Boston Bruins

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Twice before, the Carolina Hurricanes had reached the playoffs only to see their ascent to becoming a serious Stanley Cup contender ...

The Hurricanes had their biggest home crowd in franchise history with an attendance of 19,513. Later, after DeBrusk had beaten Raanta from the top of the crease, Teravainen whipped a pass to Domi for a one-timer. But the Bruins found themselves playing catch-up after Domi's first goal, which had him skating in on the left side to bury a redirect attempt from Jordan Staal at 3:14 of the second. That includes the 2006 Stanley Cup finals against Edmonton, as well as a second-round overtime win at Boston in 2009 — which came 13 years earlier to the day. He also assisted on Teravainen's goal with a perfect pass to the top of the crease for the first-period putaway. The Bruins were in their sixth straight playoffs. Bergeron, the longtime No. 1 center, can become an unrestricted free agent after 18 seasons with the team. From there, the Hurricanes had to hang on through one tense clock-killing shift before they could celebrate. Then there's Raanta, who joined Frederik Andersen in the team's overhaul of its goaltender position. He was again steady in net. Carolina acquired him ahead of the March trade deadline, and he rewarded them with his first career postseason goals. One thing is certain: winning the Metropolitan Division title paved the way by securing home-ice advantage.

The Boston Bruins certainly had their moments in the first round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, but in the end, they simply lost to a better hockey ...

They’ve been great all year long, very well-coached and disciplined in their system and they have a lot of depth,” said Brad Marchand. “We were hoping to beat them, but it always hurts, and it always will. It would be more disappointing, quite honestly, if the Boston Bruins fumbled away an opportunity that was in their hands or didn’t live up to their potential. But they couldn’t truly dominate the game flow like they did in Boston getting away from Staal’s shutdown group, and that’s a massive problem when you don’t have the home ice advantage need for last change in a series. Once again Boston’s top guys were left with too much of the heavy lifting and couldn’t do it by themselves in Carolina. We did execute what we needed to do to score some goals and we didn’t execute D-zone coverage. It’s a very good team we battled against, and we knew it was going to be a close series and a tough series. “It’s always hard to say it when you come up short, but there’s something to be proud of that we battled,” said Patrice Bergeron. “We started off slow this year and the series was kind of the same. You have to execute, and we didn’t execute D-zone coverage well enough and that ends up being the difference in the game. Instead, it’s one team that’s demonstrably better than the other and it was borne out over an intense, physical and ultimately true-to-form postseason series. Kudos to them, they played a great game and a great series and they’re advancing.” It was Boston’s inability to win a game on Carolina’s turf and the overall tough time they had scoring against Carolina’s stiff, unyielding defense that ultimately forced them into the offseason. Until David Pastrnak scored in the final minute to make things interesting, Saturday afternoon’s playoff game had the same kind of lack of offensive oomph as just about every other Bruins game against Carolina this season.

The Boston Bruins have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. How does this season rank for a team that had high hopes for 2022?

In addition, the departure of Rask and the uncertain future of Bergeron demonstrates a potentially declining situation in Boston. They battled back, but were ultimately unable to steal a game in Raleigh and lost the series. The B’s lost Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that Boston had eliminated in both 2019 and 2020.

A closer look at the Boston Bruins' Game 7 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes and what led to them being unable to pull off the upset.

Rumored to be a Boston target at the trade deadline, Max Domi instead went to Raleigh and played the game of his life, scoring two goals and adding an assist. Carolina continued the series trend, as the home team won all four of the games. In the end, the Carolina Hurricanes were too much.

Former Montreal Canadiens forward Max Domi becomes a Game 7 hero for the Carolina Hurricanes knocking out the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins pulled within one in the second, but Domi responded with his second of the period. When Domi was acquired by the Canadiens, he was touted as an intense and “playoff type” player. After that, it was Domi’s turn to put the puck in the net. Anderson has established himself as a top six forward for the Canadiens, but Domi was dealt again this season. But just one more season later and Domi was dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Josh Anderson. The forward had been playing with the Arizona Coyotes when he was dealt straight up for Alex Galchenyuk in a surprising offseason trade.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Antti Raanta stayed ready, even while spending most of a season backing up one of the NHL's top goalies. He's critical now for the ...

Raanta has shown the Hurricanes that they don’t have to force anything. It was a moment that Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy came back to almost immediately in his postgame news conference. “When Freddy got hurt, it was kind of like, ‘OK, now it’s a chance for me to show what I can do in the big stages,’” Raanta said after the 3-2 win. “Like we’ve been playing the whole year, the team in front of me is doing a great job. Raanta looks like Carolina’s go-to guy in net entering a second-round series against the Pittsburgh-New York Rangers winner. He allowed two goals on 70 shots in the Game 1 and 5 victories (.971 save percentage) then finished with 27 saves in the clinching win.

There are some big decisions that lie ahead for the Boston Bruins. A look at their offseason priorities include captain Patrice Bergeron.

Can the Bruins lock him up for eight years? It seems unlikely that he would play for a different team. The future of the 36-year-old pending UFA center Patrice Bergeron will need to be settled.

"It hurts": The Bruins reflected on their early exit from the playoffs following a Game 7 loss to the Hurricanes. Read more on Boston.com.

“It stings and it’s not the feeling that you want. “It’s always hard to say that when you come up short, but it is something to be proud of. Cassidy said it was a big-time save from Antti Raanta and that it shifted the momentum. At that point, the Bruins had a steep, uphill climb and simply ran out of time. We needed one on the road and we couldn’t do that.” And we thought we had that this year,” Brad Marchand said.