Lingering pain from Bruins' postseason exit set to run all the way through Stanley Cup Final

BOSTON -- We were supposed to be talking about the Boston Bruins all spring long. Instead, we're still talking about the Florida Panthers. This was not in the plans.

But the Panthers have disrupted a whole lot of plans for a whole lot of people this postseason.

Most recently, the Panthers sized up the Carolina Hurricanes, who had the second-best record in the NHL this season, and calmly sent them home for the summer, needing just four games to do it. The series was technically closer than a four-game sweep would indicate, sure. Florida didn't win Game 1 until the end of the fourth overtime, and then needed overtime again in Game 2. Game 3 was a 1-0 win, and Game 4 was won by Matthew Tkachuk in the final seconds of regulation.

Scoring what was essentially a walk-off winner to advance to the Stanley Cup Final was a fitting finish for the Panthers in their Eastern Conference playoff run.

A round prior, they headed to Toronto, where the Maple Leafs were coming off their first playoff series victory in 19 years. Florida went ahead and crushed those positive feelings, winning the first two games of the series in Toronto and then going up 3-0 with an OT win in Game 3. Two games later, with another OT victory, the gentleman's sweep was complete.

And we in Boston surely recall the first round, where the Panthers somehow had the resolve to stand up to a Bruins team that owned a 3-1 series lead, winning in OT in Game 5, coming back in the third period of Game 6 to win 7-5, and then scoring in the final minute of regulation before breaking Boston's hearts in overtime of Game 7.

The Panthers are now 12-4 in the playoffs, a cool .750 winning percentage after winning a tick over 50 percent of their games in the regular season. They're 11-1 since getting blown out by Boston in Game 4 of the first round. They're also 6-0 in overtime games this postseason. Some might say that's a fluke. Others would argue that the team responds well in clutch situations.

It doesn't really matter who's right, though, because the Panthers are moving on.

From a Boston perspective, the run of the Panthers has surely inspired various feelings. On the one hand, there is some comfort in knowing that the greatest regular-season team of all time didn't just completely choke against a team that's not very good. The Panthers are, quite clearly, very good. 

On the other hand, though ... the Bruins were THIS close to getting past the Panthers.

A knob of a stick changed the way NHL history will be written in 2023. Sergei Bobrovsky is now fully redeemed. Matthew Tkachuk is a bona fide superstar. The Panthers may well win the Stanley Cup. The Bruins' historic regular season will largely be forgotten. All from the knob of a stick.

Obviously, that series came down to more than just one shot in overtime, and it's also impossible to retroactively forecast how the Bruins would have done against the Maple Leafs and Hurricanes. But seeing the way the Panthers have buzzed through the conference, Bruins fans may be justified if they feel like the Panthers are stealing that Cup away from Boston.

That pain is now guaranteed to linger through the next three weeks. Not helping matters: The Panthers will almost certainly be going up against the Vegas Golden Knights, who will be coached by ... Bruce Cassidy, the man fired by the Bruins almost exactly one year before the start date of this year's Cup Final. That figures to be an excruciating watch all around for Boston hockey fans, and once it's over, they'll have to sit back and watch the NHL Awards. There, Linus Ullmark will win the Vezina, Jim Montgomery will win the Jack Adams, Patrice Bergeron will (probably) win the Selke, Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman will be awarded the Jennings, and Don Sweeney may even be named GM of the year. Surely, all involved would trade those awards in for a chance to go back in time and win Game 7 against Florida. But that's not how things work.

No matter what happens on the ice, the only real guarantee for hockey fans in Boston in the coming months is pain.