Sports
Winner of Panthers-Bruins Game 7 debated by NHL.com
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The Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers will play Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round at TD Garden in Boston on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS, NESN, BSFL).
The winner will advance to the Eastern Conference Second Round and play the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bruins (65-12-5) would host the Maple Leafs (50-21-11) while the Panthers (42-32-8) would start on the road.
The Panthers won 7-5 in Game 6 in Florida on Friday to even the best-of-7 series after trailing 3-1.
Boston is 15-14 all-time in Game 7, including 14-9 at home. The Bruins lost their most recent, 3-2 at the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round last season.
[RELATED: Complete Bruins vs. Panthers series coverage]
Florida is 1-1 in Game 7, having defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 on the road in the 1996 Eastern Conference Final before a 3-2 double-overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils in the 2012 conference quarterfinals.
Florida coach Paul Maurice is 3-0 in Game 7.
The numbers can be applied to argue for each team in a do-or-die situation.
So, we asked the nine staffers who have covered the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for their opinion on who will win Game 7.
Bruins
As the person who has attended all six games of this series — not to mention watching the Bruins all season — I’m at a loss. The Bruins haven’t looked like the team they’ve been all season in almost any games in this series. Goalie Linus Ullmark has looked shaky (and the Bruins could swap to Jeremy Swayman). Coach Jim Montgomery has made some head-scratching decisions but, somehow, I still have faith in this team turning it around. Maybe it’s that they’ve been here so much — Boston is 4-2 since 2010 in Game 7s after losing Game 6 when they could have eliminated their opponent — or maybe it’s that I can’t see captain Patrice Bergeron going down with this team, in this Game 7, in what could be the final game of his NHL career. I’m not as confident as I once was, but I’m going with the Bruins. — Amalie Benjamin, staff writer
I picked the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup, so I’m not giving up on them now. Look, the Panthers have shown a lot of heart, and they’ve poked holes in the Bruins’ cloak of invincibility. It wouldn’t surprise me if Matthew Tkachuk scores another huge goal to finish off the upset. The Panthers have no pressure; the Bruins must be feeling a ton. But Boston had a record-breaking regular season for a reason and odds are, at home, in front of their fans, desperate to win, knowing they can win the whole thing, the Bruins will put their best performance on the ice and move on to the second round. This team has found a way to win time after time in situation after situation this season. I’m betting it will do so again. — Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist
I picked the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup, and I’m sticking with them. Boston will win Game 7 for the same reasons I chose them to win the Cup — they have too much talent and too much veteran experience to let it slip away. Brad Marchand is leading the way for Boston against Florida with 10 points (four goals, six assists), including four assists in a 7-5 loss Friday. Marchand has played in Game 7 on 10 occasions, winning six, and has seven points (three goals, four assists). Patrice Bergeron has appeared in a Game 7 a whopping 13 times, winning six, and has 11 points (six goals, five assists). David Krejci has 11 Game 7 appearances (6-5) and has 10 assists. Boston had a historic season, setting a new regular-season record for wins (65) and points (135). They’ll work to avoid joining the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning, who each held the previous NHL regular-season record of 62 wins, to not win the Stanley Cup. — William Douglas, staff writer
Credit to the Panthers for their resilience and defiance, led by Matthew Tkachuk, to come back from a 3-1 series deficit to get to this point. Tkachuk is the major difference for the Panthers, who were too deferential in being swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning (two-time defending Stanley Cup champions at the time) last season. Florida has not backed down against Boston, which was the best regular-season team in NHL history in terms of wins (65) and points (135). But the Bruins were that good during the regular season for a reason and, after losing their way the past two games, I think they will regroup and find a way to win Game 7 at home. Every team that wins faces adversity at some point and this is the Bruins’ time to overcome it. —Tom Gulitti, staff writer
OK, I never believed this series would go seven games. Nothing against the Panthers, who have played the David role to Boston’s Goliath in stellar fashion, but I still see the Bruins winning in Game 7. Part of it is just seeing how incredible the Bruins were throughout the regular season. That doesn’t just disappear in the playoffs. Do you have lapses? Sure. Off nights? Absolutely. The Bruins didn’t have many of either in the regular season and they’re seeing them now, but I still think they right the ship. I know winning the Presidents’ Trophy can sometimes be the kiss of death but as someone who covered the Chicago Blackhawks who won that and went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2013, this Bruins team reminds me a lot of that group. — Tracey Myers, staff writer
I figured this wasn’t going to be an easy test for the Bruins, at least physically. That’s been the case. Any time you have Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Radko Gudas coming at you shift after shift, it’s going to take a toll. That isn’t going to change in Game 7, especially in and around the Bruins net where the Panthers have made goalie Linus Ullmark look like anything but a Vezina Trophy winner. What points the needle in Boston’s favor for me is captain Patrice Bergeron, if healthy. The forward hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2011, and if anyone knows how to calm the nerves of a jittery team that has lost two consecutive games, it’s him. Of course, that’s not going to matter if Boston doesn’t get more consistent goaltending. — Mike Zeisberger, staff writer
Video: Panthers, Bruins all set for epic Game 7 in Boston
Panthers
I find it hard to believe the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins are in this position, but they suddenly appear vulnerable against what appears to be a more confident and energetic team with nothing to lose. I’m taking Florida to win. It basically comes down to the fact I have more confidence in goalie Sergei Bobrovsky than I do in Linus Ullmark right now. The Panthers have succeeded in two must-win scenarios already, so why not a third on the road in Boston in a winner-take-all matchup? Ullmark has allowed four or more goals three times in this series after conceding four goals or more just twice during the regular season. Boston had the best regular-season record in NHL history, finished 43 points ahead of Florida in the standings and couldn’t hold one-goal leads on two separate occasions in the third period of Game 6. The Panthers have the momentum. — Mike G. Morreale, staff writer
Paul Maurice is the reason the Panthers will author one of the great upsets in the history of the NHL. The Panthers coach has been here, done this. Boston coach Jim Montgomery has not. It is a huge advantage in games like this. Like players, coaches run hot and cold and the 56-year-old is running hot. His decision to switch to Sergei Bobrovsky has changed the tenor of the series and he has out-coached Montgomery thoroughly throughout the past two games. The 53-year-old Montgomery will be coaching in his 20th NHL playoff game and is on his heels, likely forced into making a goaltending decision that will define his legacy and that of his team. I am going to go with experience in this game and Florida will prove my pick of the Bruins reaching the Stanley Cup Final to be ill-advised. — Shawn P. Roarke, senior director of editorial
Every instinct I have says it has to be the Bruins. But every instinct I had before the series started said it had to be the Bruins. When they were tied 1-1 after struggling in Game 2, it was Bruins. When they went up 3-1 after winning two games in Florida, there was no question it was Bruins in five. Well here we are in Game 7 and the Bruins have more questions than the Panthers. I’m not sold anymore. So, it’s Panthers in seven. They’re playing better. They have the good mojo going. They have the biggest difference maker in the series in Matthew Tkachuk. They have, gasp, less of a doubt about their goaltending right now. And still hardly anybody expects them to win. Don’t tell me they have nothing to lose. They do. They have Game 7 to lose. But they won’t. They don’t have the burden of history weighing them down. Tkachuk scores and the Panthers get the job done. — Dan Rosen, senior writer
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TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs had a plan in place. With their fan base in panic mode after Kyle Dubas was not brought back as GM last month, the Maple Leafs introduced Brad Treliving on Thursday as the GM who would lead the franchise forward.
This press conference was going to be about the future, about what the experienced Treliving, 53, could do for Toronto, not about Dubas, who 13 days earlier had been told his services would no longer be required after a five-year stint as a Maple Leafs GM.
And for an hour or so on Thursday, it was. Until it wasn’t.
At 11:31 ET, some 29 minutes before Treliving and team president Brendan Shanahan were scheduled to address the media at Scotiabank Arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins issued a release announcing Dubas as president of hockey operations. Yep. That same Dubas. The release noted that Dubas and members of the Fenway Sports Group would hold their own press conference in Pittsburgh at 1 p.m., one hour after Treliving’s meeting with the media.
Was it just a coincidence that all this took place on the same day? Was this a chance for Dubas and the Penguins to upstage his former team?
Shanahan quickly rejected that notion, trying to calm the conspiracy theorists who thought something fishy was going on regarding the scheduling.
“I don’t think it was intentional timing,” he said. “They need to get to work as well.
“I fully endorse Kyle.”
Maybe Shanahan doesn’t believe the timing was intentional. But it certainly was intriguing. And it was almost as if the day progressed as dictated from the pages of a movie script.
Indeed, the Maple Leafs and Penguins will be connected by the common thread that is Dubas.
It certainly makes for a fascinating tale of two franchises.
Dubas, 37, is one of the sharpest young hockey minds in the game. The Maple Leafs, under his watch, went 221-109-42 in the regular season but won one Stanley Cup Playoff series in that span despite featuring uber-talented players like forwards Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares, and defenseman Morgan Rielly.
Video: Penguins name Dubas president of hockey operations
Dubas was in the final season of his contract in 2022-23. It was the Maple Leafs’ decision not to give him a new contract last offseason.
According to Shanahan, the decision had been made to bring back Dubas, even after the Maple Leafs were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Second Round on May 12. A contract offer had been presented to Dubas prior to the Maple Leafs locker cleanout day three days later, he said. But when Dubas addressed the media that day, he lamented how difficult the season had been on his family and how he had to discuss with his loved ones whether he needed time to recalibrate.
Dubas said that regardless of what decision he’d make regarding a return to the Maple Leafs, “You won’t see me next week pop up elsewhere. I can’t put [my family] through that after this year.”
He was right. He didn’t pop up the next week; it was actually closer to two weeks that he surfaced in Pittsburgh.
To be fair, he said it was his wife, Shannon, who prodded him to explore the Penguins situation. It was, in the end, a partial family decision.
At the same time, in his new role he gets the power he coveted in Toronto. With Shanahan in place, that was never going to happen with the Maple Leafs. And when Shanahan received a counteroffer from Dubas’ agent with a revised financial package, which is a synonym for “more money,” Shanahan cut the cord.
You can’t make this up. It truly is the stuff of soap operas.
And where it goes from here is can’t-miss TV.
Both teams are star-studded. That’s where the similarities end.
Treliving didn’t come out and say it, but he seemed to hint that the so-called “Core Four” of Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares could stay intact. Though skill has a lot to do with that, so does age. Matthews is 25, Marner 26, Nylander 27. You could say their best years could be ahead of them.
The same can’t be said for the core Dubas inherits. Forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and defenseman Kris Letang will each be at least 36 when next season starts. At the same time, the championship pedigree of the three future Hall of Famers who have helped the Penguins win three Stanley Cup championships can’t be questioned.
Treliving is somewhat shackled under the NHL salary cap because the Core Four gobble up more than $40 million of the space under it. Dubas has far more flexibility; indeed, he mentioned the Penguins will have around $20 million of cap space to play with.
Then there are the coaching situations. Pittsburgh’s Mike Sullivan was the coach of the Penguins’ 2016 and 2017 Cup title teams and can coach “forever,” according to Dubas. There is more uncertainty for Treliving, who said he’ll meet with Maple Leafs incumbent Sheldon Keefe and try to learn more about him before determining his future. Keefe, by the way, also coached under Dubas in two other leagues: the Ontario Hockey League with Sault St. Marie and the American Hockey League with the Toronto Marlies.
So many plots. So many storylines.
All that remains to set the stage for this juicy narrative is for the 2023-24 schedule to be released in the next couple of months. Because any games between Treliving’s Maple Leafs and Dubas’ Penguins need to be circled on the calendar for obvious reasons, no matter how both men might try to downplay them.
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