Three-hundred and sixty-two days ago, David Krejci grinned as he waded his way through a scrum of reporters and cameras at Warrior Ice Arena.
Just 82 days prior, the veteran pivot and the rest of his teammates collapsed on the TD Garden ice in shocked and sobering silence at the St. Louis Blues hoisted hockey's top prize in Boston's own barn.
But the lingering pain from that crushing exit in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final was at least temporarily flushed from Krejci's system as he addressed the media corps on Sept. 4, 2019 — with the hopes and promise that bubble up upon the start of each new season outweighing those agonizing reminders of last year's exit.
"I’m not over it. I don’t think I ever will. ... But that’s just something that you have to learn to live with it," Krejci said shortly after Boston wrapped up its first official captains practice at Warrior. "There’s only one way out of it, right? Have a good season and make a push to the playoffs.”
Even with the short turnaround between the 2019 Cup Final in June and another 82-game slate in October, optimism — and motivation — were palpable in Boston's dressing room as more bodies arrived at Boston's training facilities in the early fall.
Most of the same crew that fell 60 minutes short of a championship were back in the fold, even if franchise pillars like Zdeno Chara (42 years old), Patrice Bergeron (34), Krejci (33), Tuukka Rask (32) and Brad Marchand (31) certainly weren't getting any younger.
But, as he stood in front of us on close to a year ago, Krejci offered a few retorts to the regular narrative of Boston's Cup window closing with each passing year.
“I know you guys write a lot of things like that,” Krejci said. "(Being on the) wrong side of 30 ... I have no idea what the 'wrong side of 30' means. To me, I thought it was when you’re in your late 30s. ... Our guys in our 30s had really good seasons last year. We’re just a couple months older than we were last season. I feel like we’re in good shape and we’re ready to go.”
Sound logic from a veteran who often doesn't mince words, and a hopeful sign of a redemptive arc on the horizon in the coming year.
But, as we can all attest to, this year has brought little in terms of optimism — or, at the very least, any sliver of normalcy.
Three-hundred and sixty-two days after his opening address in Brighton, David Krejci made his way to the podium at Scotiabank Arena. Rather than field questions from a packed room of reporters, both Krejci and Marchand stared at the telling portrait of their own reflection on a video screen, with any inquiries from the press facilitated through Zoom and lofted through the speaker systems above the defeated skaters.
Krejci did not stare at the screen, nor the other individuals in the media room — all donning the masks and PPE that have become as commonplace to us as the keys and wallet we secure before leaving the house.
Rather, Krejci — his visage obscured by a flat-brimmed hat — looked down as he fielded questions following Boston's season-ending loss to the Lightning in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal.
The pain felt in that Bruins locker room last June might linger longer within this veteran core, but as Krejci struggled to put together the proper eulogy for the 2019-20 Bruins, a different sense of dread seemed to cloud that media room — one felt through a Zoom call over 500 miles away back here in the Commonwealth.
Regret was the prevailing sentiment in 2019, but resignation appeared to take hold on Monday night — with the Bruins' cornerstones accepting the reality for the first time in ... well, ever ... that their efforts of thwarting Father Time yet again may not come to fruition.
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Ryan: Season filled with so much promise ends only with regret - and pained resignation - for aging Bruins core - bostonsportsjournal.com
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