The Conference finals are here!
Hi, I’m doing one of these today!
While Boston’s sports failures are both many and in the present, nothing heals a hater’s heart quite like the Toronto Maple Leafs; a team that has insisted it is different at every step of the way while proving over and over and over that they aren’t, have finally been eliminated from the playoffs by the Florida Panthers in 7 games. Given the way their play at 5-on-5 materialized, I’m only impressed that the Leafs managed to get 7 games out of a team that otherwise cleaned their clock.
NaturalStatTrick.com
Naturally, in a Game 7, it was two Ex-Bruins contributed to the elimination of Toronto; Brandon Carlo showed us a lot of what we as B’s fans had gotten uncomfortably used to when it came to reading plays on at least two of the Panthers’ goals, and Brad Marchand, now free from having to be a constant scoring threat, found the time and space to get three points in an elimination game for his team; including the dagger in a 6-1 blowout.
And just to twist the knife, he was nothing but class after the fact, cautioning a famously contentious fanbase to not come down on the team entirely after their elimination:
“They’ve been working and building something really big here for a while and they were a different brand of hockey this year. They’re getting crucified and I don’t think it’s justified.”
-Brad Marchand in post-game comments
Ooof. That’s gotta sting.
Marchand only has to play one more game in order to guarantee either a 2027 or 2028 First Round Pick; something I’m sure he’s going to do.
The other series is the Dallas Stars versus Edmonton Oilers, which promises to be certified heat for however many games Connor McDavid can outlast Stuart Skinner. I don’t really have a rooting interest in it beyond “it would be nice for Dallas to have a Cup they don’t have to litigate” and “It would also be nice for Connor to have at least one cup”, and both sides play an aesthetically delightful game, so by all means I think this is a series that should go 7 games. Not because I want both sides to suffer, but because we could all use a break from whatever nonsense the Panthers are gonna inflict on us, assuming the Hurricanes don’t immediately drop the corsi pressure cooker on them and dare them to score when they have the puck for a combined 10 minutes of game time.
Internationally, the Bruins are having a great time at Worlds! Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak are tied for the tournament lead in points with 10, and Dans Locmelis once again has distinguished himself as the straw stirring the drink for Team Latvia with a 5 point in 6 game clip.
Meanwhile, Team USA’s Bruins are…fine. Swayman hasn’t done himself any favors, and Lohrei has three points in 5 games. Decent stuff. It’s a long tournament, and it’s tougher than you realize…but this is not exactly the Tournament that the US was expecting they’d have.
Today, Czechia faces Germany to hopefully gain some ground on Switzerland. Oughta be a good time given how score happy their games have been.
So! What’s on tap for today?