Pain.
How did it come to this? The team with the best record in the history of the league somehow loses in the first round once again. What other sport does this continuously happen in? Sure, the 3-1 blowup from the 2016 Warriors in the finals was bad, but the Bruins just blew a 3-1 series lead in the FIRST ROUND.
It’s just sad man. As a kid who grew up playing hockey in Boston, watching Patrice Bergeron embrace each of his teammates as he got off the ice for what very well may be his last time made me shed a tear or two. My earliest Bruins memories are of him as my favorite player, and he has never left that spot in all these years. He deserved to ride out in the sunset with his second Stanley Cup after the greatest season ever but fell miserably short.
This series was like watching a car crash in slow motion. You knew what was going to happen, but yet you couldn’t take your eyes away from it. The turnovers were out of control. The B’s abandoned everything that made them great all year long and decided to pass the puck to Panthers players like it was their job. Along with this, Ullmark and Swayman decided to play their worst hockey of the year when it mattered most. Also, it was definitely a suspect call to throw in Swayman for game seven, but it was just as suspect to not throw him in net after games two and five. All around, from skaters, to goalies, to coaching, this series loss was one of the worst choke jobs in the history of sports.
It was just an all-time frantic blow up. A classic case of a team with everything to lose going up against one nothing to lose. In this case, the team that had everything was scared to have it taken away, which rotted away all playoff dreams from the inside out.
People love talking about how great it must be to be a Boston sports fan, and while it’s the best sports city in the world, it also comes with a price. Yes, we win more than any other city, and yes, we are privileged. But these winning teams make devastating losses like this one so much harder to stomach. “Oh, boo hoo!” you must be saying. Well, we now have a perfect NFL season lost in the Super Bowl, a different Super Bowl loss to a backup quarterback, and the best season in the history of hockey lost in OT in game seven of the first round. And this is all wishing my 22-year lifetime! Tell me a city that has faced worse sports losses than that, and I’ll call you a liar.
So, what happens next season? On top of Bergeron probably retiring, Orlov, Bertuzzi, and Hathaway are all on deals that end this season. Whether they will resign is up in the air, but one thing is for sure, each of them are welcome back with open arms. Luckily, a good core group centered around Pasternak on the offensive side and McAvoy on the defensive side are signed long term. Hopefully this means a lot won’t change, but we’ll sure miss the guys who won’t be back next year.
Enough moping though. We still have a team who’s favored to win a different championship, and their game starts in a few minutes. So buckle up, its all Celtics from here on out. #banner18 inbound.