Playoff Post-Mortem, Boston Bruins

Series Summary

Panthers dominate wire-to-wire as the Bruins never held a lead in the short series. The Bruins defense was unable to contain the Panthers stars, with four Panthers going a point per game.

Who Showed Up

Hard to pick standout performances from a team that got swept, with only four players scoring multiple points over the course of the series. Kevin Fiala and Matt Duchene both tried to chip in to the stagnated offense and managed to keep their +/- even, despite the team getting outscored by 8 goals over the series.

Who Didn’t

A lot of the blame has to fall on the shoulders of goaltender John Gibson. After a stellar .913 save percentage in the regular season, Gibson managed only an .887 with a GAA of 3.48. The lowlight of his performance has to be Game 2, where he managed to stop only 12 of 16 shots in 30 minutes of play, essentially ending the Bruins’ hopes in the series.

Offseason Preview: UFA

The Bruins are setup well to take another run at the Atlantic division next year after finishing just 3 points behind the division leading Sabres with only two UFAs on the current Pro roster in Marc Staal and Troy Grosenick. Look for them to be active trying to find a UFA on the cheap from another team for them to sign.

Offseason Preview: Entry Draft

The Bruins own 6 of their own 7 picks for the upcoming draft, only having traded away their 6th rounder. In addition, they hold Toronto’s 2nd and Minnesota’s 5th. Their 1st will settle in somewhere around 20th overall depending on how the rest of the playoffs play out, and they are poised to continue building their prospect pool.

Offseason Preview: Expansion Draft

Projected Protection List:

7 F: Claude Giroux, Matt Duchene, Kevin Hayes, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Conor Garland, Jakub Vrana, Nick Schmaltz

3 D: Dean Kukan, Esa Lindell, Damon Severson

1 G: John Gibson

Potentially Available: Brock McGinn, JT Compher, Janne Kuokkanen, Jake Gardiner