When the Boston Bruins fired former coach Bruce Cassidy following the 2021-22 season, it caught a lot of people by surprise. It may have caught nobody by surprise more than Bruce Cassidy. It happened a few weeks after he appeared to have gotten the all-clear to return for the following season and in May, long after everyone went their separate ways for the summer.
General manager Don Sweeney pivoted to Jim Montgomery to be his next coach, which was a move that not many saw coming. However, all he did was lead the best regular season in NHL history in terms of wins and points in an 82-game season. Everything that could go right did go right. However, when it came to the playoffs, well, it ended up being a complete failure.
Boston Bruins missed golden opportunity to make NHL history in 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs
What a regular season the Black and Gold put together. They set the NHL record for wins with 65 and points with 135. Talk about total domination from the start of the season right until game No. 82. They even did it under a first-year coach and a breakout netminder in Linus Ullmark, who captured the Vezina Trophy that season.
Boston won their first 14 home games, was the fastest NHL team to 50 wins, and David Pastrnak scored 61 goals and collected 113 points. Sweeney made some big trade deadline moves that made the Black and Gold a clear favorite to win the Stanley Cup. He acquired forward Garnet Hathaway and defenseman Dmitry Orlov from the Washington Capitals, while also acquiring forward Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings.
Bruins suffer a devastating loss to the Florida Panthers in the playoffs
This is a postseason that will live in Bruins fans' minds for a long, long time. Overwhelming favorites when the playoffs began, the Black and Gold drew the final team to enter the field, the Florida Panthers. After splitting the first two games at home, the Bruins went to South Florida and won both games for a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Or so we thought.
Florida won Game 5 in overtime at TD Garden and won a Game 6 shootout at home, forcing a Game 7 in Boston. The Panthers tied the game late in the third period to force overtime and then did the unthinkable: they won the game in overtime. Just like that, a historic regular season was all for naught with a historic playoff elimination.
What made this series loss hurt the most, it was the final opportunity for the Boston Bruins core. Captain Patrice Bergeron retired after that summer, and a month later, David Krejci followed. That gutted Boston fans even more. They were so close to sending Bergeron and Krejci out as Stanley Cup winners. Talk about a fairy tale ending.
Instead, Bruins fans are going to be left thinking about that playoff run for decades going forward. Oh, what could have been. Just four years and one global pandemic after losing Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final at home to the St. Louis Blues, another golden missed opportunity went by the board.
There may not be a bigger missed opportunity than the 2022-23 Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's one that some fans might never get over.
Add us as a preferred source on Google