Haggerty: Nothing fluky about Bruins

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Its become increasingly trendy over the last few months to describe the Bruins epic run to the Stanley Cup two seasons ago as a fluke, or the serendipitous case of a hockey team simply catching lightning in a bottle.
Thats right, folks.
Subduing three different quality opponents in a trio of gripping seven game playoffs and reducing a once-proud Philadelphia Flyers team to rubble in four games - before GM Paul Holmgren dropped an off-season pile-driver onto the roster with trades of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter -- was more about luck than skill.
The quality hockey was kept to a minimum in the opinions of some hockey pundits despite Bostons ability to take down the best statistical opponent in the Vancouver Canucks.
Thats the kind of ham-fisted flotsam and jetsam getting floated by those pining for big, bold moves from Peter Chiarelli and the Bruins in this summer of discontent.
But lets get one thing straight: the Bruins arent a superstar-infused dynasty like the 1988 Edmonton Oilers. The Bruins will always be forced to wring maximum level or CL10 type efforts out of their roster to enjoy sustained success -- and if you dont know what CL10 is then youre not listening to enough Damon Amendolara in the evenings on 98.5 the Sports Hub.
But winning the Cup was no fluke. It wasnt a one-hit wonder like Mexican Radio from Wall of Voodoo, but it wasnt the decisive, victorious question that would answer all others. It was instead a healthy, fully efficient hockey club playing at the top end of their capabilities, and doing the hockey-rich city of Boston proud.
If anything was fluky about a recent Boston foray into the postseason, it was their first round fall to the Washington Capitals in seven games. The 2011-12 postseason run appears to be the outlier everybody was searching for when attempting to quantify what exactly is going on with this Bruins team.
But here are some facts that always seem to get in the way: the Bruins have pushed things to at least the seventh game in the second round of the playoffs in three of the last four years, theyve won the competitive Northeast Division in three of the last four years, and theyve finished among the top five NHL teams in goals per game in three of the last four years.
There was also the whole first team to win the Cup in Boston in 39 years to digest, brag about and finally contemplate on.
Furthermore, the Bruins finished as No. 2 in the NHL in goals per game twice in the last four years, and have experienced no goal-producing problems aside from the year Phil Kessel left town.
Does that sound like a hockey offense thats in dire need of an offensive transfusion from Rick Nash, Bobby Ryan or Keith Yandle?
Prior to this spring, the Bruins hadnt been a first round playoff victim since 2007-08 when Patrice Bergeron nearly had his hockey career derailed by a Randy Jones cheap shot. The Bruins were also a No. 8 seed during those playoffs, and widely expected to lose. Since then, the Black and Gold have been favorites in just about every playoff series theyve welcomed, and thats no fluke at all.

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