to be successful, and just how difficult it is to achieve the ultimate goal. That’s what I’m gonna have in the back of my mind all summer long.” Sway expressed how important it is to be a part of the Bruins organization. As for his chances to being given a long-term deal, his answer was solid with: “I’m confident that my agent and I and management will figure out the details this summer. And I’m looking forward to it.” As for the relationship with Swayman, Linus Ullmark stated “We thrive off that with each other and knowing that it’s not easy when you’re not playing games. And I’ve been in his shoes where you really are being the ultimate teammate, and his demeanor was to bring, to compete every day understanding that if I wasn’t being my best, you could be in that net just as fast. So my job was to maintain the competitiveness, maintain the edge, and not have any days off. So knowing that he’s such a quality goalie and a quality human, it was such a privilege and an incredible thing that we had going, because only going to make one another better and of course, indirectly, our team better.” Ullmark does have one more year on his contract.
Prior to press time today (Wednesday), the Bruins will hold an end-of-the-season press conference with upper management. Look for hints as to what plans might be regarding roster changes for next season. It should be a very exciting season coming up, with possible roster changes, that could incur moves from the goal out.