The Boston Bruins came into the season with high hopes.
They’ve made the last eight consecutive Stanley Cup Playoffs and 15 of the last 17. Just two seasons ago, they broke the NHL record for most points in a single season.
Last season, they made it to the second round of playoffs, losing in six games to new rival and eventual Stanley Cup champion, the Florida Panthers.
However, this season started off weird — and only got worse.
Some free agent contracts the Bruins handed out looked questionable in the offseason and are aging like milk as the season goes along.
Center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov together have a $12.75 million cap hit and have not added enough to the team to justify the price tag.
Star goaltender Jeremy Swayman signed a contract only two days before the first game of the season after messy public negotiations, so he went into the season less prepared than any other goalies across the league.
Whether it was the timing, spite or some other less cynical reason, Swayman has not performed up to standard.
At the deadline, the Bruins traded fan-favorite center Trent Frederic, locally grown and former Boston University center Charlie Coyle and, in a defeated flash of a white flag, captain Brad Marchand.
Marchand was not only the last player remaining from the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning Bruins team, but he was also traded to the Panthers.
The team currently sits four points out of a wild card spot. Making the playoffs is not out of the picture, but the on-ice product and the overall sentiment surrounding the team could not be less encouraging. The environment doesn’t help either.
I’ve been to six NHL arenas, 14 Division-1 NCAA hockey arenas and an NAHL amateur game. I feel comfortable saying my experiences as a fan at almost every other arena have been more fun than Bruins games at TD Garden.
The Bruins are an Original Six team with more history than most other professional sports teams in North America, but that doesn’t mean they have to play their games as straight as they do.
The games I’ve seen more recently at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and the Delta Center in Salt Lake City had much more dramatic pregame theatrics to build excitement for the games.
On-ice graphics, themed hype videos and light shows to open periods make the experience of going to an NHL game worth the price of admission and then some.
College games, even with less technology and less high-end production, can create a spectacle. The charm of a lot of the arenas and the committed involvement of student sections set these games apart.
One of the best hockey experiences I’ve had was a packed Alfond Arena in the middle of Maine with the old, pitched wood ceiling, chants raining down onto the opposing goalie and all the history that’s happened between those walls.
These aspects bring out the deeper emotion of a sporting event, which is why many people go in the first place.
On the other hand, I didn’t like Madison Square Garden.
It was cramped, impossible to move through the concourses and I didn’t enjoy hearing the Rangers’ goal song seven times — though that was mostly my Boston bias.
I still have to acknowledge that the team put on a great show in one of the most iconic venues in the world.
The Bruins have the technology to do the same thing — they just don’t.
Lackluster attempts to engage the fans between whistles. No on-ice hype videos, even though they have the technology for it. No fun bear mouth to skate out of before the game, if they wanted to take a page from the San Jose Sharks or the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks.
The Bruins are not struggling to sell tickets, but that’s just how Boston is. The fans have entertained themselves. But they shouldn’t have to.
If the team isn’t going to be very fun to watch, the Bruins need to make everything else about going to a game more engaging to make up for it.
