FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — It's a moment one could say changed the course of two franchises. A moment that may have set the tone for the Florida Panthers winning the last two Stanley Cup championships. A moment that, for the people involved, prompts the same question to this day.
That question: “What if?”
What if Brad Marchand scored what would have been a series-clinching goal on a breakaway in the final moments of Game 5 of the 2023 first-round
series between his top-seeded Boston Bruins — a team that broke the NHL record for wins in a regular season — against the eighth-seeded Panthers?
The moment lasted 7.7 seconds, start to finish. That was 2 1/2 years ago. It still resonates. The Panthers have been to the last three Stanley Cup Finals, winning the last two. Marchand joined Florida last season and without him, it's fair to say the Panthers probably wouldn't be back-to-back champs.
And if he had just scored on that breakaway ... what if?
“Ultimately,” Marchand told The Associated Press after a Panthers practice last week, “I'm here now because of it.”
Florida had little realistic chance of winning that 2023 series. The Panthers didn't even qualify for the playoffs until after their next-to-last game of the regular season, grabbing the final spot by finishing one point ahead of Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Florida had 92 points, the fewest of any team in the 16-team playoff field. Boston had 135 points, an NHL record.
“We’re kind of going up against — I mean, let’s say it for what it is — the best team in regular season history here,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said going into the series.
Boston won Game 1, Florida won Game 2 to steal home-ice advantage, then Boston rolled to wins in Games 3 and 4 on the Panthers' rink. The series went back to Boston for Game 5, the Bruins on the verge of advancing.
It was 3-3 with 7.7 seconds left, with a faceoff happening in Florida's offensive zone.
“I was thinking overtime,” Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky said.
Marchand had other ideas.
Florida's Sam Reinhart took the draw against Boston's Patrice Bergeron. Reinhart won the faceoff, sending the puck back toward Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour. It never got there.
Marchand read the play perfectly and got his stick on the puck, knocking it past Montour and down the ice.
Time was ticking. There were about six seconds left when Marchand touched the puck. About five seconds left when it crossed the blue line. About four seconds left when it reached center ice. About three seconds left when it crossed the other blue line. Marchand was giving chase. The only thing between he and Bobrovsky was the puck.
”I looked up at the clock and I saw there was maybe five or six seconds left," Marchand said. “So, I was trying to count down in my head because the last thing I wanted to do was miss an opportunity because I ran out of clock time. I was counting down on my head as I was getting closer.”
Marchand, skating as fast as he could, devised a plan.
He wanted to deke once he got to the puck. He figured with as much speed as he had, it would be easy: Get Bobrovsky to move one way, slide the puck into whatever side of the net opened up, send Bruins fans home happy, send the Panthers home for the summer.
Turns out, the countdown clock in his head was going a little more quickly than the actual clock.
“I felt I was running out of time, so then I just tried to shoot and I kind of panicked," Marchand said. “And I tried to shoot low block, which I never, ever do.”
Bobrovsky said he was trying to guess what Marchand would do.
“I think he was thinking something else,” Bobrovsky said.
Bobrovsky was ready, just like he has been time and time and time again for Florida on these two marches to Stanley Cup titles. He has been an absolute wall for Florida in its back-to-back championship runs.
But in April 2023, he was not a wall. He was more like an afterthought.
He got sick before what basically was a must-win game at Toronto late in the regular season. Alex Lyon — on a two-way contract, making roughly one-tenth of Bobrovsky's salary — got the start that night and won. Then he kept winning. The net was his. Bobrovsky was a backup and didn't get into a game again until midway through the third period of Game 3.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice started Bobrovsky in Game 4, a 6-2 Boston win. Bobrovsky was the pick to start Game 5 as well; he stopped 39 of the first 42 shots he saw that night. At the moment that Marchand took the final shot of regulation, Bobrovsky's numbers for the series were pedestrian, an .889 save percentage and a 4.32 goals-against average.
“I didn’t have my best season," Bobrovsky said. "So, if the playoffs ends the way it could have ended right then, like at that moment, I don’t know where I would be now.”
Marchand shot. Bobrovsky kicked his right leg out in time. Season saved. Seeds planted.
“I remember winning the draw back and seeing the breakaway go down the other end,” Reinhart said. “I mean, yeah, you’re seconds away from your season being over. I think that year there was a lot of instances that if one or two things changed and we don’t go on the run we did and we ultimately don’t learn some very valuable lessons, we don’t get to where we’re at.”
Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad was giving chase to Marchand, though he had no chance of stopping the breakaway. Ekblad dove, unsuccessfully, then scrambled to his knees around the time Bobrovsky was making the save.
Marchand had already skated away and was in the corner to Ekblad's right. Ekblad saw the rebound in the slot with about one-tenth of a second left and instinct kicked in. He took his right hand and smacked the puck away from the goal crease.
“Some people thought that was scary in the moment,” Ekblad said. “I was pushing it away. There was no way it was going in.”
The Panthers would win on a goal from Tkachuk in overtime. Then they won Game 6. Then Game 7. Somehow, the No. 8 seed ousted the No. 1 seed. Florida went on to the Cup final against Vegas, losing in five games.
The Panthers haven't lost a playoff series since. Boston hasn't been a real contender since. Marchand is not why Boston lost that series in 2023. In time, he's simply conceded to himself that things were meant to work out the way they did.
“I made a poor read,” Marchand said. “Bob made a great read and a big save.”
It's called “the butterfly effect,” which mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz loosely defined as something as slight as a butterfly flapping its wings could eventually lead to a tornado. In short, a small thing can lead to really big things.
Marchand missed on a breakaway. Bobrovsky made a save.
Small things.
The Panthers have won the last two Stanley Cups. Marchand got traded to Florida. The Panthers get championship rings again on Monday. Another banner goes up on Tuesday.
Big things.
“A butterfly flapped his wings somewhere in the world and Marchy didn't score,” Ekblad said. "We'll take it.”
The Bruins weren't the same after that series.
They lost in the second round to the Panthers in 2024; Florida went on to win its first Cup. Boston opened last season at Florida and Marchand was convinced after just that game that the Panthers would go back-to-back as champions. The Bruins sputtered last season, fell out of playoff contention and wound up trading Marchand to Florida.
If he scored on that breakaway ... what if?
“I don’t overthink it. One of the reasons why I am here is because of that play. There’s no question,” Marchand said. “It happened for a reason. We were not meant to win that year — because I was meant to win last year here with this team.”
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
