After a record-breaking regular season, the Boston Bruins crashed out of the Stanley Cup playoffs at the first hurdle, suffering a stunning defeat to the unfancied Florida Panthers with a Game 7 overtime 4-3 loss on Sunday.
Boston had the most successful regular season in NHL history, with a record 65 triumphs and an unprecedented 135 points, but that counted for nothing as they were dumped out of the post-season on home ice by a Panthers team that were seeded eighth in the Eastern Conference.
“It really is the biggest upset in NHL history, to every single person other than those in that [locker] room,” said Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk, whose Game 5 overtime winner started their remarkable comeback in the series.
Photo: AP
“What an unbelievable effort, it is one of those legacy games for our team and our franchise, we just did what nobody in the world thought we could do,” Tkachuk said.
Boston had been 3-1 up in the best-of-seven series, but needing just another win, they lost the last three games.
Adding to the agony, the Bruins had come back from 2-0 down on Sunday to lead 3-2 with 1 minute remaining, only for Brandon Montour’s one-timer to force overtime.
Carter Verhaeghe then scored at 8 minutes, 35 seconds into overtime to silence the raucous crowd in the TD Garden and prompt wild on-ice celebrations from the visiting Panthers.
It was also the start of what will be a painful post-mortem for the Bruins.
“The way it ended, it didn’t matter how it ended, the season is over,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “I guess the words that come to mind right now are disappointment, confusion.”
Despite the stunning exit, Montgomery said he was proud of what the team had been able to achieve.
“The other part is if you start looking at the season, it was an honor to coach that group. I know we didn’t get to where we wanted, I get that, but their professionalism, work ethic and commitment was a joy to be around,” he said.
The future of the Bruins’s pair of 37-year-olds — captain Patrice Bergeron, who skated to center ice to acknowledge the team’s fans after the game and Czech David Krejci — remains uncertain after the loss.
Asked whether this was the end of their time with the club, Montgomery said: “I’ve no idea, that’s up to them.”
The Panthers now face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference second round.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice had no doubt about the magnitude of his team’s achievement.
“I don’t think you can find a harder team to play against than the Boston Bruins, they are just that good. There isn’t a weakness in their game,” Maurice said.
“The players now have a shared experience of what heart is,” he said. “We will cut that video, keep that video and use it at training camp and it will make us better for five years, that’s how hard it was.”
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS