Yes, they were awful, but they had the Nos. 1 and 8 overall picks in the entry draft, which was made up of a very deep, very talented pool of prospects. They chose Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov, and it appeared help was on the way, as was a quick turnaround.

	Ray Bourque's 21-year tenure in Boston is over, leaving the Bruins to start rebuilding once again.

They went out and hired veteran head coach Pat Burns, who at the time was a two-time Jack Adams Trophy winner as NHL coach of the year in two of the toughest hockey cities in the world -- Montreal and Toronto.

With Ray Bourque still a dominant presence on defense, it seemed only a matter of time before the Bruins returned to contender status.

Flash forward to the present. The once-proud Bruins franchise is now in a complete shambles.

After nearly 21 distinguished years and five Norris Trophies, Bourque had finally had enough and asked for a trade. He got his wish Monday night -- although his first choice was Philadelphia -- when he was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche along with veteran left wing Dave Andreychuk.

Bourque out of Boston. It was something no one ever thought was possible. He was the most loyal, most reliable member of the team, a beloved icon in a city starved for sports heroes. He didn't say a lot, but he was revered as a classy, compassionate, hard-working superstar who was approachable, humble and forever a Bruin.

Forever ended with this deal. All signs point to Bourque having had enough. Enough of the losing, enough of the way Burns was treated, enough of the deterioration of a franchise clearly going in the wrong direction. Simply put, at 39 and with his career coming to a close, Bourque did not want to rebuild again.

If 1997 was the bottom of the Grand Canyon in terms of bad years, the 1999-2000 edition will be known as the one that sunk all the way to the depths of the Marianas Trench. That's how truly awful things are with this team.

The writing was on the wall in the offseason last summer, when contract talks with goalie Byron Dafoe, the Bruins' best player, deteriorated, Tim Taylor signed with the Rangers and Dmitri Khristich won too much money in arbitration. The team simply walked away, and the deconstruction of the Bruins was on.

Then came the injury to center Jason Allison, who wasn't replaced by management. What followed were some incredible incidents, including the signing of forward Joe Murphy, who arrived with a reputation as something of an oddball. Murphy looked promising at first, but gave Burns such an awful time that the coach finally had enough. Murphy was suspended and kicked off the club for insubordination. That exit was applauded privately by his teammates, who were incredulous that it was ever believed he would fit in on a roster of young, impressionable players.

The Bruins then got what everyone expected would be the biggest negative headlines of the year when defenseman Marty McSorley, another free-agent signing gone sour, joined the team. McSorley, a personable enough guy, went temporarily insane on Feb. 21, whacking Vancouver forward Donald Brashear in the temple with his stick and saying he was just trying to get Brashear to fight. As everyone knows, the league suspended McSorley for 23 games -- the balance of the Bruins' schedule -- and that's the point at which everyone around the team knew the season was toast.

Adding to the horror show earlier were owner Jeremy Jacobs' strangely timed and off-base comments indicting the job that Burns was doing, while endorsing the job that Sinden and O'Connell had done.

Given that management did nothing to help Burns while his team went from an NHL contender to one with a minor-league roster, it further proved that the Bruins' owner was only about the bottom line.

Then comes the sad chapter of Bourque. The club wasn't willing to build a winner around him, so he finds himself on a plane heading west in search of a chance at a Cup, a chance he was praying for in Boston his entire career.

He's gone, and there's no guarantee he'll win anything other than his freedom from the city he loves the most. But for him, that's probably a blessing in and of itself.

The only guarantee surrounding the Bruins now is that Burns, who won his third Jack Adams Trophy winner in his first season in Boston and is perhaps the best coach in franchise history, will be fired at the end of the season, and the Bruins will be at the bottom again.

For shame.