Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno reflect on Bruins’ record-setting season: ‘We should have won a Cup’ - The Boston Globe
Both Hall and Foligno now don red-and-white sweaters as veteran leaders on a rebuilding Blackhawks roster.
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Both Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno now don red-and-white sweaters as veteran leaders on a rebuilding Blackhawks roster.
But both forwards admitted that they’re still haunted by the Bruins’ stunning first-round collapse against the Panthers during their record-setting 2022-23 season.
“Yeah, we [expletive] that up,” Hall told DJ Bean and Pete Blackburn during an interview on the “What Chaos!” podcast.
“Yeah, I’m so pissed,” Foligno noted, adding: “We talked about it because the other night when we played [Boston on Dec. 4], we all got in the hallway after, because there were so many guys in our team that had played in Boston.
“So it was like a huge reunion and we all walked away like, ‘God, we had something [expletive] special there.’ It’s just disappointing that you don’t get it done.”
Along with Hall and Foligno, both Tyler Bertuzzi and Craig Smith were also contributors on the 2022-23 Boston squad who now play for Chicago.
While Boston’s roster that season was anchored by franchise talents like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, and Charlie McAvoy, the Bruins rewrote the record books thanks to a deep lineup and a dangerous 1-2 punch in net between Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
“Now you’re removed from it, and you’re like, ‘Man, we should have won a Cup,’” Hall said. It’s too bad.”
The 2022-23 Bruins were a force all season long, storming out to a 20-3-0 start through early December.
Boston finished the year with a record of 65-12-5 — setting a new NHL record for the most wins (65) and points (135) secured in a single season.
The Bruins ranked first in the league that season in goals allowed per game (2.12) and second in goals scored per game (3.67), while also featuring the top-ranked penalty kill (87.3 percent) and 12th-ranked power play.
Pastrnak led the way with 61 goals and 113 points, but Boston boasted 14 different skaters who recorded at least 20 points — while Ullmark (.938 save percentage) and Swayman (.920) teamed up for six shutouts.
Add in impact forwards like Hall slotted down to a third-line role and Boston further bolstering its roster by acquiring Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, and Garnett Hathaway before the NHL trade deadline — and the Bruins felt like a team of destiny going into the postseason.
But Boston’s presumed path toward another Stanley Cup was shattered in short order against the eighth-seeded Panthers.
Despite holding a 3-1 series edge against Florida, the Bruins lost to the Panthers in overtime in Game 5, imploded defensively in a 7-5 Game 6 defeat, and then failed to protect a last-minute lead en route to a crushing Game 7 overtime loss on Causeway Street.
Even though Hall was quick to credit the Panthers for being an underrated eighth-seeded team, both he and Foligno bemoaned the bounces that didn’t go their way in crunch time.
“Game 5, we outshot them [47 to 25],” Hall said. “They win in overtime on a bad bounce. Like Linus misplays a puck. He’s a really good puck handler. I don’t know, man.”
“[Bergeron] blocks it off a shin pad, right on the tape,”Foligno said of Brandon Montour’s Game 7 equalizer. “Like … Those are the bounces in hockey. But it’s just like, [expletive]. This is crazy. I don’t think any of us ever thought — maybe that’s the fault. Like we just thought we’re gonna get it done.”
Even though Boston did put together another impressive season in 2023-24 (47-20-15), that first-round exit against Florida had major ramifications.
Beyond the pain of letting the franchise’s best shot at a Cup slip through their grasp, the Bruins also saw both Bergeron and Krejci retire at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.
An expected cap crunch also saw Boston either trade or move on from Hall, Foligno, Bertuzzi, Orlov, Hathaway, and several other players that offseason.
“The first round is the hardest round,” Foligno said. “It’s just because any team feels like they can win, like it’s just — you do. You psych yourself up. I’ve been on the other side where I’ve beat Tampa [in 2019] and you [have] no business beating them either, right?
But our team was really good, and you’re like, ‘Alright, we’re gonna do this.’ And so, yeah, I think that’s the hardest part, and we just didn’t get it done.”
