Bruins Brass Sums Up Of First-Round Exit: ‘Empty Feeling’

BOSTON — There was no mincing words or feelings when Boston Bruins ownership and management took the podium at TD Garden on Tuesday in part of the year-ending press conference.

“I can’t sit here and BS anybody, this stung,” Bruins president Cam Neely said in his first response. “This stung, this left an empty feeling. Not just for us up here, the players, the fans especially. (The fans) certainly brought it every night in the four games that we played in the first round. So, there was a lot left on the table this year, for sure.” 

Neely added: “For me, it’s been quite an empty feeling. Take a look at 2019 in Game 7, and this is a close second for me.”

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Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery acknowledged how he remains “frustrated, mad, accountable,” some 10 days after the Black and Gold were eliminated after the Florida Panthers won Game 7 in overtime at TD Garden. Those feelings surely will remain long into the offseason with the missed opportunity being something some Bruins said they’ll live with forever.

“It’s an empty feeling, you know the players are going through it, and you look at the season and you lose sight of the accomplishment because of the failure,” general manager Don Sweeney said. “That’s ultimately what you’re going to be judged upon, and we take responsibility for that.

“It lives with you. It just does. It sits in the bones,” Sweeney continued. “People might not quite understand, but it does, the disappointment for our fanbase because you know the energy they’re going to provide if you continue through the playoffs.”

After a record-setting season in which the Bruins recorded the most wins and most points in NHL history, Boston owned a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven along with a lead in the final minute of regulation in Game 7. Sweeney and others also compared it to the Black and Gold losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, much like Neely.

“We missed a massive opportunity and again, not to push aside a historic season, but it’s going to get lost in the translation of this as a result,” Sweeney said.