Last year's choke job only served to anger the Boston Bruins for this season, and when you consider that Tuukka Rask lost his starting job to a lights out Tim Thomas, you know Boston wants to make amends. Rask was supposed to be the number one goaltender this year, but took a step back. It wasn't much, but when Thomas did his impersonation of late-90's Dominik Hasek, he was on the end of the bench for a good part of the season. Zdeno Chara was expected to bounce back from an injury plagued 2009-10 season, and certainly, he did that, posting 14-30-44 and that translated into an All-Star appearance this year. Everyone had high expectations for Tyler Seguin this year. Everyone except the Bruins, that is. A third line player for most of the season, the Bruins did everything to keep Seguin from trying to do too much. I predicted 50 points for him this year, and he produced less than half of that (22). Still, Seguin will be a great player as long as he learns from the veterans on the team.
No team had more to prove this season than Boston, and they played like it. Thomas will almost certainly win the Vezina Trophy, and Milan Lucic and David Krejci put up their best numbers since their respective rookie years. Nathan Horton contributed 26 goals, which is his norm. Anything short of a Stanley Cup this year is unacceptable for Boston, and that is the price you pay for raising expectations, even after a grand failure.
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