The Boston Bruins have concluded their season with a disappointment on home ice. Based on the last decade, it’s nothing new. But this time, it was a loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. That’s why it was even more disappointing for the Bruins’ fanbase and their players.
Ever since 2009, the Boston Bruins have been eliminated from the playoffs on the road just once. It came last year in Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 2009, the Bruins lost Game 7 at home against the Carolina Hurricanes. A year later, they lost Game 7 at home against the Philadelphia Flyers.
In 2012, they lost Game 7 at home against the Washington Capitals. In 2013, the Bruins came out short in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, having to witness Chicago hoisting the Stanley Cup at TD Garden. After a Presidents´ Trophy in 2014, the Bruins lost Game 7 on home ice against the Canadiens.
A missed playoffs for the first time in eight years followed for Boston. In 2016, the Bruins could have sealed the ticket to the postseason but lost their last home game of the regular campaign to the Ottawa Senators, who were practically playing with their AHL team.
In 2017, in the following season, the Bruins ended the playoffs prematurely in the first round in Game 6 versus those same Senators. 2018’s ending was already mentioned, but before that, the Bruins played the regular season finale at home hosting Florida. Having won that game, the Bruins would win the Eastern Conference, got an easier opponent in the first round and home ice advantage in the second round. They lost it 2-4 and we all know how that ended up.
This time around, it didn’t have a sweet home ending. The Bruins lost Game 7 at home, but more importantly, in the Stanley Cup Final, they won just one of the four contests.
But overall, the home ice for the Bruins is fatal. Not only all those Game 7s losses or that 1-6 embarrassment against the Senators in 2016. In 2012’s elimination versus Washington, the Bruins went 1-3 at home. They almost repeated it against Toronto in 2013. In the Stanley Cup Final that year, the Bruins won just one of their three home games against the Blackhawks.
In 2017’s elimination by Ottawa, the Bruins went crazily 0-3 at home in the first-round series. Under Bruce Cassidy, the Bruins are 10-12 at home in 22 playoff games. The Bruins have been such a force on home ice ever since Bruce Cassidy took over, but constantly losing at home just cannot be explained.
Maybe the Bruins just haven’t been able to play as simply at TD Garden as on the road. And that’s not just the case of the recently concluded Stanley Cup Final.
History repeats itself. It will always stay as a fact that the Bruins scored 14 goals in three road games while scoring just eight in four home games in the Stanley Cup Final. That was the main reason why the Bruins lost it. And it’s also a major factor for the Bruins’ failures over the past few seasons.
