Stanley Cup a realistic goal for Bruins

There are many ways that Stanley Cup hopes so justifiable on paper from October to April slip away on the ice of May and June, but the Boston Bruins have their best shot at winning since 2013.

Yes, roughly half the present Bruins roster played Game 7 for the Cup on June 12, 2019 on home ice against the St. Louis Blues, but that loss was every bit as convincing as the Game 7 victory at Vancouver in 2011.

Since then, there have been highs and lows, progress and adjustment periods, casualties of playoff hockey and Father Time. But there has also been the arrival of new blood and most importantly a maturation of the generation of talent not quite ready in 2019 to take that final step.

If the 2021-22 Bruins come up short in this playoff run, it might be because it is time for the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers or Toronto Maple Leafs, but it won't be because they themselves are not ready.

The playoffs are as cruel as they are exhilarating, handing out terrible disappointments and sober reflections akin to what preceded two straight championships for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who in 2018-19 put up the best record (62-16-4) that the NHL had seen since the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings went 62-13-7.

Neither team took home the Stanley Cup.

Tampa Bay soared through a regular season devoid of diversity and then got swept out of the opening round of the 2019 playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Devastated and confused, the Bolts had to watch as the Bruins survived Toronto, solved Columbus, then swept Carolina in the conference final before meeting their match against the heavier Blues.

But both the Red Wings and the Lightning figured it out and won the Cup two straight years, a rare distinction those teams only share in the post-dynasty era with the Pittsburgh Penguins of Mario Lemieux (1991 and '92) and Sidney Crosby (2016 and '17).

In 2020, Tampa Bay linchpin Victor Hedman was injured when Covid shut down the NHL that March, but the Bolts got the big defenseman back in time to win the league's dog-days bubble tournament.

That was lucky for the Lightning and very unfair to the Bruins, who were out of gas after their almost against St. Louis and their unfinished 2019-20 Presidents Trophy campaign. In 2021, Tampa Bay shielded injured superstar Nikita Kucherov from the salary cap and let him loose for the playoffs, but the Bolts weren't as lucky as they were good. They would have won anyway. They were that much better than everyone else.

This year the Lightning look vulnerable. If they weren't old news and hadn't carried the Cup these last two years under suspect circumstances, they'd get dynasty hype. But they are still champion until they are dethroned.

Carolina and especially Florida are the shiny new toys of the east, rivaled only by Colorado in the west. The Toronto Maple Leafs are the 2003 Red Sox until their 2004 arrives.

The Bruins?

They're a much different team now, having moved beyond the era of Zdeno Chara, David Krejci and Tuukka Rask. And they're oddly winger-heavy with an attack built around Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall.

Patrice Bergeron is 36, and no one knows if this is it for him, too, but he is still the best in the world at reinventing his game according to what his team needs. The captain serves as a great example for fellow centermen Eric Haula, Charlie Coyle and Tomas Nosek in their own complementary roles.

Jeremy Swayman is the future and potentially part of the present in tandem with the more experienced Linus Ullmark.

As different as they are all over the ice, it matters most on the blueline where the deadline acquisition of Hampus Lindholm fortifies the emerging maturity of Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk.

Whatever else, the path to the top is typically conquered by a team old enough to know survival tactics and young enough to scale the mountain.

The Bruins were neither in 2019, but this year if they find themselves in another one-game, winner-take-all for the Cup, it won't be because an unrealistic pathway prematurely opened up. It'll be because they belong on that stage.

Mick Colageo writes about hockey for The Standard-Times. Follow on Twitter @MickColageo.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Stanley Cup a realistic goal for Bruins