Disbelief, disappointment and love. Those were the earth-shattering emotions that filled the Boston Bruins’ locker room following its 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night.
And those emotions will stick with the 2018-19 Boston Bruins for a long time, if not for the rest of their lives.
The Bruins were still licking their wounds during their annual break up day at Warrior Ice Arena on Friday. Each Bruin answered questions on a variety of topics from contracts to injuries and off-season plans.
But, it was quite obvious that there was still a giant taste in their mouth that won’t go away for a very long time.
“It’s a city filled with champions,” Charlie McAvoy said about playing in Boston. “I just wanted to be a part of that and wanted to win so freaking bad. We were so close. We just have to believe that we’ll be back here again next year.”
“It’s hard to accept what happened,” David Krejci said about not winning the cup. “You feel like a loser every year you don’t win the cup…You have to learn from it and come back hungrier next year.”
“I haven’t fully processed being able to play for the Bruins and what just happened,” Charlie Coyle added.
Yet, at the same time the Bruins lamented on how close this year’s group became. Each Bruin shared their moments of joy and heartbreak during their last appearance of the season with the assembled Boston media.
This tight-knit team went through just about everything together: a preseason trip to China, an 82-game regular season, a plethora of injuries, the Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium and four rounds of playoffs.
In many ways, all of the obstacles that faced this year’s team forced them to come together as a family.
“That’s probably why we got as far as we did,” Matt Grzelcyk said about the team’s tight bond.
Being a brotherhood that had the talent and true self-belief that it could get past any team in the league is what made this season’s unfitting end so tough to swallow for players and fans alike.
This will be one very short off-season for this year’s Bruins. Yet, the bitter taste of the Game 7 loss will sit with them for a long time as they reminisce on leaving their Cup dreams unfulfilled.
The Bruins rolled the boulder all the way to the summit only to have it come crashing all the way back down on them. We’ll have to wait to see just how far up they can climb the NHL mountain next season.
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