The Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup window is now closed

Not only did the Boston Bruins see their Stanley Cup dreams evaporate on Wednesday night, but they also saw their championship window shut abruptly.

The Boston Bruins suffered a devastating 4-1 loss on home ice to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, so there’ll naturally be plenty of pain for this team to endure over the offseason.

But for the Bruins, it especially hurts because this was the last chance they had with the current core to win a Stanley Cup. They won it all in 2011 and missed out on the chance to add another in 2013, losing a heartbreaking six-game series to the Chicago Blackhawks.

More from Puck Prose

• Detroit Red Wings 2023 Rookie Camp Has Plenty of Ups and Downs
• This Columbus Blue Jackets rookie doesn’t want to be forgotten
• 2 trades the Boston Bruins must make to secure the Stanley Cup
• 3 reasons the Avalanche won’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024
• This is a big year for Alex Turcotte and the Los Angeles Kings

Six years later, the Bruins were back in the Cup Final, going up against a Cinderella St. Louis team that entered 2019 as the NHL’s worst team. Even though you got the sense that the Blues were a team of destiny, Boston just felt like the deeper, better and more experienced team. It felt like it was time for the city to add a third championship in eight months.

Boston lost a tough Game 5 by a final score of 2-1, but they went back to St. Louis and pulled off a convincing 5-1 victory to force a seventh game at TD Garden. Now, it really looked like the Bruins were going to win.

But goalie Jordan Binnington completely shut the door with 32 saves, and the Blues took advantage of Boston’s sloppy defensive play with four goals. The Bruins couldn’t do anything against a perfectly-executed shutdown system implemented by head coach Craig Berube.

And when all is said and done, the Bruins will look back on Game 7 as a lost opportunity to add their last Stanley Cup for quite some time.

Patrice Bergeron has fought off father time – he tallied 32 goals and a career-high 79 points during the regular season despite missing 17 games. But he’s 34 this offseason, and that heavy two-way style will catch up on him before long. Can he really match a career-best year in his mid-30s? Probably not.

Speaking of career years, Brad Marchand tallied 100 points at the age of 30. That simply isn’t sustainable. He’s going to fall back to the 80-90 point rage next season, especially with his center (Bergeron) bound for regression.

Zdeno Chara will likely play again next season, but he turned 42 years of age in March. How much longer can he play top-four minutes? Chara’s slowly declined for the most part over the last five years.

The Bruins also have just over $14.303 million in projected cap space, per CapFriendly.  It’s unlikely they’ll be able to retain playoff hero and marquee trade deadline pickup Marcus Johansson, who should command at least $5 million a season. On top of that, RFA blueliners Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy are due significant raises.

Back in February, Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic (subscription required) reported that McAvoy “turned down a long-term offer last offseason.” Based on his excellent play this season, it’s easy to believe McAvoy will want at least $7 million a season. Maybe more.

Johansson is a goner, and general manager Don Sweeney will have to get crafty in retaining both McAvoy and Carlo. He might even be forced to trade away one of his better roster players in order to make room for both defencemen.

So, you have inevitable regression from key players. You also have the fact that Boston will have virtually no cap space to add more impact players. And if that’s not scary enough, consider the state of their Atlantic division foes.

• Despite getting swept in the first round, the Tampa Bay Lightning should still be considered the 2020 Stanley Cup favorite. They’ve had Boston’s number in recent years, and you know they’ll be back in full force next year.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated by the Bruins in round one for the second straight year, but they have to break through eventually. With Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews leading the charge, the Leafs have to get past Boston eventually. They can’t keep going out in the first round. Too much talent.
• The Florida Panthers hired a legendary head coach in Joel Quenneville, and they stand a good chance at landing both Artemi Panarin and/or Sergei Bobrovsky. You can bet they’ll be a legitimate threat in the East if general manager Dale Tallon can land at least one of the two.
• The Montreal Canadiens narrowly missed out on the postseason. With bundles of cap space, a great mix of youth and veterans plus a handful of elite prospects on the way, you can bet they’ll be in the running for the Atlantic Division title as well.

Right there, you have four divisional foes who will be absolutely dangerous in 2019, whereas the Bruins will struggle to match their 107 points from the regular season, especially when you consider they somehow pulled off a remarkable 19-game point streak. Good luck repeating that.

Add it all up, and it’s safe to say this was Boston’s last chance to win a Cup in the Bergeron-Marchand-Chara era. The Bruins have some young talents like David Pastrnak and McAvoy, but the top-tier players are getting up there in age.

Meanwhile, teams like Florida, Toronto and Montreal figure to be true Cup contenders for years to come, and Tampa’s window is open for several more years.

So yes, this was Boston’s final opportunity to win while they had the current group together. They’ll make the playoffs next season, but they won’t be getting anywhere close to that Stanley Cup like they did this year.