The Bruins’ shocking exit to the Panthers will haunt the franchise forever. The Panthers getting all the way to the Stanley Cup Final doesn’t change that. In fact, it should make the disappointment in Boston even greater.
If the Bruins win any of those games, it's not hard to imagine them preparing for the Stanley Cup Final right now.The Toronto Maple Leafs once again proved to be unreliable when it matters most. The Leafs' top players -- Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares -- consistently failed to show up in clutch situations against the Panthers. Florida ran through Toronto in five games in the second round.
The Carolina Hurricanes were pretty beaten up by the time they got to the Eastern Conference Final. They were without three of their best forwards -- Max Pacioretty, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen -- due to injury. The Hurricanes' depth up front was depleted and they scored just six goals in four conference finals games against the Panthers. Carolina's goaltending was mediocre for much of the regular season and it wasn't much better in the playoffs.
Unlike last season, the Bruins probably would have rolled through this version of the Hurricanes, similar to what they did during the 2019 Eastern Conference Final.Of course, there's no guarantee the Bruins would have steamrolled through the second and third rounds if they had beaten the Panthers, especially with, Hampus Lindholm dealing with injuries, but they would have had a pretty good chance of reaching the Cup Final regardless.
And that's what makes the first-round loss even more excruciating for the Bruins. The path would not have been super difficult. The competition wasn't as fierce as imagined. The 2023 playoffs were a golden opportunity for the franchise to win its second Stanley Cup this century. We could have had a Bruce Cassidy vs. the Bruins matchup in the Stanley Cup Final -- assuming his Vegas Golden Knights finish off the Dallas Stars . That would have been incredible..
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