Devastating. Stunning. Shocking. Unbelievable. Embarrassing. Improbable.
Like slap shots from the point, those adjectives are being fired at the Boston Bruins after their 4-3 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers Sunday night and their unexpected exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round.
All apply, to be sure, but I will add two words to describe the surprising end to the Bruins season.
Epic. Collapse.
The Bruins suffered a meltdown for the ages. After posting the most regular-season victories (65) and points (135) in National Hockey League history, they lost to a team that finished 43 points behind them in the standings and got into the playoffs at the end of the regular season, one point ahead of Buffalo.
But, Boston and Florida split their season series, each winning two games. Boston had a slight advantage in goals, 17-15. Still, they were the overwhelming favorite in this series, especially when when they won three of the first four games.
Then the wheels came off the Bruins bus. They looked old, which they are. Tired, which they no doubt were. And hurt, which they also were. A herniated disk hampered Patrice Bergeron, the captain who returned this season for one last quest for the Holy Grail of Hockey.
They lost Games 5 and 7 in overtime at home. They scored five goals in Game 6 on the road and lost. Goalie Linus Ullmark couldn’t stop anything in a disastrous third period.
Suddenly, it appeared, they were a step slower than the younger, aggressive Panthers. I’m not a hockey guy, and I could see it. For long stretches of Game 7 they couldn’t make a pass or clear the puck. Somehow they rallied from a 2-0 deficit and took a 3-2 lead in the third period. Florida kept attacking, though, digging the puck out along the boards, keeping the puck in the Boston end and Bruins fans in black and gold on their feet praying that their heroes Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, goalie Jeremy Swayman and friends could hang on as the Panthers flooded the Bruins zone with six skaters. Those prayers went unanswered.
Brandon Montour scored with 60 seconds to play in the third. Tie game. Overtime. At 8:35 of the extra period, the Panthers flying and the Bruins flailing, Carter Verhaeghe blasted a shot over Swayman’s left shoulder and just under the crossbar for the series-clinching goal. In that instant, the record-setting season of the 2023 Boston Bruins crashed to an end. No second round. No Stanley Cup final. No championship. No duck boat parade through the streets of Boston.
For these Bruins, only a seat at the table of crushing losses by Boston teams. Perhaps at the head of the table, looking down at the 1986 Red Sox, who were one strike away from winning the World Series but instead lost Game 6 on first baseman Bill Buckner’s error. They dropped Game 7 the next night. And a few seats away the 1978 Red Sox who blew a 14-game mid-July lead over the Yankees and lost a one-game playoff at Fenway Park, thanks in part to Yankee Bucky Dent’s three-run homer that crawled over the Green Monster.
These Bruins — players, coaches, fans — will feel the sting of this one for a long time. They should, for they suffered an epic collapse.
