It’s been well over 24 hours at this point, but the Bruins have still lost Game 7.

I know, I almost didn’t believe it myself. Even as the net-front Matthew Tkachuk threw his hands up and stormed towards center ice, I remember thinking to myself, “No, that shot hit the crossbar. Right? RIGHT?” Even now, I wanna say that no, we just haven’t seen the right angle and that play will resume at 7 p.m. later this evening. But the Panthers have already touched down in Toronto and the parquet has covered the ice until next September.

For most, this is absolutely nothing new to the Bruins experience, of course. Collectively, you’re entirely more aware of Scott Walker and Dale Weise than any Boston hockey fan should be. But this one really stings. I mean, a two-month run you waited six months (eight if you started to rev up your personal hype machine when they officially got the band back together last August) to enjoy was over in less than two weeks. This wasn’t even a gut punch. This was Jason Voorhees punching a dude’s head clean off a la Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

As is the case with any early exit for any team, but especially a veteran team, time has a tendency to stare back at you and it doesn’t blink. Organizationally, the Bruins have spent about a decade trying to get time to blink in pursuit of “one more run.”

They came up short on the biggest stage possible in 2019, and took steps backwards for three years before this year’s breakthrough. And though we’ll lament another refusal to blink from time itself, it’s not the fact that another the year has fallen by the wayside for the Bruins, but rather the kind of year that slipped from the Bruins.

• Simply put, it’s hard to imagine it ever being this good for the Bruins again.

  That goes beyond just the regular season domination that made the Bruins the best team in the history for the league.

  When the Bruins decided to make a ‘Last Dance’ kind of run, they did so by getting Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to agree to one-year, bonus-laden contracts that lowered their cap hit for the 2022-23 season. It was a combined $3.5 million on the 2022-23 books for the duo, in fact.

  A bill would come due later, of course, but that was a problem for Future Bruins, not Present Bruins.

  The Bruins were also in the final year of David Pastrnak costing less than $7 million per season. And they were entering the final year of their one-two goalie punch of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, who won the Jennings Trophy as the league’s top tandem in the regular season, combining for just $5.925 million against the cap.

  In an era of B’s hockey that’s been defined by “OK, one more run — and this time we REALLY mean it,” this felt like it was truly it for oh so many reasons.

• 

  Oct 25, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (37) congratulates center David Krejci (46) after their 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports)

• The return of Bergeron and Krejci not only kept the Bruins competitive, but made the Bruins a noticeably deeper threat than they had been the previous year. Factor in the offseason addition of Pavel Zacha, a full season of 2022 deadline addition Hampus Lindholm, and gigantic strides in the development of guys like Connor Clifton and Trent Frederic and the Bruins went from potential contender to legitimate powerhouse.

  Two weeks ahead of the 2023 trade deadline, the Bruins were the best team in the league by seven points, and were a staggering 13 points better than the second-place team in the Atlantic Division. That didn’t stop Bruins general manager Don Sweeney from adding to his team. Even with the Bruins looking about as complete as one could have hoped, Sweeney learned from his past failures and knew that if this was it, there was no sense in going for bunts and slap singles instead of homer runs.

  He found that with a deal in Washington, with bottom-six hammer Garnet Hathaway and do-it-all defenseman Dmitry Orlov added to the mix. The focus for the Bruins was on ‘playoff-type’ players, and addressing issues that plagued Boston in postseason failures. Be it their inability to be the hammer and not the nail, or the fact that their defense spent more time on the shelf than on the ice because of the former.

  It was the ‘rich get richer’ kind of trade that the Lightning had made on the way to two Stanley Cups, and what the Avalanche did when they stormed the league for a Stanley Cup they weren’t going to be denied of in 2022.

• 

  BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – MAY 26: General Manager Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins speaks during Media Day ahead of the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on May 26, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

• The additions of Orlov and Hathaway were strong moves for an already strong roster, and when the Bruins lost Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to injuries in a span of 96 hours, the Bruins decided to jump on the horn and swing another trade. And this was ultimately Sweeney’s most impactful one, with Tyler Bertuzzi brought to Boston from the Red Wings in exchange for a top-10 protected 2024 first-round pick and a fourth-round selection in 2025.

  With the money retained from the Wings on the Bertuzzi trade and with the money retained on the Orlov deal, and with some long-term injured reserve movement, the Bruins were maximizing every single dollar a team could in a hard cap league.

  This was Sweeney (and with help from assistant general manager and capologist Evan Gold) doing everything in his control to make the Bruins absolutely undeniable.

• 

  Apr 8, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Tyler Bertuzzi (59) and right wing David Pastrnak (88) celebrate a goal by center Pavel Zacha (18) during the first period against the New Jersey Devils. (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)

• And why it feels like the Bruins will never have a better chance than they did this year.

  The injury timelines ultimately allowed the Bruins to bring both Hall and Foligno — as well as defenseman Derek Forbort — back to action for the playoffs. And with Bertuzzi and Orlov in action alongside them, this was the Bruins icing a roster that would’ve cost ’em over $91 million at the start of the regular season.

  That was a nearly $10 million advantage over the salary cap, and while everybody does their best to make this happen (seriously, over half the league dips into the ‘LTIR’ pool these days in search of a competitive edge), the execution and the timeline is always the trickiest part of it all. The Bruins had both on their side in 2023.

  Everybody involved in that played their part to perfection, too. Bertuzzi, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, led the Bruins with five goals and 10 points in seven playoff games with the Bruins. Hall was tied for the team lead in playoff goals, with five. And Orlov, another pending UFA, put up eight assists in seven games and was Boston’s highest-scoring defenseman in their first-round letdown.

  Hard to maximize your in-season money moves for a playoff payoff better than the B’s did with those three.

  And it’s not only impossible to see how the Bruins find a way to bring either Bertuzzi or Orlov back for 2023 and beyond, but it’s also difficult to forecast if Hall, who is on the books for $6 million per year for another two seasons, survives an offseason of cost-cutting in Boston.

  This the B’s best chance at copying the playbook drawn up by the Lightning in 2021 when they had Nikita Kucherov come back in the playoffs after missing the entire regular season.

• 

  Apr 26, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Taylor Hall (71) (middle) celebrates his goal with defenseman Dmitry Orlov (81) and defenseman Brandon Carlo (25) during the third period in game five of the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Florida Panthers at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)

• If you’re not already feeling nauseous, have you looked at the path?

  It might be best not to.

  Had the Bruins managed to get by the Panthers in the first round, they would’ve squared off with the Maple Leafs in round two. In addition to the ghosts of another Bruins-Maple Leafs series — and with ghouls and hauntings that have favored the Bruins every step of the way — the Bruins captured wins in three of their four head-to-heads with the Leafs in 2022-23. The Maple Leafs also would’ve entered the second round with Ilya Samsonov and his spotty .900 save percentage in the opening round (and a .776 high-danger save percentage, fourth-worst among goalies with at least five games played this postseason) leading the way.

  Assuming they got by Toronto, a round three date with either the Devils or Hurricanes awaited the Bruins. Carolina is banged-up like never before (and the Bruins captured wins in two of three meetings in the regular season, including a rare victory at Raleigh’s PNC Arena) and the B’s swept their three-game series with New Jersey.

  It was a borderline 2019-esque path for the Bruins.

  But their Duck Boat broke down and the tires, along with their hopes and dreams, were stolen at the first rest stop on the path.

  Baby, we are livin’ in Spain without the S.

• 

  BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – APRIL 30: Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins hugs Brad Marchand #63 before exiting the ice after Florida Panthers defeat the Bruins 4-3 in overtime of Game Seven of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on April 30, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

• And now comes an offseason full of nightmares.

  Nobody knows what Patrice Bergeron plans on doing. Bergeron, who will turn 38 later this year, could decide to come back for another run or he could retire. Speaking after Sunday’s loss, Bergeron echoed what he said last year and said he needed some time with his family before he could talk about his next move. If he does come back, the Bruins will have to sign him to another bonus-laden, one-year contract. It would almost certainly have to be for an even lower cap hit than the $2.5 million cap hit Bergeron skated with in 2022-23.

  The Bruins are also getting dinged with over $4.1 million in bonus overage penalties in 2023-24. You can’t trade those penalties off your books, you can’t bury them in Providence. That penalty is the equivalent of a really good middle-six winger or a strong No. 4 defenseman. It also means that a stripping away of this roster is coming in some fashion, especially with guys like Frederic and Swayman due next contracts, and a player such as Bertuzzi looking like an obvious must-have for Sweeney & Co. given his fit on this roster.

  That’s a double-edged sword right to the gut of the B’s, too, as they are going to be unlikely to build a roster that seems ‘worth it’ for Bergeron to take pennies, at least compared to 2022-23. Be it through additions or through the inevitable subtractions that will have to come off the best regular-season team in NHL history.

  There’s also the element of time that remains staring the Bruins in the face and with no signs of blinking.

  In addition to Bergeron, three-zone winger Brad Marchand will be a year older. Same for veteran center David Krejci should he choose to extend what was originally considered a one-and-done return to Boston. There’s also a strong possibility that Hampus Lindholm and Linus Ullmark never play at this level again (they were both at or near the top of their respective positions this past season). The Bruins are also losing the flexibility that David Pastrnak’s contract provided them, as his cap hit is jumping from $6.66 million to $11.25 million next season.

  Of course, Sweeney could pull another rabbit out of his hat and keep the window open for “one more year.” That’s been perhaps the organization’s most consistent accomplishment behind ripping your heart out of your chest and then stomping on it in front of the entire arena, typically on home ice.

  But the odds of Sweeney and the Bruins ever having as great a chance they did in a spring that never got off the ground are enough to sting you to your core.

  Until the next Game 7 loss, anyway.

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