While no region has experienced the unparalleled joy the New England teams have provided over the last 23 years, there has also been a fair bit of heartbreak along the way.

The latest, and possibly greatest example of that, came last night at the T.D. Garden as the greatest regular season team in NHL history exited the playoffs in the first round following a 4-3 overtime loss vs. the Panthers.

The Bruins led with 59.3 seconds remaining, before Florida leveled it at 3-3 late in the 3rd. They led the series 3-games-to-1, with Bergeron and Krejci reentering the picture. They had not lost back-to-back home games or three-straight contests all season. They had 43-more points than the Panthers in the regular season. But what it all added up to in the end was heartbreak for the Bruins' faithful.

It comes less than a week after Giannis Antetokounmpo's passionate plea of "there are no failures in sports." Sorry, Giannis, but this was an unmitigated failure.

All season long, as they were chasing down the regular season records, the locker room was in unison stating the only thing that mattered this season was The Cup. Last night, their season ended seven weeks shy of reaching that goal.

And to make matters even worse, it could spell the end of a pair of legendary careers in Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Not exactly the sending off we had all envisioned for the top-2 centermen.

As we struggle to quantify the disappointment, there's really only one comparison to make, because for the second time, this region has now witnessed the greatest single-season team in a sport's history come up short of winning a championship.

Did the Bruins just do the '07 Pats a favor and overtake them for the most disappointing end to a season this region has ever seen?

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