In the final minute of regulation, the TD Garden crowd was buzzing, sensing a series victory with the net empty and the home team holding a 3-2 lead. That’s when the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins were stunned. The Florida Panthers, who only snuck into the playoffs by a point, tied the game with a Brandon Montour blast to force overtime. It only got worse from there for the Bruins as the Panthers scored the game-winner off a quick shot from Carter Verhaeghe to pull off the series upset.
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The Panthers were never the same after that goal and played with a different energy. After defeating the Bruins in seven games, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games and swept the Carolina Hurricanes to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. They made a deep playoff run while the Bruins saw a historic season, one where they went 65-12-5, end in disappointment.
The Bruins and the Panthers meet again in a rematch that at first glance seems similar but is noticeably different. This time, the Panthers are the favorites as the team that finished the season with the best record in the Atlantic Division. This time, the Bruins have a similar core but different skaters taking on complementary roles. While it’s not a rerun of last season’s matchup, this series is sure to deliver like the one fans were treated to a season ago.
The 2023 First-Round Rematch
Last season the first round was great, not just between the Bruins and the Panthers, but in the entire NHL. Seven of the eight series went to a Game 6 and three of them went seven games. This series, however, was the most memorable. The Bruins jumped out to a 3-1 series lead but then watched things fall apart.
The Panthers took Game 5 in overtime and then pulled away in Game 6 with a 7-5 victory. The back-to-back victories forced the Bruins to make a goaltending change, a move that was seen as a desperate one by Jim Montgomery and the coaching staff (interestingly, they didn’t make the same mistake this time around). The Game 7 win completed the comeback and allowed the Panthers to go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
This season, the Bruins are the ones seeking revenge, yet both teams enter this series and the playoffs altogether with unfinished business to take care of. The Panthers, after losing in the Final to the Vegas Golden Knights, are looking to get back and more importantly, win the title, something the franchise has never experienced in its 25 years of existence. The Bruins meanwhile are looking to win one more Cup with some of the remaining core players. Last season, it was supposed to be the perfect sendoff for Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. It wasn’t meant to be but this season, it can be the final mark in a great career for Brad Marchand who was named the captain this season and won’t have many more chances to win it all.
Bruins & Panthers Are the Atlantic’s Two Best Teams
From end to end, the Bruins and Panthers have been the top two teams in the Atlantic Division and have battled for the top spot all season. It came down to the final game as the Bruins lost 3-1 to the Ottawa Senators to allow the Panthers to sneak past them. In an alternate universe, they win one of their last two games and secure the top seed, but what fun would that be? (if that happened, there would be no Battle of Florida and no Maple Leafs dramatic playoff exit – okay, the latter probably still would have happened).
Make no mistake, these two teams are the two best in the division and arguably two of the best teams in the NHL as well. They have looked great at both ends of the ice and have no glaring weaknesses. The Bruins once again have star power and depth but a goaltending unit that gave them an edge on a nightly basis. The Panthers have the star power to lead the way but are built from the net out with Sergei Bobrovsky having a Vezina Trophy-caliber season. With talent across the board, the matchups will be on full display all over the ice.
Matchups to Watch
The Bruins’ top six is led by Marchand and David Pastrnak while the Panthers have Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart leading the way offensively. Diving deeper, the spine of both forward units will make for an interesting series. Specifically, the Charlie Coyle vs Aleksander Barkov matchup will not only be fun but likely determine the winner of this series. Coyle was tasked with replacing Bergeron as the top-line center for the Bruins and he delivered this season, making him one of the under-the-radar skaters in the playoffs. He will go up against Barkov, one of the best two-way centers in the NHL who as a Selke Trophy finalist, has an uncanny ability to turn defense into instant scoring chances.
Barkov and Coyle will play pivotal roles for their teams throughout the series and similarly will the other centers on both rosters. The Bruins hope that Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, and Trent Frederic rebound from a forgettable first round as the three skaters combined for only five goals and three assists (in comparison, Verhaeghe scored five goals and four assists in two fewer games). For the Panthers, they’ll hope Anton Lundell steps up as a scorer in that second-line center role as he added four assists against the Lightning but never found the back of the net.
Another big element of this series will be the pace of play. Both teams want to slow things down by controlling the puck in the offensive zone and generating effective shots on the net. At the same time, they have the defensemen capable of adding a spark with stretch passes from the defensive zone and with their puck-handling ability.
The Panthers saw Gustav Forsling emerge as their top two-way player this season with 10 goals and 29 assists but Montour has a track record of making an impact in the playoffs. The Bruins meanwhile have a duo of Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy leading the way but Lindholm is the one who stole the show recently with his Game 7 performance against the Maple Leafs. With his team’s back against the wall, he scored the game-tying goal late in the third period, and in overtime, he sent a stretch pass off the boards to Pastrnak for the game-winner. It’s plays like those that can and should be expected in this series, one that could speed up on any given shift.
Expectations for the Bruins-Panthers Series
This is a series that like last season, should go the distance and anything short of that will be a disappointment. Both teams are evenly matched and will trade blows throughout the seven-game series. Likewise, the Bruins and Panthers should provide a dramatic ending and while it will be hard to top last season’s, it should be one that can be remembered for years to come.
Along with being a close series that goes seven games, each game should be tight and low-scoring. Both teams played great defense this season with the Panthers in particular allowing only 2.41 goals per game and it should result in plenty of defensive battles as a result.
The Bruins and Panthers are slowly budding into the rivalry of the decade. The two teams have become the model franchises of the Eastern Conference and are well-built teams from the top down. This series is Round 2 and will probably not be the final time they meet up in the playoffs in the seasons ahead.