Getty The Boston Bruins suffered an embarrassing 6-2 loss and trail the Florida Panthers 2-1.
The Boston Bruins are far from eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs but they are trending in the worst possible direction.
After back-to-back losses to the Florida Panthers in their last two outings, allowing six goals to them in each of those contests and scoring three goals combined, the Bruins will enter Game 4 trailing their opponents 1-2 in the second-round series.
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery spoke to reporters in his usual postgame press conference after the Friday, May 10, Game 3 6-2 loss.
“I don’t think we’re on top of our game. Our execution in the last two games has just not been good enough,” Montgomery told reporters on May 10. “That’s my fault, I’ve got to be better.”
The Bruins destroyed the Panthers beating them 5-1 in the series opener back on Monday, May 6, but they have suffered losses in their two most-recent games falling 1-6 on May 8 and 2-6 on May 10.
Bruins Defense Dominated by Florida’s Superpowered Offense
Montgomery blamed himself after Boston’s second loss in a row on Friday. He thought the main reason for the Bruins to drop Game 3 was a slow start in which they gave Florida too much room to operate, making it impossible to mount a comeback later in the game with the Panthers already up 3-0 on the scoreboard.
“We’ve had a couple of games where we started slow,” Montgomery said. “We haven’t generated much offense.
“I have to give the players a better plan. Florida was significantly better than us. I’ve got to come up with a better game plan.”
Evan Rodrigues opens the scoring in Boston! 🚨
Evan Rodrigues opened the score for Florida barely eight minutes into the first period. Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe added two more goals in the second frame (both in power plays), and Brandon Montour would score the fourth uncontested goal of the Panthers 3:09 into the final stanza.
The Panthers outshot Boston 13-3 in the first period and 24-8 by the end of the second. The Bruins didn’t score until 5:01 of the final period thanks to Jakub Lauko‘s effort. Jake DeBrusk added another goal three and a half minutes later to make it 4-2 but that’s the closest Boston would get to Florida.
Sam Reinhart (on an empty net) and Evan Rodrigues (on another power play) scored the final two goals of the game wrapping up Game 3 and the 6-2 Florida win.
Bruins Might Have Lost Captain Brad Marchand to Injury
May 11, Noon, Update: Brad Marchand missed practice on Saturday and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Head coach Jim Montgomery called out Sam Bennett, who might have punched Marchand in the head concussing him. Read the full story here.
Not only did the Bruins lose Games 2 and 3, but they might be facing a steep uphill battle to even the series, let alone win it after Boston’s captain Brad Marchand was forced out of Friday’s matchup early with an upper-body injury.
Marchand only skated for 10:51 minutes across the first two periods of play and he missed the third period in full, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The reason for his absence was a hit Panthers’ Sam Bennett landed on him early in the game, with the contest still in the first period. Bennett and Marchand collided in the neutral zone and although it looked like the Bruins captain was the main contact initiator on the play, he took the worst of it.
The Bruins have announced Brad Marchand is unlikely to return to the game with an upper body injury.
Marchand played the rest of the first and second after taking this hit from Bennett
Marchand went down, then hit the bench, and returned to the ice appearing on shifts through the first and second periods of play. He skated 8 shifts in the first frame and 7 shifts in the second.
Speaking after the game, Montgomery couldn’t provide an update on Marchand’s status and availability for Game 4.
“Upper body,” Montgomery told reporters when asked about Marchand’s injury. “We’ll know more [Saturday].”
Bruins’ Failed Comeback Inspired by Brad Marchand
Even with Marchand out, the Bruins tried to do everything in their hands to inch closer to the Panthers late in the game to mount a comeback that ultimately fell short. Montgomery thought that his team was actually inspired by Marchand’s absence.
Montgomery on Bruins 3rd period push without Marchand: “I thought we rallied because of our captain. I thought that Pasta & Charlie McAvoy did a great job with him not being on the bench, and I thought our players all elevated and we started competing like Brad Marchand would.”
“You know, I thought we rallied because of our captain,” Montgomery said after the game, via NESN’s Greg Dudek. “I thought that [David Pastrnak] and Charlie McAvoy did a great job with him not being on the bench. And I thought our players all elevated and we started competing like Brad Marchand would.”
At the end of the day, however, Boston lost and will host one final game in Boston on Sunday, May 12, unless they can extend the series past Game 5 scheduled for May 14 in Florida.
The Panthers might clinch their place in the Eastern Conference Finals then and there if they beat Boston in the next two meetings between both teams, blocking hockey from returning to Boston until next October.