Is this the year the Bruins (finally) take a big step back?

There were already some cracks in the foundation, and now there are some big questions.

With the lone exception of two mediocre years at the tail end of the Peter Chiarelli era, the Boston Bruins have been a mainstay in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the past 17 years and consistently one of the league’s best regular season teams. Playoff success has not always been as consistent, but they are always in it, always competitive and always find ways to keep churning out 100-point seasons while everybody outside of Boston keeps waiting for them to fall off.

But could the 2024-25 season finally be the year that decline happens?

I guess if you keep asking that question every single season you are due to be right at some point, so … let’s keep asking it.

It also largely depends on what you consider to be a decline.

Will they be a playoff team? Probably. Most likely. It would be kind of shocking if they are not. There is still enough high-end talent on the roster that expecting them to lose 15 points or more in the standings might be expecting too much.

But could they slide down closer to the playoff bubble, and perhaps even a wild card spot where they have to sweat it out a little bit just to get in?

That might be a more realistic possibility.

Perhaps even a reality.

As good as the Bruins were during the 2023-24 season (107 points in the standings, winning another first-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs) there were some real cracks starting to show in the foundation, and it is going to become increasingly harder to ignore them.

Or fill them.

Especially after the way this offseason has played out.

Let’s talk about it.