Ryan: Season filled with so much promise ends only with regret - and pained resignation - for aging Bruins core

Three-hundred and sixty-two days ago, David Krejci grinned as he waded his way through a scrum of reporters and cameras at Warrior Ice Arena. 

Just 82 days prior, the veteran pivot and the rest of his teammates collapsed on the TD Garden ice in shocked and sobering silence at the St. Louis Blues hoisted hockey's top prize in Boston's own barn.

But the lingering pain from that crushing exit in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final was at least temporarily flushed from Krejci's system as he addressed the media corps on Sept. 4, 2019 — with the hopes and promise that bubble up upon the start of each new season outweighing those agonizing reminders of last year's exit.

"I’m not over it. I don’t think I ever will. ... But that’s just something that you have to learn to live with it," Krejci said shortly after Boston wrapped up its first official captains practice at Warrior. "There’s only one way out of it, right? Have a good season and make a push to the playoffs.”

Even with the short turnaround between the 2019 Cup Final in June and another 82-game slate in October, optimism — and motivation — were palpable in Boston's dressing room as more bodies arrived at Boston's training facilities in the early fall.

Most of the same crew that fell 60 minutes short of a championship were back in the fold, even if franchise pillars like Zdeno Chara (42 years old), Patrice Bergeron (34), Krejci (33), Tuukka Rask (32) and Brad Marchand (31) certainly weren't getting any younger.

But, as he stood in front of us on close to a year ago, Krejci offered a few retorts to the regular narrative of Boston's Cup window closing with each passing year.

“I know you guys write a lot of things like that,” Krejci said. "(Being on the) wrong side of 30 ... I have no idea what the 'wrong side of 30' means. To me, I thought it was when you’re in your late 30s. ... Our guys in our 30s had really good seasons last year. We’re just a couple months older than we were last season. I feel like we’re in good shape and we’re ready to go.”

Sound logic from a veteran who often doesn't mince words, and a hopeful sign of a redemptive arc on the horizon in the coming year.

But, as we can all attest to, this year has brought little in terms of optimism — or, at the very least, any sliver of normalcy.

Three-hundred and sixty-two days after his opening address in Brighton, David Krejci made his way to the podium at Scotiabank Arena. Rather than field questions from a packed room of reporters, both Krejci and Marchand stared at the telling portrait of their own reflection on a video screen, with any inquiries from the press facilitated through Zoom and lofted through the speaker systems above the defeated skaters.

Krejci did not stare at the screen, nor the other individuals in the media room — all donning the masks and PPE that have become as commonplace to us as the keys and wallet we secure before leaving the house.

Rather, Krejci — his visage obscured by a flat-brimmed hat — looked down as he fielded questions following Boston's season-ending loss to the Lightning in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal.

The pain felt in that Bruins locker room last June might linger longer within this veteran core, but as Krejci struggled to put together the proper eulogy for the 2019-20 Bruins, a different sense of dread seemed to cloud that media room — one felt through a Zoom call over 500 miles away back here in the Commonwealth.

Regret was the prevailing sentiment in 2019, but resignation appeared to take hold on Monday night — with the Bruins' cornerstones accepting the reality for the first time in ... well, ever ... that their efforts of thwarting Father Time yet again may not come to fruition. 



"It just kind of hit me after the game that the core group, a few of us, we have one or two, three years left," Krejci said. "With the pandemic going on, you never know what’s going to happen. I just got a little sad right now. At the same time, I don’t regret coming into this bubble and fighting for the Stanley Cup."

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And fought the Bruins did on Monday night — with Krejci keeping his team's alive over 34 minutes past its scheduled expiration date by forcing overtime against the Lightning off of a late goal in the third period.

Boston had never managed to claw itself out of a 3-1 series deficit in its long franchise history, but in a year in which just about every narrative or preconceived notion has been torn up and flipped on its head, perhaps this would finally be it?

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Perhaps one of the 12 pucks the Bruins fired in against Andrei Vasilevskiy in overtime found twine — extending Boston's Stanley Cup hopes another couple of days.

Perhaps the Lightning, potentially without Nikita Kucherov for a game or two, would revert back into the malaise that sent them packing in the first round last summer?

Perhaps Jaroslav Halak, Boston's new No. 1 netminder following Tuukka Rask's departure from the bubble, would have continued his absurd run during elimination games, setting the stage for a miraculous rally against the Bolts and a ticket to Edmonton for the Eastern Conference Finals?

But all those hopes for this Bruins team — the reigning Presidents Trophy winners in a COVID-shortened campaign — were snuffed out after Victor Hedman's shot snuck past a screened Halak at 14:10 in double overtime, promising nothing but a plane ticket back to Boston for this veteran squad.

And now, a season that began with so much promise close to a year ago today can now only be viewed as another chapter etched into this franchise's extensive log of "What If?" scenarios — one all the more painful given the murky waters this club must navigate in the coming months.

"Obviously, wish that everyone is coming back and we can have another chance at it," Patrice Bergeron said. "It’s been – it’s always a pleasure and a treat when you’re going out there with guys that you’ve been around for 10 plus years. You’d like to keep that and carry that, and keep going. Keep going with them."

In a few month's time, Krejci and many of the same faces Bruins fans have cheered and followed with for over a decade could all very well be back at Warrior — once again laying the down the foundation, brick by brick, of another season filled with promise.

But some of those supports that have helped build Boston into the contender it's been for years now may not be present.

Torey Krug, in line for a sizable pay bump this fall, could depart — a very tangible scenario that, if cap space wasn't an issue, would likely be avoided by all parties involved. Even if he may not be the top-pairing stalwart he's been since arriving in 2006, a 43-year-old Chara still casts an awfully large shadow — literally and figuratively — in Boston's room.

"I’ve said all along,  grateful to have an opportunity to coach Zee," Bruce Cassidy said of Boston's captain. "It was early in my NHL career so to speak, later in his playing career, so he helped me a lot. ... You almost feel like Zee probably helped me more than I've helped him."

With his latest contract set to expire, it remains to be seen if Chara wants to re-up for another shot at the Cup with Boston, especially if lesser minutes and more manageable defensive assignments are the expected prescription to keep him going in 2020-21.

"I haven’t made that decision," Chara said of his future. "I obviously just finished the game and I’m going to be open-minded."

Couple these potential departures with the constrictions involved with a flat cap and no first-round pick this offseason, and Don Sweeney and his staff have their work cut out for them when it comes to charting another course back toward the Stanley Cup Final with this older core of players.

Just minutes after their hopes of settling last year's unfinished business were dashed, both Marchand and Krejci didn't want to divert much energy into what could be a painful few months ahead. How could they — given the sting of letting of another potential Cup run slip through their fingers was just starting to take hold?

Chalk it up to the four-month pause, the bubble environment, the loss of Rask, what have you. No excuses were going to dull the pain of knowing that Monday's result could have shuttered any hopes of this veteran crew grasping Lord Stanley's Cup once again.

"We have a hell of a team and we expected better out of this year," Marchand said. "We thought we had a chance to – Tampa has a great team, don’t get me wrong. Don’t want to take anything away from them, they have a great team. Just, the way things were rolling throughout the season, we thought we were going to go all the way. It’s a huge sacrifice to come here and guys had to really dedicate a lot of time and effort to be here. And it’s kind of a waste of time now.

"We spent the last three months getting ready for this. Being here and we walk away without anything to show for it. It’s tough and you never know how many opportunities you’re going to have to win a Cup."

Their media session concluded, Krejci, his head still down, stepped down from the podium alongside his teammate of over a decade. The duo slipped off the edge of our video screens seconds later — and stepped into an uncertain future.

What a difference a year can make.