ECQF: Boston Bruins [ATL1] vs Florida Panthers [WC2] - Panthers Win 4-3

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I find the narrative of Boston's goaltending and defense being poor to be dismissive of the offensive talent of the Panthers. They scored a lot of goals this year and we know that some players can elevate their games in the playoffs or in clutch situations (Bennett, Tkachuk, Verhaeghe). If you look at the games between these teams in the regular season, there were a lot of goals scored by both teams at times. This wasn't an anomaly. The Panthers, for whatever reason, just seemed to match up well against the Bruins where nobody else really did.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I find the narrative of Boston's goaltending and defense being poor to be dismissive of the offensive talent of the Panthers. They scored a lot of goals this year and we know that some players can elevate their games in the playoffs or in clutch situations (Bennett, Tkachuk, Verhaeghe). If you look at the games between these teams in the regular season, there were a lot of goals scored by both teams at times. This wasn't an anomaly. The Panthers, for whatever reason, just seemed to match up well against the Bruins where nobody else really did.

As usual, posters want to attribute a result to just one thing, when in fact it’s a product of many. Bobrovsky elevated his game some, though he leaked a couple. Ullmark was less than he had been all year. Tkachuk played a great series. Bergeron faded badly. Florida gained momentum and Boston seemed to get some serious yips.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Bergeron apparently played with a herniated disc in his back.

The games I've watched Boston play they never looked like a record setting team. They looked medicore at best.

[Scooter]

[QUOTE=Saqe;8694707]Huberdeau is a great playmaker, I'm just saying looking at assist heavy player can be misleading.[/QU
How many goals do you see in a season that are unassisted?

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

One second round pick, one boat anchor, one first round pick (traded away to clear cap space in order to sign a second boat anchor), and Weager.

What. A. Wizard.

This one for Bennett is what really looks bad on him imo.

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Traded to Florida by Calgary with a 6th-round pick in 2022 NHL Draft for Emil Heineman and a 2nd-round pick in 2022 NHL Draft, April 12, 2021.

https://www.nhl.com/player/sam-bennett-8477935

That 2nd round pick we got was later sent to Seattle along with our 3rd in 2022 and our 7th in 2023 for Calle Jarnkrok

https://www.nhl.com/news/jarnkrok-tr...en/c-331844336


Sooooo... you could say we traded Sam Bennett plus a 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th for two months of Calle Jarnkrok plus Emil Heineman.

And now, Bennett and Jarnkrok meet in the second round while Treliving is out as GM and the Flames are golfing.

This playoffs is not great for Treliving's legacy so far.

[Jiri Hrdina]

They did use Heinemen in the package to get Toffoli

[dustygoon]

Coach of NHL's top team that just got knocked out says Bennett and Tkachuk were the difference.

The hell. That is straight to the nuts.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by savemedrzaius

If it was just Presidents Trophy winning team maybe, but the Bruins were supposedly the greatest team in NHL history. They lost the last 3 games, two of them at home, to lose the series. That CBJ team had some really good players too: Panarin, Duchene, Atkinson, Seth Jones, Foligno and Bob.

You're forgetting, that Lightning team was 62 wins / 128 pts in a regular year while this Bruins team was 65 wins / 135 pts in the Connor Bedard tank year. Everyone on the Lightning roster was in their absolute prime, too. Up until that point no team has ever had 62 wins. Pretty sure these are the only two teams ever to hit 62- wins so it's not just President's Trophy.

I think the seven point difference is minor considering all the teams throwing the season for Bedard this year.

Pretty wild that both times, it was Sergei Bobrovsky to do it

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

Coach of NHL's top team that just got knocked out says Bennett and Tkachuk were the difference.

The hell. That is straight to the nuts.

Treliving biggest mistake as GM was the summer for Gulutzan and Brouwer.

To think we had Johnny Matthew Sam and Sean with Gio Dougie and TJ and to hire a dollar store coach what mistake.

That's when the team needed a a elite coach to come in.

[flambers]

Really surprised how poorly the Bruins played in game 7, Panthers totally dominated the OT. They had a breakaway, which was missed

Created several turnovers. thought the Bruins goalie had a really good game.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I find the narrative of Boston's goaltending and defense being poor to be dismissive of the offensive talent of the Panthers. They scored a lot of goals this year and we know that some players can elevate their games in the playoffs or in clutch situations (Bennett, Tkachuk, Verhaeghe). If you look at the games between these teams in the regular season, there were a lot of goals scored by both teams at times. This wasn't an anomaly. The Panthers, for whatever reason, just seemed to match up well against the Bruins where nobody else really did.

Some of it’s coming from the same people who were positive Florida wasn’t even going to get into the playoffs, or Tkachuk wasn’t going to hit 100 points, etc.

I doubt they watched the series, it was a great one. Having watched both the Toronto and Florida series I don’t see any reason to count out Florida.

The goaltending excuse is especially hilarious considering Ullmark had a better SV% than Bobrovsky and much better than Vasilevsky (who the Leafs beat), while Samsonov is sitting in the same area at .900 (and Lyon at .902). The Panthers just turned a Vezina winner into a pumpkin, in what world are they going to struggle to do the same to Samsonov?

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Treliving biggest mistake as GM was the summer for Gulutzan and Brouwer.

To think we had Johnny Matthew Sam and Sean with Gio Dougie and TJ and to hire a dollar store coach what mistake.

That's when the team needed a a elite coach to come in.

I seem to recall an insider that posts on here saying that before Darryl, Treliving was not given the resources to hire a bigger name coach, hence why it always seemed like he was going bargain hunting.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

As usual, posters want to attribute a result to just one thing, when in fact it’s a product of many. Bobrovsky elevated his game some, though he leaked a couple. Ullmark was less than he had been all year. Tkachuk played a great series. Bergeron faded badly. Florida gained momentum and Boston seemed to get some serious yips.

This.

It's not like Boston got to control the series and Florida had nothing to do with it.

Tkachuk and Bennett took over the series.

Look at the series clinching goal. Tkachuk worked hard to keep the puck behind the net, finally passing it to Bennett. A quick pass and shot later and the series was over. It was the kind of goal that Sutter dreams of and preaches about.

[Strange Brew]

A lot of greasy goals for the Panthers in games I saw. Point shots, deflections, getting pucks on net. They were not playing a lot of East/west. It’s a winning style.

But they also benefited big time from a meltdown in the Bruins goaltending, hard not to see that as huge factor.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I seem to recall an insider that posts on here saying that before Darryl, Treliving was not given the resources to hire a bigger name coach, hence why it always seemed like he was going bargain hunting.

I think that's an excuse.

The problem with Gulutzan wasn't that he was cheap, it was that he had never shown anything at any level that indicted a destiny as an NHL head coach, outside of a presentation he gave at a coach's conference. That was the same offseason the Avs hired Jared Bednar just a month later - after Bednar led Cleveland to the Calder Cup.

Bill Peters wasn't exactly cheap either, Treliving recruited him from another organization. The biggest issue was that as soon as Peters got here, someone asked him whether Sam Bennett would be an important piece, and he defaulted to "we're still trying to figure out if he is a winger or a centre" - that was a failing on Treliving's part as the direction should have been abundabtly clear that Sam Bennett was a center, and the team would accept any growing pains. Instead Peters played Bennett on a line with Mark Jankowski for his entire tenure, and even did the same to Lindholm. A lineup of

Tkachuk - Bennett - RW
Gaudreau - Lindholm - RW
X - Backlund - X
Mangiapane - Ryan - Hathaway

could have been the foundation for something great... but Treliving didn't move the pieces that never fit out for pieces that could have. Instead he allowed Peters to square-peg the pieces he had by never providing a clear direction.

Geoff Ward had no business being re-upped. He was a regular season disaster as interim coach that only made the play-ins due to COVID. The 8 seed Flames beat the 9 seed Jets and then got stomped by the Stars in the first round of the actual playoffs, including Ward's mishandling of the goalie situation. It was a perfectly valid reason to see what was available, and it never needed to be Darryl Sutter or a veteran coach. It needed to be someone that showed an organic growth at the AHL level as a head coach, with attention to detail from an X's and O's perspective. Ward was a good assistant, but Treliving got indulgent in promoting someone internally. Even Ward's AHL history was a mirage... fools-gold as that team's actual AHL coach had, IIRC, been promoted to the NHL.

Less expensive coaches were not the primary issue.
Unaccomplished-at-lower-leveld coaches and poor direction on roster usage were.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by flambers

Really surprised how poorly the Bruins played in game 7, Panthers totally dominated the OT. They had a breakaway, which was missed

Created several turnovers. thought the Bruins goalie had a really good game.

Boston was on fire in the first couple shifts and had Fla penned. Then the net peg needed repair and in that virtual timeout the Panthers got their mojo back and dominated OT.

[FanIn80]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1653036556301770752

[Coach]

Very lame.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

https://twitter.com/user/status/1653036556301770752

i am now cheering against the florida panthers

[FanIn80]

lol