After putting together the most successful regular season in NHL history, the Bruins' 2023 Stanley Cup playoff run was expected to carry out all the way into June.
The Presidents' Trophy winners, however, didn't even make it to May.
Boston's season came to an end Sunday with a loss in Game 7 of its first-round series against the Florida Panthers. Speaking with the media two days after the crushing defeat, Charlie McAvoy was asked if the Bruins' expectations and elite talent made the early postseason exit all the more difficult to accept.
"That's probably the hardest part, 'cause you know how good you were," McAvoy told reporters at Warrior Ice Arena, per a team-provided video. "I mean, (expletive). Records and all the guys and the character in this room. It's just tough -- tough to be out."
Surely compounding those feelings for McAvoy and other Bruins players is the uncertain future of the franchise. It remains to be see if Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci ever will put on a Black and Gold sweater again, and Boston also will have to make decisions on a handful of impending free agents.
All told, it will be an interesting summer for the Bruins. And unfortunately for McAvoy and company, their offseason won't feature a Stanley Cup tour.
