(Ed. Note: It’s the NHL Alternate History project! We’ve asked fans and bloggers from 31 teams to pick one turning point in their franchise’s history and ask ‘what if things had gone differently?’ Trades, hirings, firings, wins, losses, injuries … all of it. How would one different outcome change the course of history for an NHL team? Today: Pete Blackburn, writing free agent and podcaster for ListenToBrunch and , on the Boston Bruins. Enjoy!)

By Pete Blackburn

Despite what you may have heard, I am not God.

I don’t have divine powers. As much as I’d like to, I can’t lasso the moon for Jennifer Aniston. Life isn’t fair.

But Greg has given me the power to play God for a day. Not only that, I’m a time-traveling God – one tasked with changing a specific moment in Boston Bruins history to create an alternate timeline for the franchise.

As one of the NHL’s Original Six teams, the Bruins have a long, rich history. But, as a ‘90s womb-evacuator, I’ve got about a decade and a half worth of material I feel comfortable enough to toy with.

The Bruins have certainly had more than a few regrettable moments in that timeframe, so my choice may come as a bit of a surprise, so first let me explain my thinking.

THE OBVIOUS

Give Bruins fan a shot at a do-over and there’s a good chance the majority are going to nullify a trade.

You can take your pick, but I imagine most would revisit the decisions to part ways with Joe Thornton (sent to San Jose in 2005 for Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau) or Tyler Seguin (shipped to Dallas in 2013 for Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, Matt Fraser and Joe Morrow).

Waxing either of those deals makes a lot of sense, obviously. Both of those guys were proven offensive stars traded in (or before) their prime. Thornton’s a future Hall of Famer, Seguin’s one of the game’s current elite.

If you look up “bad idea” in the dictionary, one definition is “trading a superstar for two or three good players.” (Find it right next to “pivoting to video.”) Proof of idiocy: Bruins now have exactly zero players in the organization that arrived as a result of those two deals, either directly or indirectly.

I thought about devising an alternate history in which those two trades didn’t happen. Pushing ‘reset’ on Seguin is especially tempting because that wound is fresher and the aftermath is still haunting.

It was the first in a series of moves that caused them to slip from Eastern Conference powerhouse to squatters in league purgatory. After two Cup Final appearances during Seguin’s three seasons in Boston, they have a single playoff series win since.

Yes, Bruins fans might be a happier bunch these days if that trade never happened.

But most Bruins fans have probably already spent way too much time thinking about what life would be like if either No. 19 stuck around in Boston. That fantasyland ticket has been punched over and over and over again.

Instead, I wanted to explore a road less traveled. I thought about other instances – most of them centered around 2013 and everything in its wake — including but not limited to:

What if Jarome Iginla chose Boston instead of Pittsburgh in 2013?

What if Chris Kelly didn’t miss a wide open net and cost the Bruins a big goal in Game 4 of the 2013 SCF?

What if the Blackhawks didn’t score two in 17 seconds?

What if Dennis Seidenberg hadn’t torn his ACL and MCL in ‘13-14?

Toying with any of those outcomes may push the Bruins closer to a second Stanley Cup in three years and lead to a very different series of events in the years following.

But, ultimately, the most thought-provoking reversal I could think of may not result with the Bruins lifting multiple Cups. In fact, it might actually take away the only one they’ve got since the turn of the century.

That brings us to…

WHAT IF MARC SAVARD NEVER GOT HURT?

You likely already know the story, but Bruins center Marc Savard had his playing career cut short thanks to a number of concussions and the scary, lingering effects that terrorized him for years.

Savard’s final concussion came in January of 2011, during a game in Colorado. He was hit clean by Matt Hunwick, his head bounced off the glass, and his career was over at the age of 33.

But, for the purposes of this exercise, that’s not the incident we’ll focus on. Instead, let’s key in on the most notable (and brutal) concussion Savard suffered, the one he says was “the start of some really dark days” — the one handed to him by Matt Cooke 10 months prior.

Though it technically wasn’t a career-ending hit, that incident was the beginning of the end for Savard. He was cleared to play in the second round of the 2010 playoffs (when he famously scored the overtime-winner in his first game back) but he kept battling symptoms of post-concussion syndrome and missed the start of the following season. The follow-up in Colorado sealed the deal.

Story continues