Bruins Head Home For The Summer After Missing Playoffs For The First Time Since 2016

The Boston Bruins didn't even bother teasing their fans with a spectacular regular season before heading home for the summer this time.

The Bruins finished with a 5-4 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night, wrapping up a lost season in which they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and posted their first losing record since 2007.

"I'm sad it's over, obviously. That's pretty much the only answer I can give you right now," forward David Pastrnak said. "It's tough. Obviously want to keep playing. And I'll leave it at that, I guess."

The Bruins had topped 100 points in each of the six previous non-pandemic years, including a record-setting 135-point 2022-23 campaign that was the best regular season in NHL history. But since losing in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, they haven't made it past the second round of the playoffs they have won only one series in the last four years.

That led to the firing of first Bruce Cassidy, and then Jim Montgomery, who was let go 20 games into this season and replaced with Joe Sacco. But the interim coach could only manage a 25-30-7 record the rest of the way - last in the Atlantic Division, and no better than tied for last in the whole Eastern Conference.