Bruins Are History in More Ways Than One

Good morning and happy Monday, May 1st.

Wow, what a weekend of hockey?! Let’s get to it…

We can call the Florida Panthers’ triumph over the Boston Bruins a one-of-a-kind event and perhaps the biggest playoff series upsets in NHL history except for the fact that something similar happened four years ago.

In 2019, the Tampa Bay Lightning won 62 regular-season games to tie an NHL record and then were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs. This year, the Bruins set a new league mark of 65 regular-season wins and then blew a 3-1 series and a Game 7 to Florida to get eliminated in the first round.

Florida defenseman Brandon Montour scored with one minute left in regulation to tie the game and Carter Verhaeghe scored at 8:35 of overtime to give the Panthers a series-clinching 4-3 win. The Panthers, a wild-card playoff qualifier, finished 43 points behind Boston in the standings.

Verhaeghe boasts 10 career playoff goals, and five are game-winners. Only three players in NHL history – Clark Gillies (7), Brad Richards (7) and Chris Drury (6) – had more game-winners among their first 10 playoff goals.

Montour had two goals in the Game 7 and five in the series. Only four defensemen in NHL history scored more goals in a single NHL playoff series: Bobby Orr (7 in 1970 for Boston), Al Iafrate (6, 1993, Washington), Paul Reinhart (6, 1983, Calgary) and Denis Potvin (6, 1981, New York Islanders).

"That's what playoff hockey is. You play hard, you play simple,” Panthers center Aleksander Barkov said. “You take what they give you, and like (teammate) Matthew Tkachuk said, live to fight another day."

Almost 1 million fans completed brackets for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs Challenge by Geico and 35.9% of those brackets had the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup.

This is the eighth time that the President’s Trophy winner has been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves for the Panthers in this deciding game against the 65-win Bruins. Coincidentally, he was also in net for the Blues Jackets four years ago when they knocked off the 62-win Lightning.

Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, 37, said after the game he wasn’t sure whether he would retire or not.

🐙 Oliver Bjorkstrand scores twice as Kraken upset the Avalanche 2-1 in game 7. Bjorkstrand scored his 1st goal of the night just over three minutes into the 2nd period, centering a backhand pass that deflected off two players before crossing the goal line. And just four minutes later he sniped a snapshot bar and in past the glove of Alexandar Georgiev. Mikko Rantanen got the Avs on the board late in the 2nd but Philipp Grubauer shut the door the rest of way, collecting 33 saves and a .971 save percentage in the win. The Kraken become the 1st NHL expansion team to eliminate defending champs in playoff debut

🔵⚪️ Toronto breaks the curse, advance to the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2004. Auston Matthews put the Leafs up 1-0 midway through the 2nd and Tampa’s captain Steven Stamkos tied the game just over four minutes into the third, forcing overtime. Leafs’ netminder Ilya Samsonov stopped 31 of 32 shots against before Mississauga, Ontario native John Tavares played the hero Saturday night, scoring 4:35 into overtime to defeat and eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning. The loss ends Tampa Bay's run of three consecutive appearances in the Stanley Cup Final.

Who is the only NHL franchise to not play in a game 7?

Walking into a Canadian sports bar this week…

• Devils confident heading home for Game 7 against Rangers

• Yamamoto scores series-clincher to advance Oilers past Kings

• Dallas Stars handle the Wild with 4-2 series win

• Hurricanes will consider playing both Raanta, Andersen in 2nd round

• 'Resilient' Oilers overcome bad break to eliminate Kings

• Jets' Wheeler on Bowness: 'I didn't like how he handled himself after the game'

• Cogliano out rest of playoffs for Avalanche with neck fracture

• Are McDavid's struggles against the Golden Knights concerning for the Oilers?

• Brossoit's emergence a testament to Golden Knights' depth

• Ryan Reynolds, Remington Group planning $1B bid for Senators

• 🔈 Watch & listen to Sam Reinhart’s bar and in nearside snipe

• 🍾 Kailer Yamamoto scores through a crowd to eliminate the Kings

• 💥 David Krejci blasts one-timer shortside

• 🚀 Nathan MacKinnon unleashed rocket one-timer that apparently deflects in off Rantanen

• 🎯 Mika Zibanejad snipes high glove to give the Rangers the lead

• 2v3 Cross Drop Drill

• Advanced edgework with one foot standing on a puck

TRIVIA ANSWER

Columbus Blue Jackets are the only NHL franchise to not play a game 7

Monday