Stanley Cup Final featuring Thornton, Kessel is a reminder of Bruins’ recent incompetence
COMMENTARY
It was five years ago on Wednesday that the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks began what would turn into one of the more contentious and dramatic editions of the Stanley Cup Final in recent memory.
Five years.
The events of a half-decade ago never seemed so eternally distant.
That was back when the Bruins captured our attention, translating their internal tenacity into a memorable Cup run. By the time the championship parade wound its way through the streets of downtown Boston, only the Patriots could boast being a more popular professional sports team in the borders of the Commonwealth. The Celtics were nearing the end of the new Big Three era, while the Red Sox (foolishly anointed the ”Best Team Ever” a couple months prior) were merely planting the seeds that would lead to chicken, beer, and, eventually, Bobby Valentine.
These days, being a Bruins fan during the Stanley Cup Final has been reduced to choosing which former Boston star you’d rather see get his hands on the prize.
It’s truly fitting that Joe Thornton’s San Jose Sharks and Phil Kessel’s Pittsburgh Penguins are the two teams vying for Lord Stanley this year, particularly in the wake of a season that further exposed just how incompetently their former franchise on Causeway Street has trended since trading superstar talent Tyler Sequin to the Dallas Stars in 2013, in great part because of his penchant to sniff out the closest party. There was the thought that the young Seguin no longer fit in with the focused group of veteran Bruins players or under the tutelage of head coach Claude Julien, who publicly became frustrated with Seguin’s antics.
They were partly right. After all, there are no parties at the Garden planned anytime soon.
Either Thornton or Kessel will be part of one by the end of next week, putting an end to one personal championship drought. They’re already highlighting two of the three worst trades the Bruins have made over the last 10 years.
As if you needed more reminder that the current landscape of the Bruins is barren, let Thornton and Kessel twist the knife just a bit more firmly into your chest.
Thinking of what the Bruins still possess in return for the likes of Thornton, Kessel, and Sequin would simply be laughable if it didn’t also highlight a lack of faith in the talent evaluators who continues to make personnel and coaching decisions, even after two seasons of missing the postseason. Loui Eriksson is all that remains in Boston, and even that is likely to change once the free-agency bidding begins on July 1. Has it really been six years since Bruins fans serenaded the Toronto Maple Leafs with chants of “Thank You Kessel,” with the prospects of Seguin and Dougie Hamilton on the horizon? Has it really been 10 years since Kessel made his rookie debut under Happy Fun Times Dave Lewis?
Has it really been only a year since one of Don Sweeney’s first moves as general manager was to surrender the young defenseman Hamilton in exchange for a handful of draft picks which the Bruins have already proven they have no idea how to properly use?
This is what watching Thornton, now 36 years old, and the 28-year-old Kessel, who departed Toronto last year for Pittsburgh with a target on his back, in the Stanley Cup Final should bring to mind.
Not that this has been something of an overnight success story for the duo, each regarded in his own way as a hard-luck beneficiary of shortcomings over the years. But if the Thornton trade, generally regarded as a disaster, was a move that would haunt the team for years, the Kessel deal, seemingly so one-sided in the Bruins’ favor, should have evened the playing field.
But the Bruins predictably screwed themselves on that end even worse.
Kessel, the one who didn’t necessarily fit into Julien’s strict, two-way system, was the centerpiece of a trade that what was supposed to mark the beginning of an extended era of Bruins dominance in the Eastern Conference. He’s got nine postseason goals, and is three wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Thornton, who did everything Patrice Bergeron has managed to do during his time in Boston (except win the Cup), with a fraction of the praise, never turned into a 50-goal scorer like Cam Neely, and had to go, according to former general manager Mike O’Connell. Because what’s a 101-point scoring player with only 36 goals on his resume? An underachiever. Apparently.
“I think in general, Joe, as a player, is probably under-appreciated just because he spent his entire career, most of his career, on the West Coast,” San Jose coach Peter DoBoer said. “If this guy’s playing in Toronto or Montreal or New York or one of those markets, he’s a living legend. He’s that good and he’s that impressive a guy.”
Thornton only netted 19 goals during the regular season as part of an 82-point campaign.
He and Kessel both have 18 points over 19 playoff games for the Sharks and Penguins.
Now, instead of mocking the Maple Leafs, Bruins fans have joined them in regret.
“Throughout your life and your career, little moments shape your life and who you are. I think I am who I am because of what’s happened in my life,” Kessel said. “I’m happy to be here and be part of this.”
Maybe by 2021 the Bruins will have somebody of the same ilk whom they can ride on another postseason run. After all, did you ever think it would only be five years after Lewis’ contagious energy left the building that Tim Thomas and company would bring the Cup to Boston?
If that’s the case, five years into the future seems even longer away than the mirroring prestige.
The Bruins, lately, seemingly can’t do anything right.
Two of the biggest examples of that have the Stanley Cup within their grasp.
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