Puck Daddy picks Bruins as number one dissappointment

You know I have to agree with Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy, the Boston Bruins have been a dismal and utter disappointment this season. After winning their division last season they are probably going to fall nothing short of an epic failure this season.

During the off season the Bruins lost their star offensive threat to the Toronto Maples Leafs and the Bruins front office failed to give the Bruins coach any replacement for the loss of Phil Kessel 36 goals. You can tell your team certain players will be expected to pick up the slack but it didn’t happen. The Bruins were also decimated by injuries and key players haven’t picked up the slack. I see the Bruins as a one series and done team, IF the make the playoffs.

1. The Boston Bruins

How do you go from 53 wins and a point away from the President's Trophy, with an eye-popping offense and a stifling defense to, well, this?

The Bruins are in the thick of the fight for a bottom-2 Eastern Conference playoff spot (meaning they'd be miles out of it if they played in the West) and can't seem to do anything all that well.

Let's talk about the forwards. Not one has 40 points. Really. Not one has 20 goals. Only four who have played in 30 or more games have a positive plus-minus. If it weren't for Marc Savard's(notes) 31 points in 37 games, no one would even be close to a point-a-game pace. Besides Savvy and Patrice Bergeron(notes), it's hard to think of anyone that hasn't at least been a disappointment at best, or a colossal, blown-up-on-the-launchpad disaster (hi, Milan Lucic(notes)!). The power play has dropped off by a solid five points as well.

And let's go over the defense. Zdeno Chara's(notes) a plus-6. Johnny Boychuk's(notes) a plus-3. That's it for positive plus-minus ratings there as well. Remember last year when the Bruins defensemen scored 50 goals? Yeah, they must not either, because they have 19 this year with a pretty similar D corps. And yeah, they're fifth in the league in goals against, but last year they were first.

A lot of that defensive slump, though, has to do with Tim Thomas(notes), who has been very mediocre pretty much all season, but only recently was benched by Claude Julien in favor of Tuukka Rask(notes), who, if he had more games, would be getting Steve Mason-type plaudits from pundits for his 2.08/.928 performance. Especially in front of a team as terribly disappointing as the Bruins have been this year. [Puck Daddy]