Technically, mathematically, even historically, it remains too early to say the Bruins are all done.
Realistically, in the court of common sense, in a world where if it bounces like a puck then it’s a puck, their chase for a playoff spot is finished.
The bigger question is where does ownership take it from here? Does Charlie Jacobs have a fix for this sorry, pricey, uninspired, boring lot now far removed from the rough-tumble-and-entertaining bunch his dad purchased for pocket change a half-century ago?
If so, now’s about time to hear it from the younger Jacobs, who’s on record as saying his franchise defines itself by challenging for, and winning, the Stanley Cup.
Uh, Bueller?
When no one else can figure it out, be it players or front office, then it’s on the owner, the corner office on Causeway where the bucks never stop flowing. Even Robert Kraft finally figured, yeah, it was on him when he jumped off the high chair in Foxboro and shook down the thunder in hopes of salvaging the last couple of cobblestones remaining on pot-holed Patriots Way.
Fifty-seven games into their 82-game schedule, parked 11th in the East with a .526 points percentage, this iteration of the Bruins has proven to be not talented enough, not driven enough, just not good enough, to clinch one of the eight seeds in the conference.
Too sloppy on defense in critical moments, especially of late. Too short of offensive scoring talent and touch all season, now four-plus months and counting. Perhaps most concerning, there is little sense of urgency, even now when it’s apparent what condition their condition is in (read: critical).
Their last viable hope is that Jeremy Swayman can start and win, say, 18-20 of their remaining 25 games. Yet, though solid most nights, their No. 1 goaltender has lost more than he’s won this season (18-18-4) and his save percentage (.898) remains an itsy bit below the .900 level that is the get-in figure for goalies considered NHL elite.
Which is to say, Swayman has been very good but not great, though still better than everyone in Black & Gold other than David Pastrnak. He just hasn’t been everything they need, someone to make those big, game-saving, 10-bell stops in huge moments, which inevitably is what makes or breaks franchise goalies. Swayman has been just OK when they needed him to be the best player on the ice.
It was all but impossible to feel the Bruins hadn’t flatlined Saturday evening on Causeway St, where the Black & Gold lost a second straight game in which they carried a lead into the third period. Prior to these last two games, they were a stout 16-0-4 when leading at the 40:00 mark.
Saturday’s 4-3 el-foldo to the Golden Knights saw them boot away what was a 3-2 lead at the second intermission Three nights earlier in Manhattan, against a weak-willed, ill-fitting bunch of Blueshirts, they flipped a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 loss. Chris Kreider’s shorthanded strike with 8:06 to go was the final dagger at Madison Square Garden.
Had they collected those four points, two wins just sitting there at the gift counter, the Bruins would have entered the 4 Nations Face-Off break with 64 points and a .561 points percentage. That latter mark would have slotted them seventh in the East and at least provided an emotional springboard, a sense of hope and optimism during the two-week break.
Instead, they’ll take the ice a week from Saturday (Feb. 22 vs. Anaheim) as the 11th best team in the East, in need of playing at least .700 the rest of the way, and that’s while also hoping a 95-point finish lands them above the DNQ line. It could end up closer to 100. Again, the last two losses were bone crushers.
Meanwhile, upon returning to action, the Bruins will play seven more times prior to the March 7 trade deadline. It portends to be the most critical stretch of days here since November 2005, when a frustrated front office felt the best way to get things going was to deal Joe Thornton to the Sharks.
Did that shake things up? Hell yeah. By the following spring, Thornton was pocketing MVP honors, general manager Mike O’Connell was out on the street, and Harry Sinden, Boss Causeway, was officially on his way to the deep back woods of the front office. Peter Chiarelli then was hired as GM. Five years later, the city was celebrating its first Stanley Cup title since ‘72, and the only Cup in the half-century of Jacobs ownership.
What happens here in the run-up to March 7? For now, GM Don Sweeney and club president Cam Neely have to decide if it’s time to buy or sell. If they’re buying, the needs here are too great, the roster too thin, to take a bonafide stab at winning the Cup this year. If they’re selling, the only big, contractually unfettered asset is Swayman, and while he has been less than hoped for thus far in ‘24-’25, he’s too rare a talent to swap out now at this stage of his career. He could end up Jumbo Joe Deux.
The bigger issue to watch is whether Charlie Jacobs is going to go status quo and keep Sweeney and Neely as co-clerks of the works. Or, will he now, for the first time since truly taking over the operation and promise of the Original Six franchise in recent years, display courage and vision to do whatever it takes to put an entertaining, talented, Cup-worthy team on the ice.
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