Donnelly: Bruins get wakeup call in Game 2 loss to Florida

Unlike Monday's Game 1, the Bruins couldn't overcome their sloppy stretches to pull away with a victory in Wednesday's 6-3 loss to the Florida Panthers at TD Garden. The series is now tied, 1-1. 

It was their worst effort since a loss at the Chicago Blackhawks on March 14. That was also a 6-3 final. 

Boston managed to come back from multiple second-period deficits, but in the third period, Florida pulled away, putting up four-straight goals to put the game firmly out of reach. 

“I just think when we fell down 4-2, I didn’t think we regrouped or reset," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "Most of the year, we’ve been able to take a breath, reset and go back to our game. We didn’t go back to our game when it went 4-2. I thought we got back to our game in the first two periods, every time we fell behind we got back to our game.”

“I thought for the majority of the first two periods, we were doing really good things with the puck. But the turnovers we had tonight were catastrophic. Right through the middle of the ice.”

Boston handed the Panthers a whopping 15 giveaways in Game 2. Florida only had five. 

Not exactly a recipe for success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

Three Panthers goals were direct results of defensive zone turnovers. All three were at 5-on-5. 

“I think it was us trying to make plays when plays weren’t there to be made," Montgomery said. "Instead of just moving it north like we did most of the night, sometimes we just tried to make passes, it happened on the power play as well where we tried to make passes. It happened on the pulled goalie situation, where we gave up the empty net goal. It was just execution in certain areas of our game with the puck that really cost us tonight.”

The Cats hemmed the B's in their own zone for an extended stretch before a Brandon Carlo giveaway up the middle to Matthew Tkachuk allowed him to find Sam Bennett alone in the slot to open the scoring. 

After Brad Marchand tied for the Bruins, David Pastrnak flubbed a clearing attempt into the neutral zone, where Eric Staal was able to skate it back into Boston's end. The B's lost track of Staal, who had all day in the slot to walk in and roof one to regain the lead off a Nick Cousins setup.

In the third, it was Charlie McAvoy who coughed up the puck as he took contact along the boards. Tkachuk was opportunistic again, feeding Carter Verhaeghe for a dagger 4-2 goal.

"We just have to do a better job. Plain and simple,” McAvoy said.

Once the Bruins fell behind in the third, they couldn't find a response. Tyler Bertuzzi thought something was off from the start. He had a first-period turnover up the middle that led to Eetu Luostarinen standing all alone in front of Linus Ullmark with a prime scoring chance.

“I don’t know, it kind of felt flat right from the get-go," Bertuzzi said. "Then we tied it 2-2 and they made it 3-2, and we just didn’t have the Bruins push.”

For a team that proved able to win in every situation, especially in closing out third periods, it was uncharacteristic of Boston to fall asleep at the wheel in the final frame, even after they found themselves trailing on the scoreboard. Marchand felt the Bruins failed to match Florida's intensity.

"They played really hard. They played very desperate. Played a really complete game," he said. "We need to be better. The good thing about playoffs is it doesn't matter what happened. Just got to move forward and get ready for the next one.”

Hampus Lindholm added, "I think they wanted it more than us tonight, and it showed in the third period.”

When Boston fell behind, the mistakes only compounded.

"Once we got frustrated, we kind of tried to get individual, instead of using our structure and how we play together," Montgomery said. "Our puck support kind of dismantled.”

The Panthers gave the Bruins fits with their forecheck, allowing them to capitalize on the turnovers and find Grade-A ice easily, especially the Tkachuk line with Bennett and Luostarinen. Both goals that Tkachuk factored in on came straight from turnovers off strong forechecking pressure for Florida.

“I think we got to do a better job breaking the puck out," Montgomery said. "Again, it’s five guys working together, it’s not just defensemen and it’s not just forwards not scoring goals. We believe in being a five-man unit in every zone. For the first two periods we thought we did that, except for some of the puck decisions that we made ... and in the third period, our game got away from us. For a team that’s been really good in the third period for a long time, it’s an opportunity for us to learn and grow from that.”

McAvoy kept it simple: "Every team poses a challenge with their forecheck so it’s up to us to just make better plays, that’s it."

High-danger looks were 6-1`(85.71 percent) with Tkachuk and Bennett each on the ice at 5-on-5. They were 80 percent (4-1) for Luostarinen. Not good enough for the Bruins, who held that line in check (without Bennett), in Game 1 for the most part, outside of Tkachuk's goal.

Overall, high-danger chances at 5-on-5 favored the Cats by 61.54 percent, according to Natural Stat Trick. Three of Florida's goals at 5-on-5 came in the high slot or right around the net. 

Boston missed the puck-moving prowess of someone like Matt Grzlecyk, the odd-man out on defense through the first two games. Montgomery is considering shakeups in more spots than just the blue line for Game 3. 

“I think it gives me pause to think about changes everywhere,” he said.

Lindholm is looking forward to the challenge of heading to Florida all evened up.

“We’ve played good hockey all year, so it’s like, every game is a new animal," he said. "So we go to Florida now, and we have to win some games no matter what. So it’s going to be exciting, and we look forward to that.”