NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One of the finalists for NHL’s General Manager of the Year designed a roster without weaknesses. The NHL’s Coach of the Year oversaw a team that was without regular-season equal in league history.
On top of that, the 2022-23 Bruins won a record-setting 65 games, partly because they had the NHL’s top goalie, best defensive forward and an MVP finalist stopping pucks, extinguishing fires and ripping up nets.
For all that, Don Sweeney, Jim Montgomery, Linus Ullmark, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak came up empty when it most mattered.
It is all well and good that the Bruins practically filled up Bridgestone Arena on Monday with their best-in-category representatives and their traveling parties, save for Bergeron, whose wife Stephanie is expecting their fourth child. The organization will be happy to pay for any weight surcharges incurred by the soon-to-be-airborne heavy metal in their possession and requiring transport out of Nashville. Sweeney could add to the collection Wednesday during the first round of the NHL Draft, when the GM of the Year will be announced.
The Bruins would ditch all of their individual trophies into the Cumberland River, however, if it meant they could be Stanley Cup stewards.
That, after all, was the prize they not only wanted…
