Bruins back in the playoffs

Well what a long, arduous two-year absence it was. By Boston standards that's like 50 years, but the nightmare is over: the Bruins are heading to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Amazingly, the black and gold were in danger of having the fifth-longest active drought in the NHL. Which speaks volumes as to just how easy it is to make the playoffs is in that league, and speaks even louder volumes how pathetic it was the Bruins couldn't squeak in, but I digress. The Carolina Hurricanes, Buffalo Sabres, Arizona/Phoenix/Quebec City Coyotes and New Jersey Devils are the only teams with longer droughts than what the Bruins could have faced.

Quite a different world from May 2014, when the B's lost to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games despite having the President's trophy in tow.

Think about it: Donald Trump was over a year away from announcing his candidacy for president, the NFL was roughly eight months away from launching sting operation against the Patriots D'Qwell Jackson was eight months away from intercepting Tom Brady and launching DeflateGate, and San Diego, St. Louis and Oakland still had NFL teams. Oh yeah, I was still in college. Crazy how much has changed.

The 2007-14 Bruins were by no means a dynasty - you kinda sorta need to win more than one championship to be considered as such - but for a seven-year stretch, they were at the very least in the discussion year in, year out on a short list of championship contenders.

Call this a resurgence, call it a rebirth, call it what you will...but is this a new era, or merely the continuation of a stalled run? I'm by no means here to say the B's are going to win the Stanley Cup, but think of how much of a championship pedigree remains here from the 2011 team: Chara, Bergeron, Marchand, Krejci as key players, plus Adam McQuaid as well as Tuukka Rask, who was Timmy Thomas' backup back then.

If you're the Washington Capitals, the core of whom has never been beyond the second round with Alex Ovechkin...do you really want to see the Bruins, seemingly playing with house money, in round one?

Back in the spring of 2008, when the initial run of success began for the B's, they were the No. 8 seed in the east. Montreal won the first round series then, too, in seven games, but it just felt great to have playoff hockey back in Boston after wandering through the abyss for a few years.

In every subsequent playoff run, the Bruins were favorites at the very least in the first round, if not beyond.

Nearly 10 years later, a few of the same players remain, back in the underdog role. Unlike then, however, some of these guys know how to win. Or at the very least win a few playoff rounds.


No matter what happens, there's a bare minimum four nights of appointment viewing coming up. And playoff beards.

A sample playoff beard, circa 2011 through two rounds of play. Photo evidence of later rounds is unavailable.