What Went Wrong: How Did THIS TEAM Beat Toronto?!

Look on the bright side, Boston. At least you have a chance to capture PWHL's championship. At least that's a Boston hockey team who actually performs well.

The Boston Bruins did it again, folks. They started well in this second round series against the Florida Panthers. They took Game One in such dominant fashion, clearly the best game they played in this year's playoffs. It looked like things would be different. Then the Bruins we know and are used to showed up. Boston got clobbered in Games Two and Three, with the Panthers scoring six goals in each game. Game Four saw the Bruins get jobbed, as a goal scored by Sam Bennett shouldn't have counted due to obvious goaltender interference that was not called. Boston managed to eke out a win in Game Five, but Game Six saw a tie score broken by a late Gustav Forsling goal. That's all, folks.

As I watched this series, especially Games Two and Three, I had one simple question that I asked on a loop: "The Leafs lost to this team?!"

This always seems to happen. The Bruins are undermanned and undertalented, yet they somehow seem to best the Leafs--barely. After that, they get beaten out by some rando team, and come on, who is more "rando" than Florida? This team, for the most part, played so so horribly throughout their entire run. Boston's wins against the Leafs were a mix of dumb luck and the officials not calling anything in Toronto's favor. Plus, they nearly blew that series, yet Pasta saved the day because of course he does.

As I've said all year, the duo of Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak make the Bruins' world go around. If they are hampered in any way, Boston is screwed. Marchand has an unfortunate excuse; he was taken out for a couple of games after Bennett lit him up. Even so, Marchand (in his first season as Bruins captain) had 10 points (3 G/7 A) in 11 games. Pastrnak, however, had a bit of a sputtering postseason. The OT goal in Game Seven helped him just a little bit, but in the end, Pasta had just eight points (four of each) in all 13 games played. The points leader for the Bruins was none other than Jake DeBrusk with 11 (5 G/6 A), but elsewhere, not much.

Pavel Zacha's goal in Game Six was his only goal of the entire postseason. The overrated Charlie McAvoy also only scored once, as did Charlie Coyle. As for Jeremy Swayman, he continued to be a disappointment, giving up 25 goals in this run. Overall, this was yet another poor postseason for the Bruins. Granted, it wasn't half as bad as last year (nothing could be as bad as last year), but this is just another disappointment. They have not advanced past Round 2 since reaching the Cup Final in 2019.

Again, this was much better than last year, but don't expect another long run from the Bruins until they get some depth. If nothing changes for that team, we will see the same thing from the Bruins: either first or second round exits. All Boston will ever have is their constant playoff wins over Toronto. That won't last, though. That will run out eventually; I don't know when, but it'll run out. This Bruins team is absolutely not going anywhere. They don't even have a Cup window; that's how far gone they are.

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