Jaci of WickedBruins Fan Submits:
When being a Bruins fan, one has to expect and accept changes that take place throughout the season and off-season. We have to roll with the punches. In past seasons, the player turnover was equivalent to New England’s ever-changing weather; it would change anytime the wind switched directions and a fan wouldn’t know what to expect in the outcome.
This past season was different.
Only two trades happened during the season. One was when the Bruins sending a forward over for a defenseman that had a rough start but turned into one of the many bright spots of the season.
Those two trades were acquiring Alex Auld for Nate DiCasmirro and acquiring Shane Hnidy for Brandon Bochenski.
The Bruins finished the season with much of the same personnel that started the season, which were:
Goalies: Manny Fernandez, Tim Thomas. Defensemen: Bobby Allen, Andrew Alberts, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Mark Stuart, Aaron Ward, Dennis Wideman. Forwards: P.J. Axelsson, Patrice Bergeron, Brandon Bochenski, Phil Kessel, Chuck Kobasew, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Glen Metropolit, Glen Murray, Jeremy Reich, Marc Savard, Peter Schaefer, Marco Sturm, and Shawn Thornton.
The team that finished out the season was (new names bolded):
Goalies: Alex Auld, Manny Fernandez, Tim Thomas. Defensemen: Bobby Allen, Andrew Alberts, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Shane Hnidy, Mark Stuart, Aaron Ward, Dennis Wideman. Forwards: P.J. Axelsson, Patrice Bergeron, Phil Kessel, Chuck Kobasew, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Glen Metropolit, Glen Murray, Petteri Nokelainen, Jeremy Reich, Marc Savard, Peter Schaefer, Vladimir Sobotka, Marco Sturm, and Shawn Thornton.
Any Bruins fan should give props to the players who were here all season and got us to where we wanted to see them, the playoffs. As we all know, some of these players might not be wearing the spoked-B come this October, but this was a great team to watch on the ice this season.
General manager Peter Chiarelli certainly built Boston a strong and hard-working hockey team, and hopefully it will only get stronger in 2008-2009.