SUNRISE, Florida – If you want to see the sun come up around here, drive about 13 miles east and check out Lauderdale Beach.
Located on the brink of the Everglades, this city was born during the South Florida real estate boom of the 1960s. Its NHL franchise stands as the No. 2 local attraction, behind a shopping complex you can see from space on Google Earth. Or No. 3 if you consider that temperatures haven’t fallen below freezing in 46 years.
The Bruins came here last weekend on the brink of irrelevance in the NHL playoffs. Not only was the “Greatest Team Ever” coming off a brutal home loss, it had ceded home ice to the 8th-seeded Panthers. Even worse, the ailing Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí would be injured no-shows for both games.
Instead, Boston won two games here to take a 3-1 series lead by a combined score of 10-4. And it was 10-4, over and out for the Panthers. Game 5 of this series is tonight at TD Garden. But whatever sense of competitiveness in this series dissipated on a very warm Broward County spring afternoon.
Once pressed, the Florida Panthers proved themselves to be a talentless, thuggish lot prone to shooting first and cross-checking later. Florida has started a pair of goalies in this series.
Alex Lyon is touted in the Panthers pregame hype reel as “Lyon King.”
Think Timon, not Simba.
His replacement Sergei Bobrovsky was born in the old Soviet Union.
Think Yeltsin, not Putin.
This series and this season will end. Next season, the 100th version of the Bruins may not win 65 games like the Fighting 99th. But those 2023-24 Bruins should be a serious Cup contender. Any concerns that they would not were erased over the weekend. You always need shades around here. But Boston’s future is extremely bright.
With or without Bergeron and Krejčí. Both ancient warriors are likely playing in their final postseason.
The trade-deadline adjacent acquisitions made by GM Don Sweeney have proven pivotal in the team’s success.
A lack of depth helped to sink Boston’s title hopes in 2019. This time, Sweeney dealt like Danny Ainge during a caffeine-fueled Monopoly marathon. Dmitry Orlov and Garnett Hathaway were swiped in a mega-deal with the Capitals. Tyler Bertuzzi was rescued from Detroit a week later.
Scrappy, all. These Boston newcomers have dogged the Cats throughout this fledgling postseason. They play like players on the Bruins are supposed to play. They even look the part.
Bertuzzi and Orlov have combined for 11 points in four playoff games. As of press time, Hathaway has more hits in this series (18) than Kike Hernandez (17) has all season.
Orlov, Hathaway, and Bertuzzi are all free agents after the Duck Boat parade or locker-room cleanout day. The Bruins gave up their 2023 first-round pick in the Hathaway/Orlov deal. Sweeney has earned the benefit of the doubt that he’ll do his best to keep at least two of these critical additions in the fold next season given what the team gave up and the salary cap dominoes that lie elsewhere.
The deadline deals are playing so well in and around the Hub, Sweeney had a day Monday to savor the spotlight and take a deserved media bow.
He spoke in mountainous metaphors.
“Everybody climbing Everest is not going at it alone,” Sweeney said. “Chances are they probably have somebody that’s probably climbed there. And to their credit, you climb it once — to go back there and sign up for climbing again, they know how hard it is. But it’s valuable, valuable knowledge. We have guys that went to the doorstep and lost in a heartbreaking way. So those are battle scars that I think also served them well.”
The Bruins have been scarred 50 times in the last 51 years. Orlov and the Bruins have each won one Stanley Cup since the Watergate break-in. Orlov’s Cup came with Washington in 2018.
Whether those wounds are deeper or healed by next season, the Bruins will be, well, loaded for bear. David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Taylor Hall, Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindolm, and Linus Ullmark are all under contract.
Boston’s 6-2 rout in Game 4 was an action-packed affair that included a few brawls in the after-credits. Ullmark starred as Tim Thomas and Shawn Thornton. He stopped 41 of 43 shots faced, including one using his mask. He then earned a 10-minute misconduct for throwing Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk out of the club with 3:11 to play.
In Game 4, the Bruins partisans were outnumbered about 60-40. They made up the difference in volume, vulgarity, and vigor.
The Bruins fans who helped to populate the latest incarnation of Fenway South continued their suds-fueled delirium until they reached the parking lot.
Yes, you read that right. The original Fenway South was Tropicana Field. That place is now home to the best team in baseball. (Hint: It’s not the Red Sox.) FLA Live Arena is the new stomping ground for visiting and transplanted New Englanders until further notice. Think TD Garden circa 2011. Or Tropicana Field circa 2004.
The Panthers in-game host, an affable chap dressed in his Sunday best, told those in attendance the Panthers next home appearance would be Game 6 on Friday. He was not under oath.
Many Boston fans were transplants.
Some specifically came for a game or two.
Others just happened to be on vacation.
The Panthers will likely join them tomorrow.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.