FINAL: Panthers 6, Bruins 4 - Boston no match for Florida's Speed in Loss

The Bruins fell to the Florida Panthers 6-4 on opening night at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night. Boston was outplayed from the very beginning, with awful defense and poor time in the offensive zone. Boston was outshot 17-12 in the first period. 

Sam Bennett got it all started at the 6:27 mark in the first period on a rebound in front of the net which made it 1-0 Florida. Eetu Luostarinen scored 64 seconds later to make it 2-0. The scoring did not stop there for the Panthers as Sam Reinhart (shorthanded) and Bennett also scored one minute in-between each other making it 4-1. 

Pavel Zacha scored a shorthanded goal of his own at the 15:33 mark in the first period, making it 2-1. Charlie McAvoy also scored in the second period.

 Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak (On the power play) scored late in the third, which gave Boston a chance to make a comeback, but it was too late. 

Boston went with Joonas Korpisalo in the net instead of Jeremy Swayman who just signed an extension and missed all of training camp. Korpisalo finished with 29 saves while giving up six goals. The Bruins opted to stay with Kopisalo despite chants of "We want Swayman." 

One thing that is important to point out in this loss is it is certainly a hard task to play a tough Florida team on opening night when they were raising their championship banner. Florida looks just as good as last season and is not going anywhere anytime soon. 

The Bruins will be back in action for their home opener Thursday night versus the Montreal Canadiens in an Original Six matchup at 7 p.m. 

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WHO: Bruins at Panthers
WHEN: 7 p.m.
WHERE: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise, Fla.
TV: ESPN.
RADIO: 98.5-FM The Sports Hub

LIVE BOX SCORE

ROSTERS

PROJECTED LINES

Boston

Zacha – E. Lindholm – Pastrnak
Marchand – Coyle – Geekie
Jones – Frederic – Brazeau
Beecher – Kastelic – Koepke

H. Lindholm – McAvoy
Lohrei – Carlo
Zadorov – Peeke

Korpisalo
Swayman

Panthers

Verhaeghe - Barkov - Reinhart
Rodrigues - Bennett - Tkachuk
Luostarinen - Lundell - Samoskevich
Gadjovich - J. Boqvist - Greer

Forsling - Ekblad
Mikkola - Kulikov
Balinskis - A. Boqvist

Bobrovsky
Driedger

PREGAME NOTES

Jeremy Swayman is not excepted to start in net for the Bruins. It's expected to be Joonas Korpisalo but the Bruins were undecided on Monday. “He has so much great energy and I thought that that elevated the practice, and I thought he looked sharp,” Montgomery said. “He’s the potential goalie [Tuesday] night. We’re undecided.” ... The Bruins have won five straight season openers. ... Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has a 4-11-4 record, a 3.62 GAA, and an .891 save percentage in 21 appearances against the Bruins. ... The Panthers are led by winger Matthew Tkachuk and center Aleksander Barkov. Barkov is the franchise leader in games (737), goals (266), assists (445) and points (711). ... The Panthers have brought back their top eight point-scorers as the defending Stanley Cup champions. ...  Florida owns a 15-10-1-4 record in season-opening contests, owning a 3-1-0 record in their last four season openers. ... Carter Verhaeghe has posted four goals (4-0-4) over his last three home-opening games with Florida. ... Sergei Bobrovsky has earned the win in four of Florida’s past five home openers. ..  The Cats own the NHL’s best points percentage when competing in a season-opening game on home ice, owning a 10-0-2 record all time. They have earned the win in each of their past five home-opening games dating to the start of the 2019-20 campaign, owning a 19-7-2-2 record all time. ...  The Panthers and Bruins will face off twice through Florida’s first four games of the 2024-25 regular season. The division rivals have squared off in the postseason in each of the past two postseasons. Though Florida owns a 2-4-2 record against Boston in the regular season over the last two campaigns, the Cats have bested the B’s in both postseason series, owning a 8-5 record over the Bruins including wins in each of the last six games at TD Garden. Aleksander Barkov leads Florida with 10 points (4-6-10) over his last six regular season games against Boston over the last two years, while Sam Reinhart has scored a team-high five goals (5-4-9) in 8GP. .... The Bruins are 45-38-16-0 overall in season-opening games and are 10-2-0 in their last 12 season openers. They have gone to overtime in a season opener on 11 occasions with a 3-0-8-0 record in those games.