Boston — The situation is as follows: Though they weren’t an invincible team, the Boston Bruins did establish records for victories and points throughout the regular season. It would have made some sense if they advanced to the postseason after winning 65 games and accruing 135 points, only to fall short against another elite club in the NHL. That’s just how playoff hockey is.
It’s not like the Bruins lost to a very good team. The team they fell to was the Florida Panthers, who only just managed to qualify for the tournament by winning two fewer games than they lost in the regular season and going into the postseason without a legitimate starting goalie. They had Brandon Montour, a superb offensive defenseman, and Matthew Tkachuk, a highly potent scoring threat.
However, they were unable to match the top-seeded Bruins pound for pound. Not even near.
However, here we are.
It turned out that the Panthers just had more. Greater perseverance, tenacity, leap, and fortitude than the best regular-season squad in history. And as a result, they celebrated on Boston’s rink on Sunday night, bringing an end to what most people believed would be a lengthy and fruitful postseason run for the Bruins.
It won’t make sense in the near future. Perhaps it will never make sense.
Following the Game 7 overtime loss, the Bruins made every effort to clarify their actions. Florida completed their checks, took advantage of openings, scouted Boston beforehand, and meticulously plotted their approach. On a micro level, that would make some sense, but it doesn’t explain how this happened in the grand scheme of things.
particularly because… in the third period, the Bruins once again became the Bruins. They turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead by looking this massive failure in the eye. It would have taken them a minute to move on. Like the 2011 Cup-winning team, they had to put in more time and effort than they had wanted, but in the end, they prevailed. Boston was just a few clears or one empty-net goal away from hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the TD Garden on Tuesday night, with the Florida net empty.
But then something terrible happened. With a casual block, Patrice Bergeron moved the puck out of danger and straight onto Montour’s stick. He shot towards goal, and the puck rebounded off a stick and past Jeremy Swayman, as is often when tight playoff games continue. Match play. Gradually.
To survive in that overtime, the Bruins required two Grade-A saves from Swayman, one on a breakaway by Tkachuk and the other on a point-blank redirection by Carter Verhaeghe.
