Panthers at Bruins

The Florida Panthers’ lineup for the Columbus Day matinee against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden is severely compromised, as Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk are both out with respective injury and illness. But it’s Bobrovsky vs. Swayman in net, so no messages of casual treatment of this game are being sent.

Since the Panthers humbled the Bruins on their banner night six days ago, they have lost two while the Bruins have won two. The Bruins would dearly love to hit the road on a three-game win streak and, most importantly, feeling the confidence of getting their game together.

The Panthers have two left shots on their second defense pairing in Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov. Aaron Ekblad is the lone right shot in their top four, skating with Gustav Forsling.

My view from the 9th floor at TD Garden. Evan Rodrigues digs out pucks for the next phase of warmups as Sergei Bobrovsky works on his sight lines.

Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was upbeat when asked about Charlie Coyle’s line with Brad Marchand at LW and Morgan Geekie on the right. He indicated patience, given they generate offense, they’re just not getting to the finish line with what they generate and, at the same time, they’ve got defensive aspects to improve.

Rink Rap asked Monty how he rates the Bruins’ ability to bring in new players the way the Panthers have these last few seasons and enjoy such a high success rate integrating those players into the overall identity and scheme of the team.

“There’s a standard of what’s acceptable and what’s not accepted, and that accountability, along with how hard the teams play, I think it leads to success,” he said.

FIRST PERIOD

The first period started out exactly as Montgomery wanted, as the Bruins were aggressive to the puck and to the body, and Johnny Beecher got them on the board early with assists from Mark Kastelic and Mason Lohrei, but it turned sour for the Bruins after the five-minute as the Bruins lost discipline in the middle of the period and the Panthers scored twice to carry a 2-1 lead into the final five minutes of the period.

Anton Lundell’s persistance and jam willed the puck inside the right post on Swayman, and after former Bruin AJ Greer ran David Pastrnak from behind (no call), Pavel Zacha fought Greer – courageous act by Zacha – 22 seconds later, Charlie McAvoy was called for cross-checking Carter Verhaeghe, and Sam Reinhart rifled home the go-ahead goal on the ensuing powerplay.

There was more mayhem, as Pastrnak took out Reinhart in a blatant interference. Nate Schmidt went after Pastrnak, and Marchand jumped Schmidt, ripping his helmet off and getting out of the incident rather fortunately with matching minors.

The Bruins got their game back in order and resurged to a 12-8 shots advantage by period’s end, but they were also killing a Nikita Zadorov delay-of-game (puck over high glass) penalty that will carry 5 seconds into the second period.

SECOND PERIOD

Brandon Carlo ties the game with a wrister from the top of the circle 5:08 into the period, 2-2.

The Panthers nearly answered a minute and a half later when Bennett was isolated and deked a Boston back checker, but Swayman controlled his flip shot.

Shots have evened out at 14-13 Bruins 6:19 into the second period.

The “Wooooo!” is back. There was no Wooo! on Beecher’s goal, but the announcement on Carlo’s indicates the absence was a miss or a technical glitch. They fixed, the glitch.

Assists, BTW, to Kastelic and Koepke.

Greer, a Boston reject from a few seasons ago, goes to the box for interference at 8:09.

Reinhart gets his second at 9:39 after Matt Poitras was knocked off the puck high in the Florida zone while trying to calm a puck on the powerplay. The shorthanded strike restores the Panthers’ lead at 3-2.

Swayman had difficulty controlling a stop and skated out of his crease to discuss with Panthers winger Eetu Luostarinen, who had tried unsuccessfully to pry the puck loose.

Anton Lundell makes it 4-2 – first two-goal lead of the game – for Florida, capitalizing when the Bruins turned the puck over trying to get it down the left wing during a shift change. Crafty by the Panthers, and a fine finish by Lundell.

Lohrei gets one back, faking a point shot and stickhandling down into the left circle before beating Bobrovsky to curt the lead to 4-3 with 5:53 left in the second period. Lohrei seemed to be favoring his left leg while celebrating his goal.

Trying shifts toward the end of the second period, which ends with the visiting Panthers holding a 4-3 lead and an 19-18 shots advantage.

In exact proportion to the Bruins’ tendency to lose composure playing the Panthers, the Panthers find the Bruins to be perfect medicine: Boston gets Florida into its game, which even minus two star forwards such as Barkov and Tkachuk, are ahead on enemy ice after two periods.

The Panthers are desperate as well, they don’t want to let those absences function as excuses, and despite several other offseason personnel losses, they play the Bruins so effectively it becomes difficult to imagine how they’ve lost two games in between the season opener and this one.

THIRD PERIOD

The Bruins were way behind in faceoff percentage after the first period, it’s much closer entering the third. The Bruins win the opening draw of the third period, and it’s now even.

The Panthers are doing an excellent job disrupting Boston’s breakout – until – a stretch pass gets the puck to Pastrnak, who finds Zacha bearing down – save Bobrovsky with 13:11 remaining in regulation. Big chance.

Montgomery is messing with the Coyle-Marchand-Geekie line like we thought he might until he spoke before the game and put a much more positive spin on their play as a unit. Coyle actually skated a shift at RW, and this without disruption of the top line that would presumably put Zacha back at center where he was a year ago.

Poitras is skating between Brazeau and Marchand, as Montgomery shakes up his middle two lines as we had eluded in our preview of this tilt.

So far, the biggest cheer of the third period goes to Jason Varitek, wearing a 2023-24 black Centennial sweater.

Florida winger Patrick Giles is a wrecking ball. He has thrown several Bruins off the puck today and stood up to any hits coming his way.

Swayman with a big stop in tight.

Poitras rushes the puck the length of the ice, the Bruins support in traffic and Ekblad trips Poitras in a chase to the corner with 8:58 remaining in regulation. Bruins to the powerplay.

McAvoy switches the puck to Pastrnak, whose one-timer from the left point rings the iron and out of play.

The Bruins, keyed by Pastrnak, sustain offensive-zone pressure and get changes, but quality shots are hard to come by. The Panthers finally get a faceoff and a TV timeout with 3:58 left.

More Bruins pressure, Swayman to the bench with 1:57 left. Bobrovsky ties up the puck, timeout Bruins with 1:28 and an O-zone draw LW circle.

Pastrnak takes a penalty (slash broke Verhaeghe’s stick) with 49.4 seconds left. Marchand tangles opposite side of the rink with Verhaeghe and is shown the gate. Result: Powerplay for Florida.

13.7 seconds left when Swayman is forced to tie up the puck. A tired Hampus Lindholm couldn’t shake Florida’s forecheck.

Florida offside with 1.1 seconds left.

Panthers will win this one, 4-3.

Drive safely.