Buckley: On road to irrelevance

The Bruins did more than win a Stanley Cup in 2011. In rubbing out the Vancouver Canucks on the strength of Tim Thomas’ stellar goaltending and an in-your-face tenacity (literally so, as evidenced by Brad Marchand’s rope-a-dope with Daniel Sedin), the Bruins were finally allowed to sit at the grown-ups table with the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics.

No longer were the B’s pressing their faces against the glass outside the candy store. Now they were champions, just like the Pats, Sox and C’s have been in these crazy early years of the 21st century.

It was like the old days of Bobby Orr and the Big, Bad Bruins. Boston had become hockey crazy, and there was every reason to believe the good times…