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Record-setting Bruins, champion Avalanche fall on stunning night in NHL

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May 1, 2023 at 8:18 a.m. EDT
The stunned Boston Bruins now head into the offseason. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
3 min

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way for the team that led the NHL wire-to-wire, breaking records for success in the regular season.

But Presidents’ Trophy winners have a habit of falling short in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Boston Bruins are the latest team to be eliminated in the first round, left stunned Sunday night by a 4-3 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 in Boston. The defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche experienced the same stinging deflation hours later in Denver, being eliminated, 2-1, by the second-year Seattle Kraken in another winner-take-all game.

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The Bruins were well aware of what was at stake, with winger Brad Marchand telling ESPN in March: “If you win the Presidents’ Trophy but you don’t win the Cup, nobody cares. That’s what we know on this team.”

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Even the Panthers, who roared back from a 3-1 deficit in the series and forced overtime on a goal by defenseman Brandon Montour with a minute left in regulation, were in disbelief at the monumental accomplishment of having beaten the most successful team in NHL history, one that set records with 65 wins and 135 points.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” forward Matthew Tkachuk told reporters. “The talent they have over there in Boston is unbelievable. That we were able to do what we did after what they did all year … the fact that we were able to beat them in the playoffs is crazy.”

The end came on a goal by Carter Verhaeghe 8:35 into overtime, when Tkachuk screened Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman. The win sends Florida to a second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who eliminated the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday for their first playoff series win since 2004.

“I guess the words that come to mind right now are disappointment and confusion,” Bruins Coach Jim Montgomery said. He also used the word “stupefying.”

At least the Bruins have company, thanks to a Presidents’ Trophy “curse.” Since the trophy was first awarded to the team with the best regular season record in the 1985-86 season, only 11 regular season champions have advanced to the Stanley Cup finals, with eight winning. Since the wild-card format came into being in 2013-14, no Presidents’ Trophy winner has advanced to the finals. The Panthers, last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winner with 122 points, perhaps had extra insight about the Bruins after losing in the second round of last year’s playoffs to Tampa Bay.

“They had a crazy regular season,” Verhaeghe said, “but the playoffs are completely different. I mean, we had a crazy regular season last year, and it really didn’t amount to anything.”

Colorado was also on the wrong end of history Sunday night, sent home with a loss in which the Kraken became the first team to eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion in its first playoff series. Colorado has lost its past six Game 7s.

“Within the group, we believe in ourselves,” Seattle forward Oliver Bjorkstrand, who had both Kraken goals, told TNT. “It’s been like that all series. … We knew what we had to do to come in here and win the game.”

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