They came in with a mantra of "unfinished business," from their loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season to the St. Louis Blues and from the regular season, when they won the Presidents' Trophy with a .714 points percentage.
That business, however, remains unfinished.
The Bruins ran into issues right from the start of the NHL Return to Play. Their top scorer, David Pastrnak, who tied for the NHL lead with 48 goals in the regular season, missed all but one day of training camp, as did their biggest pickup at the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline, forward Ondrej Kase, each due to quarantine restrictions. They fell from the No. 1 to the No. 4 seed in the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, and Tuukka Rask, the starting goalie who is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy for the top goalie in the NHL, opted out to go home for a family emergency.
They got down 3-1 in their series against the Lightning, and down 1-0 at 4:21 in the second period of Game 5, but they did all they could to come back. Goalie Jaroslav Halak had none of the soft goals or miscues that happened earlier in the playoffs. As coach Bruce Cassidy said, "He stopped everything that he literally could." The Bruins created chance after chance, tying the game first on Pastrnak's goal at 12:38 of the second and then on Krejci's.
They just couldn't get the final goal, an issue that plagued them throughout the playoffs.
"We're disappointed," Cassidy said. "We thought we were the better team tonight and we wanted to play on. We put ourselves in a hole, obviously, but we felt we played well enough to win tonight, get it to Game 6 and then see what happens from there."
Instead, they will be packing their bags, and contemplating their futures.
That includes Chara, the oldest player in the NHL and the captain of the Bruins since 2006-07. Chara had the primary assist on the game-tying goal, perhaps the final point of a career that could land him in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"I haven't made that decision," Chara said about whether he would return. "I obviously just finished the game and I'm going to be open-minded."
But whether he returns or not, it's clear the Bruins were contemplating their futures after it was over Monday. Many of them know that there aren't many chances left.
"It's tough," Marchand said. "You never know how many opportunities you're going to have to win a Cup. We never know if we're going to be back in the Finals again, or even in playoffs again. So every opportunity missed -- it hurts."