The greatest regular season in NHL history was all for naught as Patrice Bergeron and the Boston Bruins were absolutely stunned by the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of their first-round series at TD Garden on Sunday night.
After leading the series 3-1 heading back to Boston, it looked like the first-round was all but locked up for the B's. Days later, they were forced to answer the question: what went wrong? Bergeron did not have those answers on Sunday.
“Right now, it's hard to process anything. It hurts right now,” Bergeron said, according to Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub. “It's a special city. It's a special fanbase. [The salute was] a thank you for the support all year.”
The 37-year-old revealed he was playing with a herniated disk, the injury that kept him out for the first four games of the series.
Bergeron will become an unrestricted free agent this summer, with his future in question after his team's historic regular season came to a grinding halt after the Game 7 loss. He signed a one-year deal with a $2.5 million cap hit last offseason.
The captain scored 58 points in 78 games in 2022-23, but didn't play until Game 5 against the Panthers because of the herniated disk.
“Learned a lot from him this year. Hope to learn more next year,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said afterwards.
The Bruins drafted Bergeron 45th overall in 2003, and he's been a staple of the franchise, amassing 1,040 career points, 128 more in the playoffs and an NHL-record five Selke Trophies as the league's top defensive forward.
He won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011, as well as gold medals with Canada at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. But for now, he's still reeling from one of the most improbable playoff losses in recent memory.
Only time will tell, but there's a good chance that Sunday night was Patrice Bergeron's last game in the National Hockey League.
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