Bruins to play Panthers in 1st round of Stanley Cup Playoffs
Boston will have home ice throughout postseason; Florida won only previous series in 1996
The Bruins (65-12-5), who set the NHL record for wins and points in a season (135), won the Presidents' Trophy and will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-7 series and throughout the playoffs. The Panthers (42-32-8) finished as the second wild card from the East.
"They're the best regular-season team in history," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. "We have a chance to do something very, very special. It's going to take a lot of preparation and a lot of execution."
Game 1 will be at TD Garden in Boston on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, CBC, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS).
The Bruins and Panthers each won two of the four games they played this season. Patrice Bergeron had six points (three goals, three assists) and David Pastrnak had four goals. Jake DeBrusk and, Connor Clifton and Brad Marchand had four points each. Linus Ullmark was 2-0-0 with a 3.00 goals-against average and .925 save percentage. Jeremy Swayman was 0-1-1 with a 4.03 GAA and .881 save percentage.
"Just that they're a really good team, a very dangerous team," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said when asked for his thoughts on the Panthers. "And we're gonna have to be at the top of our game if we want to have success."
The Panthers were led by Aleksander Barkov (two goals, four assists), Sam Reinhart (three goals, two assists) and Tkachuk (one goal, four assists) against the Bruins this season. Spencer Knight was 1-1-0 with a 4.51 GAA and .862 save percentage in two games. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 29 shots in a 5-3 loss on Oct. 17. Alex Lyon made 38 saves in a 4-3 overtime win on Jan. 28.
"Tkachuk, excellent player," Montogmery said. "Barkov's a stud. You know that's the two players on top of my mind right now, and then besides that they're just a really fast team that transitions well."
The Bruins and Panthers have played once in the postseason, won by Florida in five games in the 1996 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
Boston, which has qualified for the playoffs in seven straight seasons, lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games in the first round last season.
Florida, which has qualified for the postseason in four straight seasons, won the Presidents' Trophy last season for finishing with the League's best record (58-18-6). They were swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round.
"[Heck] yeah, we're excited," Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg said. "They're a good team. We'll take a couple days to prepare here. We're up to the challenge and we're looking forward to it."
The Bruins are led by Pastrnak (61 goals, 113 points), Marchand (67 points) and Bergeron (58 points), three of their eight players with at least 50 points (Pavel Zacha, 57; David Krejci, 56; Hampus Lindholm, 53; Charlie McAvoy, 52; DeBrusk, 50). Ullmark (40-6-1) led the NHL in wins and was first in GAA (1.89) and save percentage (.938) among goalies to play at least 10 games (49; 48 starts). He also had two shutouts. Jeremy Swayman was 24-6-4 with a 2.27 GAA, .920 save percentage and four shutouts in 37 games (33 starts).
Boston acquired forwards Tyler Bertuzzi (Detroit Red Wings) and Garnet Hathaway (Washington Capitals), and defenseman Dmitry Orlov (Capitals) prior to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline, which was March 3.
Florida is led by Tkachuk, who had an NHL career-high 109 points (40 goals, 69 assists), Barkov (78 points), Brandon Montour (73 points) and Carter Verhaeghe (73 points).
Lyon has started the past eight games for the Panthers with Bobrovsky sick and Knight in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Lyon is 6-1-1 with a 1.87 goals-against average and .943 save percentage since March 29. Bobrovsky is 24-20-3 with a 3.07 GAA and .901 save percentage this season. Knight is 9-8-3 with a 3.18 GAA and .901 save percentage.
"They've played us tough," Bruins forward Trent Frederic said. "They're a good team. They've got a lot of star power over there, guys who can score and play, and they play hard. It won't be easy by any means, it's going to be a battle, and I think we're looking forward to that challenge against them, and we're just excited to get going now that we finally know who we're playing."
Boston has won the Stanley Cup six times, last doing so in 2011.
Florida has never won the Cup, but advanced to the Final in 1996, where they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche.
NHL.com independent correspondents Sean Farrell and Alain Poupart contributed to this report
