These Boston Bruins haven’t been accustomed to dropping streaks.
They tore by way of the N.H.L. throughout the common season, successful 65 video games, a single-season report; claiming the Presidents’ Trophy with a league-high of 135 factors, 22 factors clear of each different group; and outscoring their opponents by 128 objectives.
However in any case that successful, a three-game dropping streak, simply their second of the season, got here at an inopportune time. The Florida Panthers defeated the Bruins, 4-3, in extra time of Recreation 7 of their first-round playoff sequence on Sunday evening in Boston to finish a uncommon comeback from a 3-1 sequence deficit. They usually did so in opposition to a few of the most formidable opposition within the league’s 106-year historical past: The Bruins had 43 extra factors than the Panthers did within the common season.
Boston had been so dominant that on Saturday evening, after Toronto beat Tampa Bay to win a postseason sequence for the primary time since 2004, some followers of the Maple Leafs gathered outdoors the group’s enviornment and chanted, “We would like Florida.”
They obtained their want.
Carter Verhaeghe, a member of Tampa Bay’s 2020 championship group, clinched the sequence with a left-handed shot from the precise face-off dot by way of a display by Matthew Tkachuk.
The Panthers constructed a 2-0 lead early within the second interval, inciting a smattering of boos from an antsy Boston crowd. The Bruins scored three consecutive objectives and regarded poised to advance, however defenseman Brandon Montour pressured extra time by scoring his second objective of the sport with lower than a minute left, and the goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was despatched to the bench for an additional attacker.
By dropping within the first spherical, the Bruins had been dealt the identical destiny of the 2018-19 Lightning, who had shared the earlier report for single-season wins with the 1995-96 Detroit Crimson Wings. That Tampa Bay group crashed out in a four-game sweep to Columbus, inspiring an apology to the followers on social media. Of the 4 groups to win a minimum of 60 video games in a season, just one, the star-laden 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, went on to win the Stanley Cup.
This yr’s Bruins, below their first-year coach, Jim Montgomery, additionally had expertise all through their roster. 5 gamers had a minimum of 20 objectives, and 5 had a minimum of 40 assists. David Pastrnak, the star winger who signed an eight-year contract extension final month, led each these classes with profession highs of 61 objectives and 52 assists.
In internet, Linus Ullmark’s league-leading save proportion and goals-against common had positioned him as a favourite to win the Vezina Trophy. And when Ullmark was not in between the pipes, Jeremy Swayman was posting stellar numbers, too.
This yr, Boston turned the quickest group ever to succeed in 50 wins. By the tip, although, followers on the TD Backyard had been trudging towards the exits after the Bruins turned the twenty eighth N.H.L. group to lose a playoff sequence after main by 3-1.
Boston will now enter an low season with essential inquiries to reply. The group doesn’t have a lot wage cap area, and its unrestricted free brokers embrace two members of its most up-to-date championship group — Patrice Bergeron, the 37-year-old captain and a prime defensive ahead; and David Krejci, who had a objective and two assists on Sunday. The group had rallied round these veterans to attempt to ship them another title.
The Bruins additionally would not have high-end draft picks obtainable. They don’t have a first- or second-round choose this yr and, due to a previous commerce, they might not have a range within the 2024 draft till the fourth spherical.
The Panthers had been soundly crushed in Recreation 4 and had been one extra time objective away from their season being over within the subsequent recreation. As a substitute, improbably, they’ll play on.