NHL Playoffs 2012: 4 Boston Bruins Players Who Deserved a Better Fate

If every Boston Bruin had played like his normalself in the first round of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Washington Capitals likely would not have contended in all seven of their matchups. In fact, had that been the case, the very number of games in the series likely never would have reached its limit.

But because so many key skaters went into roly-poly mode as they entered their first postseason as defending champions and first as major favorites since 2009, a select few were critical to keeping the Bruins competitive in each game.

When one balances out the Boston bench and evaluates the collective effort, the 2-1 overtime downfall in Game 7 was a fitting fate for this team.

But at least two forwards, one defenseman and one aging goaltender should be singled out as exceptions to the noxious new norm that took over the Bruins for two weeks and brought about their premature exit.

Had their teammates come at least relatively close to matching the following four players’ performances from Game 1, there would likely have been an Eastern Conference semifinal game lined up for tomorrow at TD Garden.

Patrice Bergeron

Bergeron’s upper-body injury, sustained in Game 5, limited the face-off connoisseur to one draw apiece in the final two games of the series. He won both of them.

If that ailment complicated his ability to handle all of his normal duties full-time, then imagine what he might have done when he had that open net in Wednesday’s overtime if he were in perfect health.

At the 35-second mark of sudden death, a Dennis Seidenberg rebound glanced off Rich Peverley in front of one post and over to an unsupervised Bergeron along the other post. Goaltender Braden Holtby was tilting towards the other direction and likely would not have had time to react if Bergeron merely got a grip on the puck.

Wait until the video reaches 9:46 and see just how close the alternate captain got to scoring his second straight Game 7-clincher.

Rich Peverley

After three separate injuries confined him to 57 appearances in the regular season, but did nothing to trip up his consistency, Peverley was pressed into playing among the top six with Nathan Horton’s season-ending concussion.

As if all of that was not trying enough, he was then asked to assume Bergeron’s extra responsibilities for Games 6 and 7.

But as it happened, Peverley was the Bruins’ top goal-getter with three in the series. He was Boston’s only player to record both multiple goals and multiple assists. He was the only one with both double-digit shots on goal and a double-digit shooting percentage.

Dennis Seidenberg

Seidenberg was second only to Milan Lucic with 29 playoff hits, most of them while on assignment to contain Alexander Ovechkin. He was second only to Johnny Boychuk with 16 blocked shots.

None of those plays were more noteworthy than his stick-less block of an Ovechkin shot amidst a deadlocked third period in Game 7.

In addition, Seidenberg kept his fruitful physicality within decent boundaries, taking only one minor penalty over 226 shifts and exactly 187 minutes of ice time.

Tim Thomas

Thomas all but preemptively attempted to repress any controversy over the goal that finalized Boston’s ill fate. Although, he admitted, his vision of Joel Ward’s homeward-bound shot was utterly blocked by winning setup man Mike Knuble.

Regardless, it took the Capitals two sudden-death strikes to garner half of the requisite four victories in the series. Thomas only once allowed a deficit to swell up to two goals at any point in the seven games.

And he finished the 2012 playoffs with a 2.14 goals-against average and .923 save percentage, placing No. 11 and No. 10 out of 19 total NHL goaltenders.

Hardly the regal 1.98 GAA and .940 save percentage of last year’s Conn Smythe campaign, but it wouldn’t have been fair to expect Thomas to duplicate that, especially after he had the same basic regular-season workload in 2011-12 as he did in 2010-11.

And considering how much Boston’s offense underachieved over its seven bouts with Washington, it cannot be disputed that it was Thomas trying to bail out his teammates as opposed to the other way around.

If the Bruins simply buried more behind Holtby, Thomas’ effort would have been rewarded in the form of a series victory and valuable rest for the second round.