The Florida Panthers would end the Boston Bruins season in game seven overtime when Carter Verhaeghe scored the game-winner.
The Series
Boston would head into game five of the series with a 3-1 series lead over Florida. Everyone expected the Bruins’ to end Florida’s season that night in the Garden, well that wouldn’t happen. As Boston would lose the game 4-3 in overtime. Matthew Tkachuk would score that game-winning goal. The series would head back to Florida for game six, surely Boston would end it this time, right? Well, you would also be wrong if you thought that. As Boston would lose once again, this time 7-5 in regulation. This would force the series to go to game seven back at the Garden in Boston. Boston would surely win this one as they hadn’t lost three straight all season, right? Well, you would be close, as they still lost. But the game-tying goal to send the game to overtime would be scored with 59.3 seconds remaining in the third by Brandon Montour. The Bruins season would come to an end just under nine minutes into overtime. As Carter Verhaeghe would score the game-winner eight minutes and 53 seconds into overtime. What most thought was impossible had become a reality, the Panthers would upset the Bruins to advance to the second round and face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Boston’s Mistake
The Boston Bruins would make a commodity of errors in games five, six and seven. With the most apparent being the number of turnovers. The Bruins’ would make a habit of turning the puck over and leaving goalies Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman out to dry at times. This was unusual for the team that won a record 65 games in the regular season and was a defensive powerhouse. Not all the blame is on the skaters, however, as Ullmark would also allow some really bad goals. Including that of the game-five OT winner. The Bruins’ desperately needed to play good defense and help their goalies out. They did this for the most part, as the top two defensive pairings did that decently. It was the third pairing of Derek Forbort and Conor Clifton that was terrible for it. Forbort frankly should’ve been sitting in the press box from game one of the playoffs. With Matt Grzelyck getting a spot in the lineup instead. That didn’t happen for whatever reason, and that very well could’ve cost the Bruins’ the series. Nonetheless, hindsight is 20/20.
The End
The end of the Bruins season could be more emotional than any other to this point. As captain Patrice Bergeron would salute the fans at TD Garden after the Bruins’ loss. This could be a sign of him retiring soon. If so Bergeron has had a Hall Of Fame caliber career. With the forward posting 427 goals and 1,040 points in 1,294 regular season games. But with Bergeron, it wasn’t all about points, as he has won a record five Selke Trophies for being the best defensive forward in the NHL, and has a good chance at taking home his six this season. Hopefully, this isn’t the end of the Bergeron dawning the spoked B, but if it is hopefully he joins the team in some coaching or player development role.
What’s Next?
With the Boston Bruins season over now, the attention turns to the off-season. The Bruins don’t have much cap space to throw around as they are getting some $4 million in cap overages due to bonuses for Jeremy Swayman, Patrice Bergeron, and David Krejci. The Bruins will have to do what they can with the amount they have, as they most notably need to re-sign Jeremy Swayman. As well as look for a number one center if Bergeron does indeed retire. On the contrary, if Bergeron were to not retire they would have to sign him as well. The same goes for David Krejci. The Bruins will also have to choose who resign out of the following, Conor Clifton, Dimitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Nick Foligno, Trent Frederic, Jakub Lauko, Tomas Nosek, and Tyler Bertuzzi. The biggest decision will be who to sign between Orlov and Bertuzzi. As both players played a huge part in the Bruins’ first-round series and the latter half of the Bruins’ season. It’ll definitely be an interesting season for Bruins GM Don Sweeney.
My name is Joe Moore. I am a writer for Belly Up Hockey, Belly Up Racing, and Belly Up Sports. You can find me on Twitter.
