With three games played in their second-round series against the Florida Panthers, the Boston Bruins simply have not possessed the puck enough to even pretend to be a dangerous hockey team.
After a Game 1 win that’s looking more and more like it was simply riding the momentum from their dramatic first-round win over the Maple Leafs, the Bruins have totaled a paltry 31 shots on net combined in Game 2 and Game 3. That has resulted in a grand total of three goals scored in the past two playoff games against Florida after the Bruins exploded for five goals in the series-opening win against a rusty Panthers group.
By any metric or margin, the Bruins just aren’t generating enough at the offensive end to make Florida sweat at all.
The fact that Game 3 felt very much like Game 2 in terms of the B’s struggling under Florida’s forecheck pressure, and therefore failing to consistently break the puck out of their zone, should be a big-time concern to a Black and Gold group that this second round showdown just isn’t going to be a winnable matchup against a fast, physical and talented Panthers team that doesn’t seem very concerned about the Bruins.
Certainly, it’s back to the drawing board after Florida took a 6-2 win over the Bruins in Game 3 on Friday night at TD Garden, a game where Boston had just eight shots on goal through 40 minutes before busting out with a pair of third-period goals after they were already trailing by a three-goal margin.
“I have to give the players a better plan,” admitted Jim Montgomery. “Florida was significantly better than us and I’ve got to come up with a better game plan. We weren’t very good for the first two periods. I can’t say we earned any more power plays. The second period I thought we were coming [into our game] and unfortunately, we got the high stick in a stick battle fighting for a puck. And that really changed the game, you know?”
In this particular game, that is where things turned.
Florida was holding a 1-0 lead late in the second period on an Evan Rodrigues goal scored after a truly awful Pavel Zacha backhanded turnover thrown to the middle of the ice. It felt like maybe the B’s were pushing to tie things up late in the second period down by just a single goal, but then Mason Lohrei caught Steven Lorentz in the face with a high-sticking double minor on a failed stick lift attempt.
Two Panthers power-play goals later, Game 3 was effectively over, and Boston’s airtight penalty kill unit had been blown apart just three games into their second-round series.
“You’ve got to tip your cap to their power play. The [Panthers] have got a lot of talented players and they get pucks to the net,” said Jeremy Swayman. “We can go to the drawing board and look at what we can do better, but we can know that they like to funnel pucks and use the bumper. So we can just do a better job of everything, making sure I can see pucks and blocking shots…you name it.”
Vladimir Tarasenko, Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour all scored on the man advantage to put things out of reach even if the Bruins added a couple of late goals to perhaps feel a little better about their overall effort. But the bottom line for the Bruins is that the tenor of this playoff series between Boston and Florida feels awfully similar to last postseason when the B’s defensemen simply couldn’t handle Florida’s fast and furious forecheck.
History is repeating itself with the Bruins struggling to build offensive zone time, failing to test Sergei Bobrovsky with anything beyond the faintest kind of shots on net and Florida’s star offensive players showing up all over the scoresheet.
That all spells bad news for a Black and Gold group that doesn’t sound like they have too many answers headed into Sunday’s Game 4 chance to even up the series headed back to the Sunshine State.
“Overall, I think our effort and execution has to be better. They’re obviously a very good team and you can see what they do when you take your foot off the gas, per se,” said Jake DeBrusk, who scored one of Boston’s two goals off a nifty drop pass from Lohrei. “I don’t think we’ve been at our best in this series and I don’t think they have either. We’ve just got to do what we’ve got to defend home ice in the next game.
“We’re not happy with our position, but it’s 2-1 [in the best-of-seven series] and we’ve got to defend home ice next game.”
Making matters even worse for the Bruins, Brad Marchand never came out for the third period after exiting Game 3 with an upper-body injury suffered early in the first period when he charged Sam Bennett ready to make a big hit. Instead, Marchand hit Bennett awkwardly as the Florida forward threw out a reverse hit, and the Bruins captain crumpled to the ice in pain before gingerly getting back to the bench.
Marchand gutted it out for 10:51 of ice time in the first two periods of Game 3 before exiting with the team down by a 3-0 score, but there was no concrete update about his status following the loss.
But it’s really not looking good for Marchand or anybody else in a Boston Bruins uniform right now as they continuously rush plays, lose battles and turn pucks over to a Florida team that’s very much looking, and playing, like the clear-cut favorite in this second round series at this point.