There will be no further escalation of the tensions between the states of Florida and Massachusetts this season, not at least involving their NBA and NHL teams.
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The Florida Panthers defeated the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Game 6 of their second-round series eliminating the latter from the NHL playoffs on May 17…
…just over two weeks after the Boston Celtics did the same to the Miami Heat sending the Florida-based team home in five games on May 1 after winning their first-round matchup 4-1, and then dealt smoothly with the Cleveland Cavaliers and former Heat player Max Strus in the second round.
That’s what happened on the ice and the court. In social media, the Celtics and the Panthers fought a much funnier war and Florida got the last laugh.
no comment. https://t.co/WkDg4N65QN pic.twitter.com/n3u49X6OXY
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 18, 2024
Right after eliminating the Bruins on Friday for the second season in a row, the Panthers’ social team pulled off the reverse-trolling job on the Celtics in response to Boston’s May 15 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Celtics and Cavaliers Players Get Involved in NHL Trolling War
Florida used an old clip of Celtics franchise player Jayson Tatum in response to Boston’s use of a picture of Cavaliers’ Max Strus, who played three seasons in Miami with the NBA’s Heat.
The clip posted by the Panthers shows Tatum calling Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk a “great guy.” Tatum originally posted the full video on his YouTube account in April 2013.
Taking advantage of the Panthers’ win over the Bruins, Florida’s community manager used a segment of it on the May 17 troll-post.
Tatum and Tkachuk shared a classroom at Chaminade Prep in St. Louis on their way to the NBA and the NHL respectively. The Celtics drafted Tatum in 2017 with the No. 3 overall pick after playing one year of college basketball at Duke. The Flames drafted Tkachuk with the No. 6 pick of the 2016 NHL draft before trading him to the Panthers in July 2022.
Boston, on the other hand, used a picture of Strus upon his arrival at TD Garden for Game 5 of the second-round series against the Celtics. Cleveland lost that game, got eliminated from the postseason, and Strus’ outfit (which included a Panthers jersey) gave the Celtics all the fuel they needed to troll him and the Cavs.
Bruins Fired the Alarms (of the Panthers’ Hotel)
The first shot of the day came far from a hockey rink, a few hours before Game 6 got going on Friday, May 17. It happened inside the Panther’s hotel in Boston.
MSG Network’s Brendan Burke, via Bleacher Report’s Open Ice account on X, reported midday May 17 that a fire alarm “[went] off inside the Florida Panthers team hotel in Boston,” adding “Peak pre-game nap time.”
B/R Open Ice questioned the stint, labeling it “a little gamesmanship” on the part of Boston with Game 6 scheduled for later that same day.
A little gamesmanship ahead of Game 6? 🚒
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 17, 2024
(via @brendanmburke) pic.twitter.com/mqMfCbqzgb
Fire Alarm Has No Impact, Panthers Beat Bruins in Game 6
We will never know if the Bruins or a fan of the team working at the hotel fired the alarm trying to disrupt Florida’s pregame routine.
What we know, however, is that the alarm didn’t achieve its purpose if that was unsettling the Panthers, as they went on to beat the Bruins 2-1 to eliminate Boston.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice revealed his happiness with the alarm going off in Boston because of the good results he’s earned following similar circumstances.
“In my career, the number of times that something got messed up at the hotel,” Maurice said after the Game 6 win on May 17, via The Associated Press, “it’s like a guaranteed win I said, ‘If this holds true, I guarantee we’re winning today.’”
Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling scored the game-winning goal with just 93 seconds left in regulation while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots and Anton Lundell scored the first goal for Florida on Friday.
“[I was] just trying to get [the puck] to the net. I really didn’t see it go in,” Forsling told reporters after the game about his goal, via Jameson Olive of NHL.com. “I just saw someone else react. It was amazing.”
Up next, the Panthers will face the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals with the Rangers having home-ice advantage.
“It’s playoff hockey in New York. It’s a dream,” Tkachuk told reporters about the upcoming ECF against the Rangers. “MSG on the road is my favorite rink to play in just because of the history and everything that has to do with the city of New York.”
