B's Choke Away the Atlantic Division Title & #1 Seed in the East So They'll Face Leafs in Rd. 1

It's been an unexpectedly wonderful 2017-18 regular season for your Boston Bruins (50-20-12) but there is no way to sugarcoat tonight's result: their 4-2 loss to the Panthers (44-30-8) at TD Garden was an unmitigated disaster that ultimately could cost them the chance at the Stanley Cup this spring/summer. A win would have netted the B's many nice things: the Atlantic Division title, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference (with home ice throughout) and perhaps most importantly, a first-round date with New Jersey (44-29-9), a team that they went 3-0 against this season and is undoubtedly the worst outfit to make it from the East. Instead, Boston finished second in the Atlantic Division which means that they'll face Toronto (49-26-7)-one of the best teams in the NHL and a club that went 3-1 vs. their Original Six rivals during this campaign.

The oddest part of this evening is that with so much on the line, the Black and Gold came out flat yet again (an all too common theme lately). Panthers rookie Henrik Borgstrom (who just a few weeks ago was playing at the University of Denver) scored his first NHL goal at 1:22 of the first period, assisted by former Bruins great Frank Vatrano. The Bruins seemed to wake up less than seven minutes later as David Backes deposited a rebound by James Reimer (33 saves, 2 goals allowed). Kevan Miller and David Krejci had the assists on Backes' 14th goal of the season. Vatrano is apparently becoming something of a Bruins killer as he bagged a goal in his second straight game vs. Boston. His one-timer at 16:46 of the first period restored Florida's lead while Jared McCann and Jamie McGinn (say that ten times fast) provided the assists on Vatrano's seventh goal of the season.

The B's successfully flushed a crappy (get it?!) first period down the toilet last night against Ottawa (28-43-11) but it proved to be not nearly as easy against the Panthers who have to be one of the best non-playoff teams in NHL history (they had 96 points, only one less than Columbus and New Jersey). Something called Maxim Mamin (what a great name!) beat Tuukka Rask (22 saves) with another one-timer at 13:33 of the second period for a 3-1 Florida advantage. Reimer stopped Jake DeBrusk on a breakaway later in the frame as the Bruins were still down two goals when the second had mercifully ended.

Boston finally woke up in the third period but it was much too late. Jonathan Huberdeau's double-minor for high sticking on Zdeno Chara sparked a short-lived comeback attempt by the B's as David Pastrnak cashed in with a power-play goal at 9:54. Pasta's team-best and career-high 35th goal of the season was assisted by Patrice Bergeron (3 goals, 6 assists in his last 9 games) and Ryan Donato. Reimer actually left late in the third with a leg injury but Roberto Luongo (8 saves) of all people managed to hang on for the win. Evgenii Dadonov sent Bruins fans running to the exits when he put in a juicy rebound at 18:11. McCann assisted on Dadonov's 28th goal of the season which handed their Sunshine State neighbors (Tampa Bay) the Atlantic Division and top seed in the East.

In the last week or so, the Bruins appeared to be understandably gassed. They lost four out of their last five games which is not exactly what you want to see from a team that will be expected to make a deep playoff run. Still, it sounds like the Nashes (Rick and Riley) should hopefully be back for Game 1 vs. Toronto on Thursday (7, NESN) which would give their forward lines some additional quality depth. Game 2 is Saturday night (8, NESN) with the series shifting to Toronto for Game 3 on Patriots Day (7, NESN) and next Thursday (7, NESN).

Thankfully, I'm not in the prediction business but you are crazy if you think that Bruins-Maple Leafs will be decided either way by a sweep or in five games. This has epic six or seven-game tight playoff series written all over it. Besides Tampa Bay (54-23-5) vs. New Jersey, the other Eastern Conference series are Washington (49-26-7) vs. Columbus (45-30-7) and Pittsburgh (47-29-6) vs. Philadelphia (42-26-14). I would argue that there is nothing in sports better than the Stanley Cup Playoffs so you have to savor all of them that you can get. Like the Bruins, we all could use a little rest before the fun begins on Wednesday for some teams and Thursday for them. See you then.

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