The first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs is set to begin Monday, April 17. Today we preview the Boston Bruins vs Florida Panthers series.

(1A) Boston Bruins vs (WC2) Florida Panthers 

Boston: 65-12-5, 135 points (Presidents’ Trophy)

Florida: 42-32-8, 92 points (WC 2)

Head-to-Head: BOS 2-1-1; FLA 2-2-0

The battle of the last two Presidents’ Trophy winners will begin Monday night at the TD Garden in Boston, with the Florida Panthers taking on the best regular season team in NHL history, the Boston Bruins.

Florida’s last minute 6-1-1 regular season run was just enough to get them into the playoffs as the final wild card team in the East. Last season’s top-seed struggled to find their game as they finished the 2022-2023 campaign with 30 points less than they did the previous season. 

The Bruins on the other hand breezed through the league this year, winning 65 games in the season, which is the most in NHL history. They also set the league record for points with 135. 

Despite the 43 point difference between the teams, history has shown us that the Stanley Cup Playoffs is a 16 team race – with every series up for grabs. 

Goaltending

A hot goalie can steal you a series in the same way a bad goalie can lose you one. 

BOSTON: Going into the series, it is clear that Boston has the advantage over Florida. Linus Ullmark made a strong case this season as one of the Vezina favorites. The Bruins starting goalie led the league in multiple categories including save percentage with .938, goals-against average  with a 1.89 and tied for wins with 40 in his 49 games (48 starts). 

His backup Jeremy Swayman also had a nice season, finishing with a 24-6-4 record,  a .920 save percentage and a 2.27 GAA. 

The duo combined to win the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is awarded to the goaltending duo who conceded the least amount of goals against in the season. The one area this duo lacks in his playoff experience, with the two only having a total of seven postseason starts under their belt. Other than that, Boston really shouldn’t have any issue in net going into this series.

FLORIDA: The Panthers have a much more interesting goaltending situation compared to their opponent, which has been the story of Florida’s playoffs for the last three seasons. 

For the majority of the season, two-time Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky has held the Panthers’ net to himself. Bobrovksy had a record of 24-20-3 with a 3.07 GAA and .901 save percentage in 50 games (49 starts) in 2022-2023. 

Bobrovsky has a plethora of playoff experience with his 51 games played (46 starts). The 34-year-old started all 10 playoff games last season for the Panthers. 

However, the man who Florida may turn to, at least at the start of the playoffs, could very well be the wild card backup, Alex Lyon.

Just a few weeks before the postseason, Florida was on the outside looking in for a playoff spot and Bobrovsky was sidelined with an illness. Alex Lyon had to step in and he clawed Florida into the playoffs with a 6-1-1 record in their last eight games, while putting together a six-game win streak. Lyon,30, has no NHL playoff experience, however he did win a Calder Cup last year with the Chicago Wolves in the AHL.

Bobrovsky hasn’t played in a game since March 27 in Ottawa, while Lyon has played in the last eight games. It should be Lyon to start the series, but don’t be surprised if head coach Paul Maurice turns back to his $10M goalie. 

Scoring

This area of the game is a lot more even than it is in the crease. Both teams were top 10 offenses this season, with the two sides scoring at over a 3.5 goals per-game rate.

BOSTON: Boston’s offense is carried by superstar David Pastrnak, who finished second in the league in goals with 61. The Bruins winger had the third most points this season with 113. He will be the most dangerous player on the ice for Boston.

After Pastrnak’s astounding numbers, the Bruins don’t have another “stand out”, what they have is a balanced team offense. Eight of their players scored 50 or more points this season, five of whom had 20+ goals (including Pastrnak). 

FLORIDA: Florida’s offense is a little more top heavy compared to the Bruins. The Panthers offense is spearheaded by two 40 goal scorers in Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe. Before this year, Florida only had one player ever hit 40 goals in a season. That was Pavel Bure who got 50+ twice in South Florida. Tkachuk finished sixth in the NHL in points with 109, while Verhaeghe’s 42 goals was top 10 in the league. 

A large portion of Florida’s offense this season came from the blueline, with Panthers defensemen scoring 53 times – second most in the league.

Both teams relied on offensive contribution from their back end this season. Boston’s d-men had 205 points, while Florida’s had 204 — this was the second and third most points by defensemen in the NHL.

Two-way game

BERGERON: This series will be an entertaining one on the other side of the puck because of the two teams’ captains. Boston’s Patrice Bergeron will go down as one of the best two-way players of all-time. Bergeron has won the Selke Trophy five times, most recently last year and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he takes home his sixth trophy as the league’s best defensive forward. 

BARKOV: Florida’s Aleksander Barkov is the perfect counterpart for Bergeron in this series. The 27-year-old Panther captain is a one-time Selke winner himself and just finished another impressive campaign with 78 points in 68 games. Barkov will log a lot of minutes for the Panthers as they try to shut down the explosive Bruins offense. 

The blueline for these teams both boast entertaining players. Charlie McAvoy continues to be a top defenseman in the league on both sides of the puck for Boston while Florida’s Brandon Montour had a Panthers record setting season with 73 points.

With these two juggernaut offenses getting contributions from everywhere on the ice – yes even Linus Ullmark scored a goalie goal this season, it should be a fun back and forth series. 

Boston was the best team in the NHL this season and you can see why. They had spectacular goaltending, offensive help up and down the lineup, and they were led by a well-established veteran presence. Florida struggled to find their way to the playoffs, but now that they are at the dance, they have some top players who can steal them a series.

Just one week ago it looked like the Florida Panthers finally figured out the formula to play their best hockey. The Cats were riding their best stretch of the season with points in seven straight games, boasting a 6-0-1 record over that span.

On March 21, Florida went into Philadelphia holding a playoff spot with 12 games remaining on the schedule.

Six days later, the Panthers left Ottawa losers of four straight and three points back of Pittsburgh for the last wild card spot. In less than a week, Florida went from playing their best hockey of the season to their worst, as this four-game skid is the most they’ve gone without a win this year. 

Over that span, the Panthers have been outscored 21-10 despite outshooting their opponents in all those matchups. They’ve also been without the services of their No. 2 center Sam Bennett during the losing streak. The Panthers will once again be without Sam Bennett tonight as he is set to miss his fifth consecutive game. Florida has not picked up a single point in the last four games without 

With eight games left in the regular season, the Panthers will try to break out of their untimely downfall on Wednesday night against a Toronto Maple Leafs team that they’ve yet to beat all year. 

“You wake up this morning, got  singular focus… you are coming to a hockey game tonight in Toronto and we got to win this game,” Paul Maurice said after Panthers’ morning skate. 

Can the Panthers still make it?

Well, yes. The Panthers can still make the playoffs however, they clearly haven’t been doing themselves any favors over the last week. 

The teams that are above Florida in the standings still have a decent points gap on them while the teams that are behind them have been winning.

For the Panthers to sneak into the postseason, it will come down to two things.

First, they’ll need to win almost all of  their final eight games. The Islanders have a six point lead on the Panthers with one more game played, while the Penguins have a three point lead with the same number of games remaining. 

Second thing, they’ll need one of the Pens or Islanders to do what they themselves did this past week, lose a lot. 

The Red Wings did Florida a favor last night when they took down the Penguins in regulation, now it’s up to the Panthers to pick up points while there’s still a glimmer of playoff hope. 

Current Eastern Conference standings (As of March 29)

WC 1: NY Islanders 75 GP – 85  points 

WC 2: Pittsburgh Penguins 74 GP – 82 points 

In the hunt

Florida Panthers 74 GP – 79 points

Buffalo Sabres 73 GP – 77 points 

Ottawa Senators 74 GP – 77 points 

Washington Capitals 74 GP – 76 points

Florida’s locker room is still optimistic that they can turn around their season as they approach the final few games.

“Right from the break we knew that it’s gonna be tight, there’s a bunch of teams fighting for it,” Brandon Montour said on Wednesday in Toronto. “It’s gonna be tough but like I said, we got the guys in the locker room to do it.” 

Coach Paul Maurice was asked what makes him believe that his team is still in the hunt – his response was straight forward, there’s no other option. 

“Ah man this is the National Hockey League and it’s pro sports, we’re not 14 points out we’re right there,” Maurice said. “The other option is what? If you lived your life waking up without belief or thinking bad things were gonna happen you just would never get to the National Hockey League.”

Florida has three more games on this road trip before heading back to Sunrise, including a back-to-back in Toronto and Montreal

It’s simple for Florida, win or you’re not getting in. 

SUNRISE: On the second half of a back-to-back, the Florida Panthers hosted the Seattle Kraken Sunday night in Sunrise.

This is the second time the two sides played this month; Florida won the first meeting 5-1 in Seattle. 

The Kraken got their revenge tonight, putting up five goals of their own in a 5-2 win over the Panthers.

Here’s tonight’s takeaways:

Eric Staal gets his first goal of the season

It hasn’t been the easiest start to his Panthers career for long-time NHL veteran Eric Staal. He was goalless through 21 games this season, with only four points to his name.

The 38-year-old center, who has over 1,000 career points, finally put the puck in the back of the net to get his first goal as a Panther. This was Staal’s first NHL goal since 2021.

You could see how much getting this one meant for him, as he let out an ecstatic celebration following the goal.

A bad start had Florida behind way too early

A team never wants to go down in a game, but when you’re playing catch up from the jump, you lose the momentum swing early. 

Seattle came out and had the perfect start to the game, scoring 64 seconds into the first period. 

After Carter Verhaeghe rifled a one-timer shot off the crossbar, Seattle transitioned the other way, and Matty Beniers delivered. The 20-year-old fired a slapshot from the slot, beating Bobrovsky up high for his 11th goal of the season.

Before some fans could make way to their seats, the Panthers were already behind in the game. 

Ryan Lomberg gets a major penalty and a game misconduct – the league will look at it

Down 3-1 in the third, Florida had no momentum, the crowd was out of it, the entire team looked defeated.

With the Panthers on the penalty kill, Cats forward Ryan Lomberg chipped the puck into the zone past Justin Schultz. With the puck in the corner, Lomberg hit Schultz from behind, which lead to a large scrum of bodies fighting in front of the Kraken net. 

Following the mayhem, Lomberg was assessed a five-minute major for boarding, a roughing minor, and a game misconduct.

Due to the call being a major penalty, the league will review the hit and determine if it is worthy of a suspension. The already shorthanded Panthers forward unit could be without another regular depending on the league’s decision. 

The Panthers power play couldn’t strike, again

The power play had their opportunities tonight. Down 2-1 in the third, Florida had a chance to tie the game on the man-advantage. However, the Kraken not only killed off the penalty, but immediately scored after to extend their lead to two.  

Florida went 0/3 on the power play tonight. This is the third straight game they went scoreless on their pp chances. 

Florida has one goal in their last 14 power play chances.

Sergei Bobrovsky plays both games on the back-to-back

After Sergei Bobrovsky had to come in for Spencer Knight last week in Winnipeg, the Russian goalie has started three games in four days, including a back-to-back.

Knight is still out of the Panthers lineup as he deals with a non-COVID illness, and with no update on the availability of Knight, Bob is going to keep on playing. 

While the stats department hasn’t looked the greatest, Bob looked quite comfortable in the net. Tonight, he had to make more than a few big saves while the game was close. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of support in front of him on both ends of the puck. 

“I felt good, it’s nice to see some rhythm, you know, play hockey, play lots of minutes, I love that so it’s great to be there fo sure,” Bobrovsky said. 

Bobrovsky had 27 saves on 31 shots tonight.

TORONTO – On Monday night, Roberto Luongo was enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF), forever acknowledging him as one of the greatest hockey players to ever live. 

His career was an extremely successful one, with six all-star appearances, two Olympic gold medals, 489 career wins – which ranks fourth all-time, and becoming the first goalie to captain an NHL team in 60 years.

Besides a 24 game spell with the New York Islanders in 1999-2000, Luongo spent the entirety of his 19-season Hall of Fame career with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. Luongo became the first player who spent the majority of their career with the Panthers (572 of 1,044 games) to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

Over the weekend, Luongo reminisced on his long professional hockey career. The Canadian media was very keen on hearing about the triumphs of the 2010 Olympics, which Lu was more than happy to discuss. The story of how Sidney Crosby’s Golden Goal came to be because Lu moved the puck to Scott Niedermayer behind the net rather than freezing it was the tale that he told. 

When asked about which team he’d prefer to represent as he went into the Hall, Lu went with the safe answer, “Team Canada.” 

As big of a star Lu was during his playing days with the Canadian national team, he was just as much of an icon in Vancouver and Florida. “Luuuu” chants echoed through Scotiabank Arena when he was presented his Hall of Fame blazer by Hockey Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald. The same chants were heard on the red carpet of Meridian Hall as Luongo stepped out of the limo and inside the venue as he took the stage on induction night.

The HHOF induction ceremonies were a fun experience for all involved. The inductees spent the weekend with their families and former teammates.

Former Florida Panthers captain and now Luongo’s colleague in the Florida front office, Bryan McCabe, was in Toronto for the induction, he spoke about his time with Lu. 

“It’s been awesome (working with him), he’s a really intelligent guy, brings a lot to the table and it’s been a pleasure getting to know him off the ice over the last few years,” McCabe said.

Going into the Hall alongside Luongo were his former Canucks teammates, Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Both players mentioned Lu in their induction speeches. 

“Being inducted into the hall of fame is truly an honor but doing it alongside Roberto makes it so much more special,” Daniel said. “You raised the standards on our team and made everyone believe that average was never an option. I’m proud to call you a friend.” 

Henrik spoke about the culture the Canucks core had during their best years and said Lu was at the forefront of that. 

“Roberto, you were the face of that culture, I’ve never been around anyone with the same determination and willingness to do anything to get better, it’s an honor to be here tonight with you,” Henrik said.  

As a Montreal native, Luongo joined an elite cast of Quebec goalies to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The likes of Jacques Plante, Georges Vezina, Martin Brodeur, Rogie Vachon and Patrick Roy were all legends in their own right, hailing from the Canadian province. 

“It was a big part of our upbringing to know that all of these great Quebec goalies are some of the best goalies in the world,” Luongo said. “I wanted to be like them… just to be able to say that I’m going into the same Hall of Fame as they are, it’s a tremendous honor.” 

The humble nature of Lu, as it always is, was on full display this weekend. He took the time to recognize some key figures that got him where he was today. 

Lu told me that one goaltender he wanted to style his game after as a teenager was former Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche, Patrick Roy. In his early years, he was able to learn under Roy’s former goalie coach, Francois Allaire.

“The one (coach) that really made me who I was is Francois Allaire,” Luongo said. “He’s the one that really installed the technical part of the game in me… he really kicked off my career and gave me a solid foundation to build off of.” 

Lu came to South Florida as a young man in 2000. He was in his early twenties, with just 24 NHL games under his belt. Five years later in 2006 when he was traded to Vancouver, he left South Florida as a bonafide star in the league, playing in 317 games with the Panthers. During his first stint in Florida, Lu would also meet his wife Gina – with the help of a former teammate. 

“I remember after one practice Scott Mellanby came up to me and said, I want to take you to an Italian place… the owner wants to meet you,” Luongo said.

“After a little bit of time he started inviting me over to the house, I was having dinner there, it was like another family,” Luongo said during his induction speech. “Wouldn’t you know they had a daughter, and that happens to be the love of my life, Gina.”

While Mellanby will forever live in the memory of Panthers fans for being the player who killed the rat in the locker room during their run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final, Luongo remembered his former teammate over the weekend for changing his life, literally.   

The best years of Luongo’s career were undoubtedly when he was in Vancouver. In his eight year run with the Canucks, they made the playoffs six times, won six division titles, two Presidents’ Trophies and went to Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.

When the NHL went on break for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Luongo led Canada to the top of the hockey world as they defeated the Americans in overtime to claim the gold medal, with over 16 million people watching across the country. To this day people in Canada still talk about Luongo’s play in that tournament.  

While the Vancouver Luongo teams had consistent playoff appearances and a roster which would see multiple players become Hall of Famers, it was the complete opposite for Lu’s Panthers teams. 

Florida never made the playoffs in the first five years they had Luongo between the pipes. When he returned to the Panthers in March of 2014 for his second go, Lu had one goal: take the Panthers to the playoffs. 

“With the Panthers, when I came back on my second stint I was dead set on it, I wanted to make the playoffs with them,” Luongo said. “When I got traded back… a lot of people thought I was going to run into the sunset as they said, but for me I really wanted to witness a playoff series with that team.”

In 2016, that Panthers playoff dream would happen. This time around, Lu had a series of future NHL stars around him, with the likes of a young Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad. Florida faced off against the team that drafted him, the New York Islanders in the first-round. Unfortunately, the Panthers didn’t win the series and Lu never got to play with that Panthers core in their prime. That would be the only time Luongo reached the postseason with the team before retiring in 2019.

Today, Lu is still with the Panthers organization in a front office role. He currently serves as the Special Advisor to General Manager Bill Zito.

His ties to the South Florida community will always be there.  He is the first Panther player to have his jersey retired, while also being inducted into the Hall with most of his career being spent in a Panthers uniform. His wife was born and raised in the area and they have brought up their family there.

“I think It’s a great place to bring up your family, that’s why we made it our home… it’ll always be home for me, I enjoy living there and it’s a great place to raise a family,” Luongo said.

With his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Roberto Luongo will forever be remembered by hockey fans for his stellar on ice play, his off the ice personality (especially his Twitter account) and all that he’s accomplished with Team Canada, Vancouver and Florida. He now rightfully has his place amongst hockey’s greatest legends and will so for the rest of time.

Florida made their way to the City of Brotherly love for their second meeting of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers. 

The Panthers won the first meeting 4-3 in Sunrise a week ago, but the Flyers got their revenge in Philadelphia with a 4-3 win of their own.

Here’s the takeaways.

A power play goal has been scored 

Every time the Panthers play, the big problem staring them in the face is their lack of success on the power play. 

Entering tonight Florida was 2/33 on the power play. The first two periods in Philadelphia looked much the same, with Florida going 0/2 on the man-advantage. 

However, all things come to an end and the Panthers power play drought, which had not seen a goal since Oct. 15 was one of those things tonight. 

Brandon Montour, who scored the last Panthers power play goal two weeks ago once again found the back of the net, giving the Florida power play a much, much needed tally. 

Florida only got one power play goal on their four attempts tonight, but it’s a start in the right direction. 

The defense was the offense?

Florida’s roster is made up of quite a few guys that are more than capable of burying 30 goals over the course of an 82 game season. 

So who scored the Florida goals tonight? Yes, the defenseman. 

All three goals by the Cats tonight were scored by the d-corps; Forsling, Mahura and Montour. 

The blue liners were finding open lanes and jumping up in the play all game. Florida’s defenseman had 17 shots on goal in the game. 

With the forwards not finding the back of the net, it’s good to have your backend hold it down offensively. 

Carter Hart slammed the door

Philadelphia’s 24-year-old goalie Carter Hart was the main reason why the Flyers got out of this one with two points. 

Hart was lights out, finishing the game with 47 saves. In the final minutes of the third period, Florida was sending everything they had towards goal, but Hart wasn’t having any part of that. 

Florida outshot Philadelphia 50 to 22. 

Hart improves his season record to 5-0-0 after tonight’s game. 

Reinhart and Barkov are still goalless 

For the first seven games of the season, Sam Reinhart was next to Aleksander Barkov on the Panthers top line. Tonight, the pair was split up as their offensive production hasn’t been there, with the duo not having a single goal to their name this season. 

The two combined last season for 72 goals during the regular season. 

Following tonight’s game, the number still stays at zero, though they both picked up assists in tonight’s one goal loss. 

Reinhart and Barkov are two of the best goal scorers on the team, as they showed frequently last year. But the lack of goal production has hurt the team, specifically in close games like this. They need to find the back of the net soon.

Colin White quietly contributes again 

The third line has been the most consistent one for Florida all season.

With Anton Lundell being the staple down the middle and Eetu Luostarinen getting the bump to a top-9 winger role, the Finns have been clicking. 

The other member of this highly-effective line is first-year Panther Colin White. 

White doesn’t see the ice as much as Lundell and Luostarinen as he’s not in the special teams rotation, but when he’s out there 5-on-5, he seems to get the job done. 

White picked up an assist tonight on Mahura’s goal, making it his seventh point in eight games. 

During his last few years in Ottawa, White was setback by injuries and ended up getting bought out this summer. He seems to have found a new spark in South Florida, becoming a much needed player on the wing.