98.5 The Sports Hub Was The Last 15 Years A Failure For The Bruins? Chara Says No.

[GordonHowe]

Was The Last 15 Years A Failure For The Bruins? Chara Says No.

There’s plenty of negativity and criticism flying around the Boston Bruins right now after the record-breaking 2022-23 team was bounced from the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in another heartbreaking Game 7 loss on TD Garden ice. The 2022-23 Boston Bruins set an NHL record for regular...

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Zdeno Chara joins the show // Celtics Drop Game 1 to 76ers // Red Sox Stay Hot - 5/2 (Hour 2)

(0:00) More thoughts on the Celtics game 1 loss to the 76ers. (11:16) The callers weigh in on all things Celtics! (23:07) A Red Sox thought and former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara joins the show.

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The Bruins are now 3-5 in Game 7’s since walking off the ice in Vancouver as Stanley Cup champions and have lost twice in the Stanley Cup Final, the last time being the infamous 4-1 loss in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. Despite all that losing when it counts most, former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara disagrees that this recent era in team history was a failure with just one Stanley Cup to show.


“No, I wouldn’t say it’s only one cup, because there’s probably a good dozen or over a dozen teams that don’t even have that,” Chara said on the Felger and Mazz Show on Tuesday. “So I mean, if you want to take it that there is only one cup. I mean it’s not easy to even get that far. It’s not easy to get to the finals. And we were able to do it three times a nd I know that we we all felt that we could win every one of them. But just like I say the sport…that’s life. You’re going to have to live with those losses as well. But, you know, I think that this organization has been very consistent. And you got to understand it’s not easy to get even to the finals and to expect to be in the finals every other year or winning Stanley Cup every third year, it’s not going to happen. It’s just the way it is.”

Zdeno Chara is proud of that consistency of regular season winning and playoff runs and the culture he helped build to enable that.


“You go through some ups and downs, you go through some changes whether that’s coaching or a player, it’s a process,” Chara pointed out. “And I think that I personally I’m proud to be a Bruin for for that long and started setting a culture and establishing something that years and years hopefully from now players can carry that same torch and culture and continue to that the something we started in ’06 and you know hopefully be able to be successful and and winning later on. But yeah, I have no regrets and I only can say that I’m very grateful. I’m proud of what we as a team were able to accomplish.”

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[DKH]

I bet 90% here if had the results would not have followed team

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

They won a Cup so its automatically not a failure.

But I think it's fair to say they've underachieved

 

[BruinDust]

They won a Cup so its automatically not a failure.

But I think it's fair to say they've underachieved

That's pretty much the bottom line really.

 

[trenton1]

The Bruins were a consistent failure from 1995-2007. Not often a failure before going back to Orr or since. Failure is the wrong word.

Roughly 25 teams and fanbases around the league would kill to have these last 15 years.

Only Chicago, LA, Pittsburgh, TB walked away with more in that time period.

How would you like to be a Sabres fan? Kind of hard to have your heart broken or "choke" when there's nothing happening in the first place.

 

[missingchicklet]

They won a Cup so its automatically not a failure.

But I think it's fair to say they've underachieved

Nail on the head. Those of us who suffered through all those years (decades) without a Cup understand how important 2011 was. It's also why 2019 still stings. Not a failure in that time frame, but sure would have been nice to have multiple Cups like the Kings, Blackhawks, Bolts, and Pens got during that period. The core was good enough. Just couldn't get the job done.

 

[Fenway]

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Another one I'm not watching/listening to.

 

[LouJersey]

The 90's Atlanta Braves. Entertaining, a champion.....also underachieved.

I would sign up for this Bruins stretch for Mets or Vikings any day of the week,

 

[smithformeragent]

The 90's Atlanta Braves. Entertaining, a champion.....also underachieved.

I would sign up for this Bruins stretch for Mets or Vikings any day of the week,

Mets will break through sooner rather than later.

Vikings?….ehhhh.

 

[DiggityDog]

I’ve always felt, and I mean this as a compliment despite how I’m about to word it, that the Patriots completely ruined the perception of success in Boston Sports.

The Bruins have been consistent over this era, and they have also underachieved.

Could they have had more Cups? Sure. They also could’ve had none.

I will always take one over none any day of the week.

 

[smithformeragent]

The Patriots set the bar exceptionally high in this region.

Over the course of their 20 year run, they had 3 dynasties, an undefeated regular season and multiple Super Bowl losses.

A down season for them often meant losing the AFC Championship Game.

Red Sox have been more feast or famine during that timeframe, but 4 World Series > 1 Cup.

That leaves the Bruins tied with the Celtics with “just” the one title in recent memory and two finals losses each.

 

[KrejciMVP]

rangers have 1 cup in 83 years. i can off 2011 a while

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

Everything's relative. Once upon a time Buffalo was a serious playoff rival. Next time you find yourself annoyed by the Bruins, just think about what it must be like to be a Sabres fan.

 

[DarrenBanks56]

hockey is a different animal than other sports. just cant compare them.
too much wrong can happen in hockey. so unpredictable.

 

[slim399]

I grew up a rangers fan. I started really following hockey when Messier was traded to the team and it was amazing to watch them win the cup in 94. Glen Sather took over and it was years of signing over paid UFA vets and missing the playoffs. It was painful watching players collecting a pay check instead of playing the right way.

In 2008 I moved to Boston and was luckily enough to get a job working for the Bruins and the Garden. I have been a Bruins fan ever since and was luckily enough to be there for the cup win. Even after leaving and moving back to New York and my family being rangers fans and giving me lots of grief, the Bruins have continued to be my team. This is because of players like Chara, Bergeron, Recchi, Thomas, Thornton, Rask, Mcquiad, Marchand, Krejci, Boychuck, Savard, Miller, McAvoy, Coyle, Foligno and many many more. Guys that play their ass off and play hockey the right way. Sure it’s disappointing 1 cup could have been 3 or 4. But that’s hockey and that’s why the playoffs are so exciting. Watching the playoffs every year and seeing great teams across the league fall I feel so lucky to have been there for that 2011 win. But I also feel lucky to have seen this team play hockey the right way the past 15 years and be extremely competitive. One of the top 5 most successful teams in that period. Even though players like Bergeron and Krejci are at the end of their careers and there are talks of a rebuild. I know this group will continue to be successful and sometime soon another cup will come.

 

[mikelvl]

You have to enjoy the great moments regardless of whether you win the Cup. I would rather have gone through the Bergeron era that we have gone through than root for a team that never came close. Yes, Tuukka needed to make a few more saves, so did Ullmark, but it was still a wonderful era in Bruins history. I just think that hockey is like having to play up to 28 playoff football games on skates. It is the ultimate gauntlet to run. Eights beat ones way more often than other sports. Eight seeds win the championship more than other sports. It's the hardest trophy in sports to win. That's why it's so crushing to make it so far and lose. There is so much chance with draft lotteries. The Penguins don't come close without winning the Crosby lottery. Edmonton gets McDavid but they still haven't won it all. Now Chicago with the horseshoe up their ass land Bedard.

 

[UncleRico]

The Patriots set the bar exceptionally high in this region.

Over the course of their 20 year run, they had 3 dynasties, an undefeated regular season and multiple Super Bowl losses.

A down season for them often meant losing the AFC Championship Game.

Red Sox have been more feast or famine during that timeframe, but 4 World Series > 1 Cup.

That leaves the Bruins tied with the Celtics with “just” the one title in recent memory and two finals losses each.

Might be splitting hairs here, but idk if we can classify those bruins and Celtics championships as recent memory. They were 12-15 years ago now at this point.