SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers are headed to the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, but they couldn’t avoid a first-round series with the best team in the NHL.
After finishing the regular season with a 6-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday in Sunrise, the Panthers had to settle for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and an impending trip to Massachusetts to face the league-best Boston Bruins in the first round.
The opening-round showdown will pit the last two Presidents’ Trophy winners — Florida in 2022 and the Bruins this year — against each other in a best-of-7 series. The Panthers (42-32-8) will travel up to Boston this weekend and open the Stanley Cup playoffs Monday at TD Garden.
