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Bruins to face Florida Panthers in first round of 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs
This first-round matchup is a battle of the last two Presidents’ Trophy winners in the NHL.
The Bruins will commence their campaign for the Stanley Cup with a first-round meeting against the Florida Panthers.
The Bruins clinched their spot in the postseason more than a month ago, and have held court as the top seed for an even longer stretch.
But it took the final game of the regular season for the Panthers to lock into their playoff positioning. With Florida dropping Game No. 82 to the Hurricanes, 6-4, the Panthers are locked into the second Wild Card spot, setting up a showdown with Boston.
It’s a battle of the last two Presidents’ Trophy winners in the NHL. While the 2022-23 Bruins rewrote the record books with 65 wins and 135 points during the regular season, the Panthers captured 58 wins and 122 points last year before falling to the Lightning in the second round of the playoffs.
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The Panthers regressed this season with a 42-32-8 record. Their unsustainable shooting luck taking a dip hasn’t helped their cause, but most of Florida’s woes are the byproduct of a leaky defense and some major question marks in net.
During regular-season play, Boston went 2-1-1 against the Panthers, only outscoring them, 17-15, in those four meetings.
Anchored by impact forwards like Matthew Tkachuk (109 points), Aleksander Barkov (78 points), and Verhaeghe (42 goals), the Panthers have the means to do some damage in a seven-game series. Entering Thursday night, the Panthers rank fifth in the NHL in goals per game at 3.51.
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But down the other end of the ice, Florida’s D-zone play stands as an area that Jim Montgomery and his team can exploit.
Puck-moving defensemen like Brandon Montour and Gustav Forsling can push play with ease, but Florida ranks 20th overall in goals against per game at 3.28.
Dealing a stout defensive equalizer in MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary as part of that blockbuster deal for Tkachuk in the offseason did give the Panthers a franchise forward.
But Florida has missed Weegar’s steady presence on the blue line, especially with Sergei Bobrovsky struggling to find his game between the pipes (24-20-3, .901 save percentage).
But Florida is in the midst of a second-half surge, going 26-15-4 since the start of January. Journeyman goalie Alex Lyon (9-3-2, .916 save percentage entering Thursday night) has bailed out the Cats amid Bobrovsky’s struggles.
The Bruins have the scoring depth to both exploit the faults in Florida’s leaky defense, as well as the defense to withstand the expected offensive surge from Tkachuk and Co.
Still, Florida is heating up at the right time, and bruisers like Tkachuk and Radko Gudas are expected to land some welts. Boston will have its hands full starting next week.
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An official schedule for the first-round series has yet to be announced. With the Celtics playing Game 2 of their first-round matchup with the Hawks on Tuesday night at TD Garden, the Bruins could play Game 1 against Florida on Marathon Monday.
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