Buffalo Boy's Blog

I'm sorry but I saw this coming from a mile away which is why I refused to get my hopes up too much. Sure I rooted just as hard as I always do for this team but you could see this result in the playoffs coming since the west coast trip just before the Olympic break. This team didn't have what it took to play in the playoffs.

We were undersized and overmatched on special teams against a bigger and more aggressive Bruins team. We have to see things change in the offseason and why not start now, the changes are obvious:

I am not asking for Lindy Ruff's head but someone on his coaching staff needs to answer for why they were 0 for the series on the power play. Thomas Vanek being out since game two doesn't cut it either. They had plenty of chance and it didn't get done.

While we are on the topic of special teams, the penalty kill fell apart too, from one of the best in the league to running at less than 70% efficient in the first round.

Awful power play + bad penalty kill= early first round exit from playoffs. Im no coach or analyst but it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

We were oversized and it showed especially guys like Roy, Connolly and Pominville who seemed lost at times. Roy and Connolly especially disappeared. Pominville I can at least say was throwing some checks and hitting some people but Roy and Connolly seemed to shy away from contact and continued making the fancy passes instead of challenging Tuuka Rask with shots.

We have one too many of those fancy, dipsy-doodle type play makers on this team and whether its at draft time to trade up or at some point over the summer one of not a few of them needs to go and we need to get bigger and tougher upfront while maintaining some scoring up front. If I had my pick Connolly would find a new home this summer, I think Roy can play grittier than he showed.

We were too young as well. Tyler Ennis, Gerbe, McCormick and Kennedy all looked like boys at some point playing amongst men. It was a valuable 6 games or so that will hopefully give them a taste of it to savor for next year. Even Tyler Myers who came up this year and played a full season at 19 years old and should win the Calder Trophy easily looked just awe struck at times.