The Boston Bruins had a record-breaking regular season, where they became the team in NHL history with the most points and wins.
They were the clear favorite to win the Cup, but their season ended with an OT loss in Game 7 to the Florida Panthers, leaving the team and city in shock.
Now, the question on everyone’s mind is how they handle the off-season. The B’s have a lot of puzzling to do, and decisions to make, regarding their roster.
They need to re-sign players like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek, Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, and Garnet Hathaway, and they don’t have a lot of cap space to work with.
The B’s invested a lot in signing Bertuzzi, Orlov, and Hathaway during the season, and Bertuzzi, in particular, was a perfect fit. His tough play style and winning mentality earned him respect from the B’s fanbase, and his ten points were tied first for the team lead in playoff points with Brad Marchand.
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Bertuzzi earned himself a spot in the first line with Bergeron and Marchand for Game 7, and it’s not a wild guess that many fans will want to see Bertuzzi in Boston in the future as well.
When Brad Marchand was asked about his thoughts about all the UFA signings in Boston, he couldn’t resist the urge to burn Bertuzzi.
“Yeah, obviously, we’d love for all of them to stay except for Bert,” he said, according to firstsportz.com. ”No, we’d love for everybody to stay. They’re all incredible guys.”
When Bertuzzi first joined the Bruins, Marchand talked about how special it was to be teammates with players he previously had battles with.
”I still hate those guys,” he said. “No, yeah, I’m sure there are some guys that I could find if I really thought about it, but you know I’m trying to love everybody now. It’s frustrating. I don’t like playing with guys that I hated because now I love them, and we get along great off the ice.”
Marchand felt that his new teammates adapted well, and he liked the group they had coming into the playoffs.
“Off the ice as well as players on the ice. They gelled with our group right away, and we all got along really well with all three of them,” he said of Bertuzzi, Orlov, and Hathaway.
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