Boston’s 21st Century Championship Bubble exploded in 2020.
Tom Brady popped the Score of Supremacy in Foxboro and bolted for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March, bringing Rob Gronkowski along in his sidecar. Eight Patriots tapped out before training camp. More than any other team in the NFL. Wonder what they know that we don’t?
The deflated Red Sox celebrated “Competitive Balance Tax” day by entering September with their worst season winning percentage since Lyndon Baines Johnson was in the White House. Here’s hoping John Henry’s struggle for social justice fares better than his team’s quest for eighth place. At least Bobby V. gave us a reason to hate. Apathy has now spread like a pandemic throughout NESN Nation.
The Red Sox are 12.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays after just 35 games. That sort of mind-bending math is too much for this mind to handle, despite a superb education in the Arlington Public School system.
Meanwhile, your Boston Bruins extended the Presidents’ Trophy curse by being zapped out of the second round of the playoffs in five games by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
There’s something in the Tampa Bay water these days, and it isn’t COVID-19.
Winning follows Brady wherever he goes like an eager little brother. We saw that in real time in New England. The Patriots won a Super Bowl in Brady’s first year as a fill-in starter, and two more over the next three seasons. The Red Sox matched the Patriots title-for-title through their amazing Boston Strong run in 2013. The Celtics and Bruins, too, also copped championships in that span. While barely missing others.
Those were the good old days. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
Now it’s 2020. Imagine the horror of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Rays winning championships within four weeks of each other as Brady and Gronk host both virtual celebrations.
October Surprise!
The Celtics are the last franchise between Boston and Phoenix-like mediocrity for the next 3-5 years. Coach-For-Life Brad Stevens has a team still in its ascendant stage. The Celtics face too many obstacles this summer and fall — including the absence of Gordon Hayward — before they can be considered of NBA championship caliber.
Boston’s last legitimate chance for a title in 2020 along with the Jaro Halak Era ended at 5:50 of the second overtime Monday night.
Your next whiff of winning will come when Brady and Gronk bring the Lombardi Trophy from Disney World to the TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Foxboro for a February meet-and-greet.
Of course, that’s after the mandated two-week quarantine.
The quick exit of the Bruins in this postseason was another unnecessary reminder of the speed and ferocity of demise in pro sport. The core of Zdeno Chara, Brad Marchand, David Krecji and Patrice Bergeron served as the centrifuge of the Bruins for a decade. Yet, for all their talent, toil and blood, they have only one Stanley Cup Championship. And that one came in large part due to the other-worldly performance of Tim Thomas.
Those four — plus the likes of David Pastrnak and Tuukka Rask — are currently best known more for that they could have accomplished rather than appreciated for what they did. The Charlie Twins — Coyle and McAvoy — deserve better.
Rask’s legacy remains bronzed in duality and disappointment.
When he played, he consistently won except when it mattered most.
When he didn’t play, his team was doomed.
Many of the notables will be back at least one more time next season. Chara and Rask are the major question marks. Contractual obligations and the potential for marketing and ticket sales will make it difficult to break up the core this offseason. Additions will be necessary on the edges and on defense.
The very good Bruins teams of the past decade were cursed by playing in the same market as Bill Belichick and Brady. Titles are the only standard that now matters — even in a region that once proudly wallowed in 86 years of baseball futility. That the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Finals twice since winning it all in 2011 only adds to this indictment of frustration.
The Bruins’ Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Blues in 2019 might now begin to fully register as a 9.7 on the Boston Sports Richter Scale of disappointment. It remains the Stanley Cup that never should have left TD Garden.
Some have surmised that the Bruins lost this opportunity to make another title run at the trade deadline. Others believe it was the pandemic delay that took the air out of the team’s pre-COVID-19 success. Many shall forever cast a scarlet “Q” upon Rask for leaving his teammates — regardless of reason.
The Bruins played 13 games inside the NHL’s Coronavirus-Free Toronto Bubble. They won five. They proudly blew off caring about the seeding round. The Hurricanes proved to be nothing but hot air in terms of opposition and proof of the fact that the Bruins were somehow close to Cup contention.
Against Tampa Bay, Boston scored just five goals in 5-on-5 play over five games. The Lightning, meanwhile, never trailed after Game 2. In other words, the Bruins never had a chance.
Let’s exit on the bright side.
Belichick’s new Subway commercial dropped Tuesday.
Football can’t be far behind.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com
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Does Bruins’ latest setback augment return to bad ‘ol days? - Boston Herald
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