As a Bruins fan I think to myself “Don’t click on this video”, I clicked on it. Once he’s done taking about game 4 I think “Okay time to get off now!” But no, I stay and watch the recaps of games 5, 6, and 7 somehow hoping for the outcome to be different, it never is. My god this loss hurt me :(

One of the most memorable hockey games I've ever watched in the 20 years I've watched hockey. Unreal.

As a Lightning fan, I can relate.. Losing in the first round against the 8th seed after a historic regular season. However, the following 3 years were fantastic. Two Stanley cups and an Eastern conference Championhip.

I love playoff hockey for one reason: anything can happen. The favorite for the cup whiffs it in the first round, the bottom team makes it to the cup, the all-season silent rookies comes out with 2 hat-tricks, it's just so awesome to watch. This game was one of them, the Panthers had no right to be as good as they were, but mad respect to them for getting as far as they did. Just two months to go start counting down again!

Swayman should have started game 6 instead of Ullamrk. Ullmark looked injured during game 5 and it wouldnt have put as much pressure on the bruins if Swayman wasnt just a last minute change

went to game 1 and 7, everybody got so quiet when florida scored the ot goal in game 7 and we all walked out speechless.

As a Florida Panthers fan this off season was the best one of my life.

Re-living the Boston chokejob is almost as beautiful as it was live in April

I have seen many series where a team actually plays worse when their star player returns from injury. All of his teammates are subconsciously thinking "We don't have to work as hard now, because we've got the big guy back". Conversely, sometimes teams actually play better when the star player is injured, thinking "Now we've got to work twice as hard to have a chance without him". In hockey, a clearly harder-working team will usually beat a more skilled team.

This series is why I love the best of 7 playoff format over footballs 1 and done. You get to see the best and worst out of a team as they battle out over 7 games.

This was the Luongo's Revenge for the 2011 cup finals. Florida played this series just like Boston did against Vancouver

The mood swings from TD Garden were crazy

Ur killing it with the off-season content. Keep ‘em coming!

I was there at that game, once that puck went into our net in OT. It was absolute silence... You could even hear a pin drop in TD

Great insight. Now can you explain Columbus sweeping Tampa Bay?

Bobrovsky shutting down two president trophy winners that were record breakers is wild, also on two different teams against two different teams.

Though the cup didnt end the way I wanted, this series followed by the 2 after were my best memories watching hockey after seeing this team fail time after time. Our cup will come.

As a Bruins fan, I have never seen my team forget how to play Bruins hockey quite like they did in games five through seven. I have no clue how they went from dominating games three and four to being scared reckless and skittish with the puck in a way that they weren’t all season long. Not to mention the fact they had some of the weirdest flukiest worst luck imaginable all series and you have the recipe for what is at least as a Bruins fan the very incarnation of pain

Excellent video , you forgot to mention the goaltending changes on Florida’s side . Bob came in and made a big difference

What an excellent video, great breakdown of how it went down. I'm glad you highlighted game 5, that really was the huge turning point. Keep up the great work

U don’t have to apologize for long form videos I personally love when vids are longer than us usual it’s a nice break form short videos from tik toc and shorts

This was not the worst choke, that was Lightning - Blue Jackets. Florida won the President's Trophy last year, they had some injuries a new system, and all sorts of reasons why they were poor throughout this season, but the 43-point separation is an illusion. Let's say it was the Blue Jackets sneaking in, yes, that would be a massive upset, but people forgot how good this Florida team could be.

We up in Boston heard about some of the things that happened behind the scenes: Ullmark got hurt about a month before the end of the season, and somehow the goalie coaches went from alternating goalies (to give Ullmark rest) to putting Ullmark to start every game except for Game 7. Headscratcher. Monty (Jim Montgomery) had a mental lapse when Bergy returned and slotted him with the wrong line. Ully had a mental lapse in OT. Not sure what he was thinking. The game winning goal in Game 7, the Bruins weren't just physically beat, they were mentally tired, and weren't thinking about coverage.

As a Boston sports fan, this was the worst loss I've ever endured. Worse than the Yankees beating the Sox in game 7 of the '03 ALCS, and worse than the '07 Patriots losing their perfect season in the Super Bowl. Bergeron and Krejci deserved a better ending to their careers, especially after such a dream of a regular season. As painful as this was to watch... great video, I really enjoy your content.

Good topic and very good video - I guess one of the key issues is indeed pressure. Sometimes youth and the absence of experience help not realize pressure. But, the Bruins were not really a young team and so pressure did creep up on them, while the Panthers really did, as you mentioned, play with house money. A friend of mine who is a professional hockey coach always tells his players: "pressure is a privilege"...

I don't know that you can really call Swayman going in for game seven a "seed of doubt" when Ullmark was visibly hobbled in game six. If anything, pushing on with Ullmark when he already looked shaky in game five was probably the bigger error.

The best regular season to watch and the worst playoffs to watch as a Bruins fan

I’m an avid Bruins fan, and have been for 30 years. To answer the question posed near the end of this video: obviously the Ullmark mishandle below the goal line in Game 5 OT was soul-crushing. However, the biggest error made was not starting Swayman in Game 6, when it was (I think) obvious that Ullmark was playing-while-injured during Game 5. Even if Ullmark wasn’t injured, though, the coach needed to start Swayman in Game 6 - Linus & Jeremy excelled last season, in part, because they shared the workload and stayed fresh, both physically & mentally. The psychological impact on Ullmark from (essentially) single-handedly throwing Game 5 in OT, plus the physical wear & tear of playing five straight games, makes it an easy decision to start Swayman in Game 6. I need to be clear that the Panthers played really well in this series; they (mostly) matched Boston’s effort & intensity, and they played to their team’s strengths. Still, I believe Game 7 never happens if a healthy Swayman plays in Game 6, rather than an injured Ullmark.

If brad had scored that goal…

Great analysis, hope you're channel keeps blowing up!

Love the Secret Base rewinder style of video. Keep ‘em coming!

If u watched any of the panthers vs bruins games this yr u would of seen this coming. The panther had the bruins number somehow and when they lost tht last game of the yr to end up playing the bruins in the first round was the worst thing tht could of happened for Boston. If u look strictly at the numbers yes it was the biggest upset. If u take a deep look into the regular season games tht yr the panthers had more of a chance than anyone to knock off the bruins.

malcolm gladwell has a chapter in i think outliers that talks about how sometimes the most favored team / player ends up losing.. its super interesting ...also, this game and series was th emost fun ive had watching the sport in years

Die hard Bruins fan here. This one was tough for me. I was screaming at everyone. My wife, my boss, the truck drivers at my job, my direct supervisor, fucking everyone. No one talked to me for a week bc of it. I never thought I’d ever let sports get to me like that but there was something about this loss that just made me snap out and want to lash out on everyone, and I almost burned all my Bruins sweaters over it. I still get all twisted up about it. But it’s a new season getting ready to start and we’ll be back at the top of the pile again.

Such a good breakdown, the cats had a run to remember and it started with this series

You may like to mention that the Panthers had the best regular season record in the NHL the season before this . They're a good team. The regular season is a long exhibition season for the most part , however I believe if Chicago did not upset Pittsburg on the last day of the season ,Florida would not have got in to the play offs and on to the finals. It seems I remember Toronto having a 4-0 lead in the third period of game 7 and choked to the Bruins. That's a pretty sever choke!

As an amateur Bruins historian (I've written a few sports history books), you must remember that the Bruins have an awful history of blowing playoff series when they are the overwhelming favorites. This was just a continuation of this trend.

Last season really was somthing else.

another great video. the turning point imo was definitely the tkachuk ot goal. also do you think you could do a video about the rangers?

They were 3-1 without Bergeron and 0-3 with him. Makes ya think.

Always love your videos

Boston’s coach made a bad call switching the goalies heading into game 7. That cost them the series.

Best season of my life as a Florida Panthers fan. What a ride it was, not a bad year for my first full season of season tickets either! 💪🏼

Reminds me of the fleury give away in the playoff vs Montreal a few years back absolutely brutal and ruined what momentum they had left

As soon as I learned that the B's coach was going off their successful goalie rotation system and putting everything on Ullmark's shoulders, I knew they were in for trouble. Unfortunately, the Bruins management wouldn't recognize their fatal mistake, until it was too late.

Jim Montgomery did a fantastic job in regular season. Easily one of the best coaching jobs I've ever seen. But I will never understand why he took a formula that worked wonders, being the goalie tandem, and decided to throw it out the window in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, Ullmark and Swayman are incredible goalies on their own. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The tandem should have continued, because these goalies worked so well when they were alternating. I think that decision was the first sign of the cracks forming. Sticking to that decision after game 5 sealed their fate.

I like the longer videos

I was at game 6 in Sunrise, FL and the 6 lead changes culminating in the Panthers going up 6 - 5 and then 7 - 5 to win was the dagger into Boston. No way were we losing game 7, even on the road.

ugh this was so painful to re-live

I was at all 3 games in Florida for that series. That game 6 was one of the most loud and exciting games I have ever been to. Games 3 and 4 had tons of Bruins fans but strangely game 6 was a whole lot more red.

Great video. Officiating should be a part of this video. The playoffs are officiated drastically different than the regular season. That imo is why there is a history of losses like this in the NHL **choke** 😆

As a Blues fan, I can say that it was a hard season to watch, but I did enjoy watching the Bruins bungle it in such a spectacular fashion. It was so good I started pulling for a the Panthers, but it didn't hurt to have a Tchachuk on roster as well.

Total respect to Florida's play, but I would have loved a Vegas/Boston Final.

I loved this type of video!

Are we doing a little Sb nation/secret base rewind type video? Lol I like it

Imagine Penguins overtaking Panthers in standings and Blue Jackets drafting Bedard.

Since the inception of the President's Trophy, the trophy winners were bounced out of the playoffs in the 1st or 2nd round 20 times (including the Bruins of 2022-23). Of the previous 19 times, those early round disappointments came back to reach the final within 3 seasons 11 times. Nine of them even won the Cup. 1986 Oilers (won the Cup a year later) 1988 Flames (won the Cup a year later) 1991 Blackhawks (reached the Final a year later) 1992 Rangers (won the Cup 2 years later) 1993 Penguins - 2000 Blues - 2004 Red Wings (won the Cup 3 seasons later, as the 2004-05 season was cancelled) 2006 Red Wings (won the Cup 2 years later) 2009 Sharks - 2010 Capitals - 2012 Canucks - 2014 Bruins - 2016 Capitals (won the Cup 2 years later) 2017 Capitals (won the Cup a year later) 2018 Predators - 2019 Lightning (won the Cup a year later) 2020 Bruins - 2021 Avalanche (won the Cup a year later) 2022 Panthers (reached the final a year later) 2023 Bruins ??? There you have it. So Bruins fans, take heart.

As a Panther fan, I went into this series with the thought "I'll be happy if we make this a 6 game series". Not to doubt our team, but Boston was just that team all year and the thought of inconsistency was always with us this past season. Once we made it 7? I had hope, but I was still VERY cautious about that hope. Which carried over every game the rest of the way to the Final. Just enjoying every game and moment like it'll end any day. Low and behold it took us all the way to the Finals in what was such a fun experience. This series though was the best/worse/shocking of em all. Well. That and sweeping Carolina. That series was a complete shock to me. I had Carolina to the Finals in my bracket. But to sweep them...that was the second shock to me.

Saw the thumbnail and thought he spent 9 minutes talking about how ridiculous it is that people call Grzelcyk "Grizzlick"

I was at this game when the panthers tied it with under a minute in regulation I looked to my friend and said “we just lose the series”

i’ll never forget that night upstairs watching on the TV as a Panthers fan. i woke my parents up to tell them what happened lol.

How many videos have you done that end with a question mark? Please go next level.

Great video! First off no one predicted that Boston would set all kinds of records last year or that 2022 Presidents Trophy winning Fla Panthers who got Matthew Tkachuk last offseason would be 13 points out of the playoffs in December. What do I think happened? I think Montgomery got out coached by PM for most of the series. As pointed out in the vid about the lineup changes and mishandling of the goalies. Could also argue that Boston bringing in a bunch of new faces over the last 3 weeks of the regular season with a coach who lacked experience was too many moving parts for him and it showed. Bottom 6 guys who were having career years and played a heavy game were being sat for purely offensive depth. The Bruins roster didn't need turnover prone Tyler Bertuzzi or Dimitri Orlov they needed a top 9 center who could back up Bergeron and Krejci, kill penalties and take faceoffs when needed.. Ryan O'Reilly was available and wouldn't have cost them what they gave up for those other two guys. In the end it was the backing away from the aggressive physical forecheck and d first to transition offense which was so successful all season and going to a wide open run and gun style that did them in. Paul Maurice took a page out of Craig Berube's 2019 SC run playbook and the Panthers goon'd it .. err grinded it out lol. Not the first team to take advantage of loosening of the rules during the playoffs. Last years Panthers would have tried to trade chances with Bos and they wouldn't have won the series. Just look at the games 3 & 4 in Fla. The Bruins turned the table and grinded those games out and it was frustrating for the Panthers. Tampa learned that lesson in 2019 from Tort's Bluejackets and the next season swapped out some of the depth skill for lets call them greasy players (Pat Maroon ring a bell?) and went to 3 straight finals winning 2. Cassidy who was on the wrong end of it in 2019 learned that lesson too and funny how physical Vegas were in the Edm series and how unfazed by the Panthers shenanigans they were in the finals. I wasn't that surprised by the outcomes tbh. I think the real shock was Fla beating Carolina so handily, Which just goes to show how much deeper Fla was/is then most gave them credit for.

Bro big fan

Feels like the 80s and 90s all over again bruins constantly breaking your heart

Keith Tkachuk looks like he'd make for a good police officer

This had to hurt the Bruins even more than the 17 second debacle in 2013.

The turning point was that game five OT goal. Also I disagree with your take that starting Swayman in game seven was the wrong call. Ullmark was hurt, and anyone with eyes could see it. Except for Jim Montgomery.

Biggest Choke was the leafs in 2013 game 7 vs boston where they were up by 4-1 with 10 minutes left and then lost in OT 5-4.

Felt like a SB rewind video

AMAZING!!!!! Was so sweet to see this happen as Panthers beat the best team in history after such a terrible season.

People seem to forget that the Panthers were the best team in the NHL for the 2nd half of the season. Getting hot at the right time is the key to the playoffs.

Man, if that breakaway was scored in game 5 on the last second, that could’ve changed the outcome of the entire playoffs… So much pressure on one guy!

I am still getting chills watching the last goal. Go cats

Still hurts... I forgot about it, and than i saw this...

Being a Bruins fan, what actually made the difference was when Florida but in “Bobrovsky”.

I like rewinder from secret base but they rarely talk hockey, would love more vids like this one

It was cool to witness an improbable run from the cats. But I really wanted to follow the ultimate story of the giant favourites that I thought for sure would be a blast with the rocking TD garden and the flashes of 2011 canucks in that team. Upsets are only fun when it's your team or a canadian one.

I’m a Panthers fan so you’d expect me to say this is the biggest choke, but I disagree. And for a few reasons too actually. 1. This team won the Presidents trophy the prior year and still had a good chunk of the players on the team that played on that team as well. 2. New head coach and new depth players, along with a new franchise piece meant that the team needed to acclimate to the new system being run and needed to develop chemistry. 3. Key injuries, especially in January prior to the all star break led to some poor stretches that month. There was a point in the season where both Barkov and Bennet were out with injuries. Any team will have a tough time if both their 1C and 2C are injured. 4. The team got healthy at the right time. Barkov and Duclair came back in March, and the team went on a tear, and then Bennett came back at the start of the series and immediately made an impact. Despite our poor record we had two 40 goal scorers, and two additional 30 goal scorers along with a Dman that finished with 74 points on the season. Were there concerns? Absolutely. But there was still a ton of talent on the team and if they got hot at the right time, they could absolutely beat any team in the league and go on a tear, which is what ended up happening. Boston wasn’t playing against the 2023 panthers, they were playing a hybrid of both last years and this year’s team and they didn’t have an answer. I still hold that the 2019 Lightning pulled off the biggest choke. The Bruins were a fantastic team this year, but I remember watching that Tampa team and they felt less like a really good hockey team and more like a legitimate force of nature that year. And it looked like they hadn’t missed a beat at the start of game one that series. They then proceeded to lose every game and put out one of the worst playoff performances that I’ve ever seen. The Bruins at least won three games. That all powerful Lightning team got straight up swept.

Nothing will ever top the Bruins blowing a 3-0 series lead to the Flyers and then blowing a 3-0 lead in game seven to lose the series.

"Heading back to Miami?" Dude...Panthers haven't played in Miami since the 90's.

The Bruins unfortunately have choked away so many chances at winning another Cup after 2011. Losing to the Capitals in 2012, not being able to finish the job in 2013 against the Hawks, losing to the Senators in the playoffs, laying an egg in game 7 against the Blues in the Final, then this epic choke is the worst I've seen, even worse than 2010's reverse sweep against the Flyers. It's gonna be a rough few years in Boston.

Nice vid

Ulmark was injured, they didnt doubt him they gave him mercy

reminds me of the bruins choking a 3-0 series lead to the Flyers in 2010

I think the Flyers - Bruins 2010 coming back from a 3-0 game deficit and an 3-0 score deficit in Boston in Game 7 is a pretty epic collapse. And the entire Flyers - Penguins series from 2012 going back to the regular season with the Final game being a border line bloodbath into the Playoffs where guys were just trying to kill each other and a ragtag group of turnstile players managed to take down a powerhouse team in 6 games. Of course then they got immediately bounced by New Jersey but we don't have to go THAT deep

Watching them go down 2-0 and then to come back up 3-2 only to lose it… it was like reverse 2010 😂

As a Panthers' fan, It was a great series. And I think that can be agreed upon even from a lot of non Florida fans as well. And I don't think Boston played bad at all. They weren't perfect, but nobody is. Even the best teams, even in the playoffs. It's just that Florida caught their grove right at the right time. And I can say this was not a miraculous thing, because they had been building towards this for months.

That's why you play the games. The names on a piece of paper mean nothing.

That was painful - almost as bad as the Pats losing to the Giants when they were 18-0

this was a pretty epic choke, but it'd be pretty tough to top the Detroit Red Wings getting reverse swept in the 1942 Stanley Cup Final in part because Jack Adams threw a temper tantrum that got him suspended for the rest of the series. ditto another reverse sweep in San Jose getting embarrassed by the division rival LA Kings in 2014.

"What happens in the regular season. Doesn't mean anything when it comes to the playoffs."

This series hurt so bad

All of this sounds like a Cinderella story if you intentionally neglect some major factors. The 2022 Panthers were the 2023 Bruins. They had the highest scoring offense in the league and also won the presidents trophy and were favored for the cup. For some reason people compartmentalized that team from the 2023 team but the major contributing factor was lengthy injuries to key players. The 2023 panthers were still the 122 pt team the year prior deceptively masked by injuries. This was indeed an upset but not to the extent most people think

Amazing video. And I've been a penguins fan since Mario.

Yah I'm not ready to re-live this yet.

In the famous words of Jack Edwards a Hindenburg like ending

Jim Montgomery holds most of the blame in my opinion, but the turning point was the hand pass call on DeBrusk that overturned the goal. All downhill after that.

Absolutely what i like about playoff hockey....unpredictable. Exciting for the fans...

A worse collapse for a single playoff game that i can remember is 1971 Bruins winning 5 To 1 in the 3rd period over Montreal and lost the game 7 to 5.