Panthers won’t downplay significance of historic Bruins upset. ‘It’s something unreal’
Profanity flew from the depths of the visiting locker room at TD Garden, and the Florida Panthers who stepped out of it Sunday were some combination of dazed and euphoric.
The full weight of their accomplishment — a stunning last-minute comeback, a 4-3 win in overtime of Game 7 and a historic upset of the record-setting Boston Bruins — had not yet set in, but they did know they were moving on to Round 2 after a 4-3 series win, and it took a herculean effort to get there.
“A couple guys are kind of speechless right now,” star defenseman Brandon Montour said Sunday.
So many different parts of this win, when taken alone, would have been enough. An upset of a team like the Bruins, who set regular-season records for wins and points, would have been unbelievable in any context. A comeback from 3-1 down in a series would have been the biggest in franchise history no matter who it came against. A last-minute, overtime-forcing goal in any game at any point in any season would have meant a giddy postgame celebration, let alone one in Game 7 in Boston to keep the Panthers’ improbable upset hopes alive.
This series had all three and Florida, which finished 43 points behind than the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins in the regular season, is now moving on to face the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 2, starting with Game 1 at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena in Canada.
“This one, Game 7 overtime win against pretty much the best team in regular-season history — it’s something unreal,” All-Star center Aleksander Barkov said Sunday. “It’s hard to understand right now, and I don’t think we need to understand right now. We’ll understand later and we’ll just concentrate on what’s coming next.”
By the end of the series, it didn’t feel like much of a mismatch. Take away the records and seeds, and this didn’t feel like much of an upset at all.
“Not really,” left wing Carter Verhaeghe said Sunday.
The Panthers never ignored the stakes, though.
As soon as Florida found out who it was playing April 13, superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk immediately started hyping up the Bruins as “probably the greatest regular-season team of all time.” Coach Paul Maurice on multiple occasions said Boston was close to flawless, without any clear weakness — “a Goliath,” he said.
“The fact that we were able to beat them in the playoffs,” Tkachuk said Sunday, “was crazy.”
Barkov, the captain, said it was the best moment he has been a part of in his decade with the Panthers. Even Maurice, with more than 1,700 games of coaching experience, said it means more than just a first-round win.
“Normally, you downplay that. This was fantastic,” the first-year coach said. “To come in and beat a team that had a historical season ... I feel it’s a little special. It’s something you get to keep.”
It will help define the future of the organization — any worries about how much the team regressed in the regular season can now be all but ignored — and the opportunity now waiting in the rest of these Stanley Cup playoffs.
It was only days ago when Maple Leafs fans were chanting, “We want Florida!” Now a reality, the Panthers head to Toronto as the hottest team in the league, and with the fourth-best chance to win the Stanley Cup, according to MoneyPuck.com.
“They got their wish, I guess,” Verhaeghe said.
Florida got the upset and got better as the series went on, winning three straight elimination games for the first time in franchise history.
It was impossible not to draw some parallels to last year, when the Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy and also got bounced quickly, failing to win a single game in the second round. The two seasons are distinct and the roster is quite different after Florida’s blockbuster trade for Tkachuk in the offseason.
The Panthers learned from last year, changed dramatically, stuck with those changes even through regular-season growing pains and came back to do to Boston what the Lightning did to them in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
“The playoffs are completely different,” Verhaeghe said. “We had a crazy regular season last year and it didn’t really amount to anything.”
If Florida could do that to the Bruins, it can do it to anyone.
“Are you satisfied? Actually, it makes you thirsty,” Maurice said. “It makes you want more.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 3:30 PM.
