BSJ Game Report: Panthers 4, Bruins 1 - B’s lose steam, fall flat in Florida

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-1 loss to the Panthers with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

The Bruins’ hopes of ruining an opponent’s unbeaten record for the third straight game came to an end on Wednesday as the Florida Panthers moved to 7-0-0 on the year after besting the B’s, 4-1, at FLA Live Arena.

Despite a promising start in which Charlie Coyle lit the lamp and the B’s outshot Florida, 15-5, in the first period, Boston was unable to build off of its strong start, with one of those five Florida shots finding the back of the net off of a Mason Marchment wrister.

The second period was a different story for the B’s, with poor puck management plaguing Bruce Cassidy’s club and leading to a lopsided 14-2 shot total in favor of the home team. Eetu Luostarinen gave Florida the lead for good with a netfront tally just 2:06 into the second, while Anthony Duclair added some insurance off of a fantastic individual effort with 7:20 remaining in regulation.

Linus Ullmark stopped 23 of the 26 shots that came his way in the loss for the Bruins, who fall to 3-2 on the season. 

TOP TAKEAWAYS 

Give the Panthers some credit … 

This brief two-game swing down to Florida and Carolina was tabbed as an early-season gauge on where exactly the Bruins stack up against some of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, and the Panthers lived up to the hype as a worthy opponent. 

The Panthers’ 7-0-0 start to this season has primarily been the byproduct of a potent offense and plenty of contributors sprinkled across the lineup, but this is about as deep of a team as there is when factoring in its D corps and goaltending.

It’s not too often the Bergeron line gets completely negated both on the score sheet, but the Panthers gave Boston’s top group next to nothing whenever they hopped over the boards. Add in another sterling showing in net from Sergei Bobrovsky (who is finally playing like a goalie worthy of that lofty deal he signed back in 2019), and this Panthers team is awfully legit.

There’s still a lot of hockey to be played, yes. But it sure seems like the Panthers are poised to be a major roadblock for the B’s out of the Atlantic this season. 

… but the B’s still shot themselves in the foot multiple times

Yes, the Panthers are a very, very strong team. But a 4-1 final didn’t tell the whole story in this one, with the B’s making things easy on Florida over the final 40 minutes of play due to multiple puck-management miscues, uncharacteristic turnovers and shoddy D-zone coverage.  

Oftentimes, the Bruins have been able to overcome those shortcomings against lesser opponents — be it a strong performance in net from Tuukka Rask or the Bergeron Line / power play serving as the club’s “Get Out of Jail Free” Card.

But that won’t do you any good against a team like the Panthers. 

It’s embarrassing that Joel Quenneville was even on the bench tonight

Looking at more important matters than the X’s and O’s or anything else that played out on the ice, it was flat-out embarrassing that Joel Quenneville was given the green light to coach tonight down in Florida.

With the details of the investigation into the 2010 Blackhawks sexual assault scandal getting revealed earlier this week, Quenneville has been one of many former authorities in the Blackhawks organization who have deservedly found themselves in the crosshairs over the last few days. 

Based on both the findings from the investigation and the brave comments from Kyle Beach — the former Blackhawks player who filed the lawsuit against the team for mishandling his sexual assault allegations — Quenneville was well aware of the allegations of abuse at the time in 2010.

“Now in statements that came out in the release, Stan Bowman has quoted Joel Quenneville saying – and this is not a quote, this is my words – saying that the playoffs, the Stanley Cup playoffs and trying to win a Stanley Cup was more important than sexual assault,” Beach said on TSN. “And I can’t believe that. As a human being, I cannot believe that, and I cannot accept that. 

“I’ve witnessed meetings, right after I reported it to James Gary, that were held in Joel Quenneville’s office. There’s absolutely no way that he can deny knowing it and there’s absolutely no way that Stan Bowman would make up a quote like that, to somebody who served his organization and his team so well.”

Quenneville — who said over the summer that he was not aware of the sexual assault allegations against then-video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010 — does have a meeting in New York with Gary Bettman on Thursday. But the fact that either the league or the Panthers didn’t yank him off the bench before Wednesday’s game is as tone-deaf as it is embarrassing. 

TWO UP

Jack Studnicka: The early returns were good for Studnicka in that 2C spot, with the young pivot scrapping down low and setting up the sequence that led to Coyle’s first-period goal. However, he still only ended up with 10:17 of ice time?

Jake DeBrusk: He didn’t have any points on the score sheet, but DeBrusk was one of the few forwards that managed to at least challenge Bobrovsky on multiple shifts — most of it due to simply hovering around Grade-A ice. He finished with four shots on goal in the loss. 

THREE DOWN

Forbort-Clifton D pair: They were far from the only culprits in what was a sloppy night for the B’s, especially on the back end (McAvoy was caught up high on Duclair’s goal, while Grzelcyk had multiple miscues), but Boston’s third D pair had a rough night that directly led to goals. Florida’s first goal came off of both Forbort and Coyle losing a puck battle and Clifton failing to account for Marchment in the slot — while Eetu Luostarinen’s game-winner was with Clifton mired in no-man’s land down low.

David Pastrnak: The Bruins’ top line struggled to make much of an impact in this one, but Pastrnak in particular labored — with multiple turnovers and errant passes leading to Grade-A looks down the other end of the ice. 

Power play: Boston found no spark when turning to its power play in this one — with the B’s top PP unit unable to make much of a dent against Bobrovsky during two stints. The top scoring chance of the night on the B’s power play came when a poor feed from Pastrnak led to a 2-on-0 shorthanded chance for the Panthers.

 PLAY OF THE GAME

LOOSE PUCKS

Congrats to Keto — 2,000 games is quite the feat. 

QUOTE OF NOTE

“All of the things we did well in the first period, specifically manage the puck against a good offensive team, we did the exact opposite in the second” - Bruce Cassidy

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will be right back at it on Thursday night, with the B’s set to head up to Raleigh to face another undefeated club in the Carolina Hurricanes. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday night.