For a couple days this summer, many Boston sports fans took a break from their righteous indignation regarding Deflategate to aim their outrage at the Bruins.
In a matter of hours on June 26, new general manager Don Sweeney traded both Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic — one considered a future cornerstone of the team, the other a pillar of its recent past — and did not get any established NHL players in return. The upcoming hockey season held all the hope and optimism of a David Simon miniseries.
But things are not that bleak. While the Bruins are not to be elite, they are not awful.