It all came down to one last game at home, and after taking a 1-0 lead (on David Pastrnak’s 15th goal of the year), the wheels came off in a span of 8:18 in the second period in Boston’s 6-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Even the depleted NY Rangers did their job, beating Detroit today, but because the Wings own the ROW tiebreaker (regulation and overtime wins) over Boston, they clinched 3rd place in the Atlantic Division and the NHL playoffs for a 25th consecutive season. That’s rubbing salt in the wound, but it’s what even some of the most optimistic of Bruins fans have come to expect from their team this season.

It wasn’t Jonas Gustavsson’s fault- Tuukka Rask would not have made a difference with the egregious number of turnovers the Bruins committed today. But even if we do hang a couple of goals surrendered (Chris Neil, Zack Smith-2, Matt Puempel, Mika Zibanejad, J.G. Pageau tallied including Page’s league-leading 7th shorty on an empty net with some 8+ minutes left) on Gus, the B’s inability to finish their best chances once again came back to haunt them.

In a game they really had to have, it isn’t the fact that they lost- it’s the way it happened. Story of the season, really.

Even worse, fans are now reduced to scoreboard watching today and (possibly) tomorrow to see what the Flyers do against the Pittsburgh Penguins (reportedly sitting Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang today) and NY Islanders tomorrow (they have a host of injuries and are resting guys as well). The Flyers must go 0-2 or 0-1-1 and then the Bruins back into the postseason.

At this point, the players didn’t appear to care today, so why should anyone else?

“For Whom The Bell Tolls”- Metallica- from Ride the Lightning (1984)- nathanbehar101

I’ll be back after Boston’s final fate is known, but this was such a lousy way to go.

Once we do the postmortem on the season and what’s next for the Bruins, assuming the Flyers do the job Boston couldn’t, then the focus will shift to the 2016 NHL Draft, so all is not lost.