If the Boston Bruins are going to live to fight another day in Game 7, it’s going to be because they finally tasted some success against the Florida Panthers on home ice during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Bruins have lost five straight playoff games to the Panthers dating back to Game 1 of last year’s first-round matchup and are overall sport a 3-7 record in 10 home postseason games under Jim Montgomery over the last two postseasons. That does not exactly inspire a lot of confidence in the Black and Gold with a do-or-die Game 6 set for Friday night at TD Garden with everything on the line if they want to play in a potential Game 7 to face the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.
Montgomery believes that the home-ice thing cuts both ways in the modern era of the NHL, but it certainly feels like a trend across the league that home-ice advantage isn’t at all what it used to be 30 or 40 years ago.
“It used to be everything in the 1970s and 1980s, but I don’t know since when…maybe 2005 since the salary cap came in it’s been mitigated. The salary cap has nothing to do with it, but teams are just better on the road,” said Montgomery. “There is [extra pressure playing at home] and there isn’t. I’ve seen our team play with extra pressure [at home] and I’ve seen our team play looser [at home]. I think it all depends on where the series is at.
“I also think there is a negative side to playing at home because when your fans start to boo you at home, it impacts your players…it just does. You see it with other teams. We saw it in Toronto, and we saw it here [in Boston]. It’s not for a lack of effort. It’s not that players aren’t trying to win. They are. It’s just sometimes you need to be patient and sometimes it’s easier to be patient on the road. You can be down 1-0 and still be playing your game, you know? Those things factor in, they just do.”
Sometimes a team can also harness the extra energy from an exuberant home crowd to put them over the top in a big game scenario, and the Bruins hope that is the case on Friday night.
“We’re super excited to play this game in front of our fans and to get a chance to tie the series,” said Pavel Zacha, who is still looking for his first playoff goal as a member of the Bruins after 19 postseason games over the last two years. “We’re just really looking forward to getting on the ice.
“You just have to focus on the little things. Playing at home is always more fun. You just need to get the momentum going in your favor by getting some O-zone time and some shots that get the fans engaged, and you get more and more confidence from that.”
Interestingly enough, the Bruins considered having the players stay at a hotel on Thursday night in Boston just as they did prior to a victorious Game 7 on home ice against the Maple Leafs, but the B’s felt that the two days off between Game 5 and Game 6 made something like that a little more unnecessary. Instead, the Bruins feel like their first two-day break in a couple of weeks might be hitting them at exactly the right time.
“This is the time in the series where you want it, because no one's playing at 100% on either team. That's what happens in the playoffs. That's why it's so hard,” said Montgomery. “With the extra day, everyone is going to have more juice. I think tomorrow night is going to be a frantic start.
“We've considered every option [including staying at a local hotel]…for us, there's a difference between being able to reset with two days in between than one. There's a big significance. We get to meet more with two days off. So, in the short term, you really worry, are they going to be able to reset quick that quickly. There’s a difference there.”
Perhaps the two days off will be a benefit for the banged-up Bruins as it might mean that Brad Marchand gets to return to the series after missing the last two games with an upper body injury, but that should also provide the same kind of benefit for the Panthers as well. One thing that will be key is a strong start like the one in Florida for Game 5 that saw them outshoot the Panthers 12-4 and play their best 20 minutes of the series.
A repeat performance like that could drastically change the home ice mojo for both the B’s and the Panthers at a time when the Black and Gold really need it.