Let's go Hurricanes! A catastrophic collapse by the Bruins. Gotta hand it to the Preds...Wow.
Tell you what, 'Ref ... NHL playoff hockey is so much different than regular season hockey. If we're divvying up the blame pie, I'm surprised to say this, but the one guy who doesn't deserve any is
GM Don Sweeney. He somehow put this thing back together in the offseason for one more run, and over the course of the season - especially at the deadline - he added to it in ways that no one imagined he could. He also hired Monty after the dubious firing of Cassady, and until very recently, that looked to be a masterstroke. And FWIW, it's pretty clear that if he didn't get rid of Cassady, then he wasn't going to be able to assemble the team he put out there this season. He did everything right to try to make this a special final season for the aging B's core. What happened this week isn't on him.
Who is to blame then? Two groups ... the
coaching staff, and the
B's aging core themselves. Unless the aging core players believed in their heart of hearts that the best they could hope for was to set meaningless regular season records - and as a DRW fan, I know all about those - then they needed to be resting down the stretch, to recharge their batteries for the playoffs. They never really did that, and Bergeron playing the RS finale in front of his family in Montreal may have been the stupidest thing in recent memory. They stubbornly refused to believe these things would apply to them, and sadly they got what they deserved.
Monty no doubt got his job because he was a players' coach, and he earned their trust by pretty much letting the aging core run the team. He should have known better, it was his job to know better, and in letting the guys running the room make the big decisions, he did not protect them from their own stubbornness (or even conceit?). He stuck too long with Ullmark, and put Swayman in a no-win situation. The Florida staff looks to have had their players thoroughly prepared to exploit weaknesses in a team that seemed to have precious little weak spots. Paul Maurice has never won a Cup, but he has a solid reputation as a capable winning coach, and he burnished that reputation by outcoaching the relative novice Montgomery. I say this with all sincerity and respect, but I truly hope Monty doesn't let this loss knock him off the wagon again, and in criticizing him for his passivity in the playoffs, I hope he learns from it. Of course, the problem now is, how much of this team will be back for his shot at redemption, or is this going to be his one and only legit shot at the whole enchilada?
The focus returns to Sweeney, who has responded to the pressure of sitting squarely on the hot seat by rising to the occasion, and giving the organization a great season and a great (if squandered) postseason opportunity. There are a lot of decisions to be made ... some players won't be back, you can't re-sign everyone within the cap, and you just spent a ton of draft capital to make the team that's now about to scatter to the winds. There is not a lot of talent left on the farm, due to poor drafting. Sweeney hit for 10 out of 10 last season, and to keep the B's remotely close to the same perch they ended this season with, he's gonna have to hit for another 9 or perfect 10 this next season. An 8 may keep his team in the playoffs, but Boston is in a dangerous spot now, and if Sweeney has a bad offseason, his vacation away from the hot seat may be a brief one. JMHO.
