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The Boston Bruins fell to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of their first round series after the most dominant season in modern NHL history. In the 38 seasons that the Presidents' Trophy has been handed to the team with the best regular season record, only eight have grabbed the Stanley Cup hardware to finalize a season. It's been over 10 years since the last team did it: the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.

Because of this, many speculate there's a curse on the regular-season NHL champ. The Bruins just strengthened this sentiment with their failure to advance even out of the first round.

What makes this particularly remarkable is that the Bruins were enormous favorites to win it all, after a season they broke the NHL record for wins and points. They also led the league in goals against, penalty kills, and were 2nd in goals against, contributing to a total goal differential not seen since 1996.

On top of this, they ended the season with tremendous momentum and an eight-game winning streak. Nearly half of all NHL playoff bettors placed their championship hopes on the Bruins.

But somebody must have forgotten to tell the Panthers, who gutted out four wins, including an overtime thriller in Game 7. An upset for the ages and fuel for the fire for belief in a curse that Boston fans will not soon forget.

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