As a Bruins fan, I'm completely fine with the timing. The point about avoiding last year's UFA deals is well taken- all through last season I was actually pretty optimistic about the Bruins future despite the lack of prospects due to the combination of the Pasta/McAvoy/Swayman core and a really clean cap outlook. Still, last year's team was too competitive to throw in the towel. It goes against two things I don't really like- one is the impulse to burn it down if you're not a top 5-10 contender despite teams going on cincerella runs all the time and the other is the corresponding mindset that 31 NHL team's seasons are abject failures and that enjoying the jouney as a fan even if it comes up short is loser stuff. Last seasons playoffs were nothing special for Boston, but it did give us a game 7 OT winner and another happy chapter in the Leafs rivalry. There's some fanbases that would kill for memories like these.
