Tag: Florida Panthers

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Jim Montgomery calls out Bruins after Game 2 loss

NBC Sports

The Boston Bruins were punched in the mouth by the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night, and they had no response. The Panthers, who played the Bruins hard in Game 1 of their Round 1 postseason series despite a 3-1 setback, dominated Game 2 and tied up the series with a convincing 6-3 win. 

This is completely unfamiliar territory for the Bruins, who won an NHL record 65 games during the regular season and were viewed as the consensus Number 1 pick to win the Stanley Cup this year.

Multiple turnovers and poor decisions with the puck spelled doom for the Bruins last night, and they were appropriately called out by their head coach afterward. 

“Players didn’t make the best decisions at moments. I thought for the majority of the first two periods we were doing some really good things with the puck, but the turnovers we had tonight were catastrophic,” said Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery in his postgame media remarks. “They were right through the middle of the ice and not typical of the turnovers we usually have. That’s not typically an area where we’re trying to make plays, where we turned it over.”

Despite the score being knotted up at 2-2 going into the third period, the Panthers would explode for four goals in the final frame. Needless to say, Boston must use it as a learning experience heading into Game 3 in Florida. 

“It’s five guys working together, it’s not just defensemen and it’s not just forwards not scoring goals,” said Montgomery. “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.”

Game 3 between the Bruins and Panthers will be tomorrow night from FLA Live Arena starting at 7:30 PM EST. 

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David Krejci speaks on Boston’s uncertain lineup

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The Boston Bruins absolutely cruised through the regular season, re-writing the National Hockey League record book with a historic 65 win campaign and also setting several new marks for their astounding domination of their competition. This came on the heels of just about everyone expecting them to take a considerable step backward.

The real fun begins tonight, as the Bruins will be looking to prove that their regular season record was no fluke when they begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their opening round series sees them matched up against the Florida Panthers, who had to scratch and claw (no pun) their way into the postseason this year after having proceeded the Bruins in winning the President’s Trophy last year. 

However, the Bruins may not have their full lineup available, as captain and reliable center Patrice Bergeron’s status isn’t fully determined, as head coach Jim Montgomery stated that Bergeron and a few other players have been feeling “under the weather”. He was also removed from a late season game after suffering an injury that wasn’t believed to be of the serious variety. 

According to veteran David Krejci, who is making his return to the lineup tonight for the first time in six games, it will simply be the next man up mentality for the rest of his teammates. 

“If you do your job, I think we’ve done a pretty good job in this room of just believing in ourselves,” he said. “If we do our job, the guy next to you is gonna do his job as well.”

Tonight’s game will get underway from TD Garden in downtown Bostons starting at 7:30 PM EST. 

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Brad Marchand makes Bruins history in Game 1 win

Mass Live

As expected, the Boston Bruins took care of business against the visiting Florida Panthers in Game 1 of their opening round postseason series. Their 3-1 victory gave them the 1-0 series advantage, and they’re now only 15 wins away from their first Stanley Cup since 2011. 

And it was the usual suspects coming through in the clutch for Boston, with David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk lighting the lamp; Linus Ullmark made 31 saves.

And Marchand’s goal, which happened to be the 50th of his postseason career, also made Bruins history.

Per ESPN Stats and Info: 

“Brad Marchand has 50th career playoff goal, joining Cam Neely (55) as the only players to score at least 50 playoff goals with Bruins. Marchand’s streak of 6 straight home playoff games with a goal is the longest in Bruins’ franchise history.”

The Bruins and Panthers will get back at it tomorrow night from TD Garden. 

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Jonathan Huberdeau admits the truth after brutal season

NHL.com

The Florida Panthers sent shockwaves throughout the National Hockey League last July when they traded assistant captain Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames in exchange for gritty forward Matthew Tkachuk. 

It wouldn’t be long before the Flames would lock up Huberdeau to a lengthy eight year contract extension worth $84 million, and they were understandably envisioning their newest forward continuing his offensive prowess that saw him eclipse the 100-point mark in 2021-22 with Florida. 

Needless to say, Huberdeau’s first season with the Flames could not have gone worse. In the 79 games that he played in, Huberdeau only managed 55 points, and in doing so, set the new NHL record of the single biggest drop-off in production with 60. In fact, it was the first time in nearly 20 years that a drop-off that eclipsed 40 points from one season to the next had even occurred. And it certainly didn’t help that Huberdeau publicly traded barbs with old-school bench boss Darryl Sutter throughout the year. 

In his seasons-ending media remarks this afternoon, Huberdeau gave his true thoughts on how his first season with the Flames went, which he admitted knowing would be an adjustment but had no idea just how much of one. 

“I knew it was going to be a change and adjustment,” Huberdeau said. “But, of course, I didn’t think it was going to be this hard.”

“I completely lost my swagger this year,” he continued. “You can just tell. You have no confidence in the way you play, the way you make your plays. It’s hard. You know you’re just trying to be out there and help your team to win and you can’t really do it.”

Huberdeau bounced all throughout the lineup this year, skating on three different lines while also moving from left to right wing. 

“It wasn’t working offensively,” Huberdeau said. “I think Darryl was trying to make it work and that’s why I kind of bounced around. It was that kind of year. It’s to find some fits. I played with (Backlund) mostly at the end of the year. It was going well, so I think I need to find a duo. And that’s what (Darryl) was trying to do.”

What about his relationship with Sutter moving forward? 

“Me and Darryl will figure it out together and try to fix some things,” Huberdeau said.

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Panthers D Radko Gudas isn’t scared of the Bruins!

AOL

The Florida Panthers won their very first President’s Trophy last season as the National Hockey League’s best team, and even won their first postseason series since their magical run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996. It wasn’t long afterward that their season would end with a whimper with a sweep loss against their Sunshine State rival Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Their regular season this year was anything but dominating, but they still managed to clinch a postseason berth for the 4th straight year. And their reward this year is facing the President’s Trophy winners of this season in the Boston Bruins, who re-wrote the NHL record books with an astound 65 victory campaign. 

Needless to say, the oddsmakers aren’t exactly being kind right now to the Panthers. But don’t tell that to hard-nosed Panthers defenseman Radko Gudas, who knows that once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen. 

”This is the moment that we have been fighting for the whole year,” Gudas said. “It does not matter what happened in the first 82. This is a whole new season. Anything can happen.”

Fans may remember the 62 victory Tampa Bay Lightning being stunned in four games in Round 1 in 2019 by the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets, the four game sweep the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings suffered at the hands of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 20 years ago in 2003, and other similar 1st round upsets proving that a lower seed taking down the top dog isn’t a once in a generation fluke.

“Hey man, we’re in the playoffs,” Gudas continued. “Let’s F-ing go.”

The Panthers were one of the few teams this year to deal Boston a rare regulation loss, and Gudas knows that based on how his team matched up against the Bruins in their season series, it isn’t impossible. 

“I think we are a confident group who believes we can play with anyone,” Gudas added. “The way we played Boston all season, it gave us confidence. They are the team they are for a reason, but we are in the playoffs for a reason as well. I am excited for the challenge. If you want to win it all, you have to get through the biggest hurdle and that’s right from the start for us.”

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Full schedule announced for Bruins vs. Panthers in Round 1.

AP

The Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers are set to clash in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and now we have a better idea of how the series will play out.

On Saturday, the National Hockey League released the full schedule for the upcoming series with the notable exception of the exact start time for games 5, 6, and 7 likely due to the fact that they might not be needed should one team or the other dominate the series.

The Bruins and their impressive record this season have earned home ice advantage and that means that the first two games will take place in Boston on Monday and Wednesday. Following the conclusion of Game 2 on Wednesday, the Bruins will then travel to Florida for a pair of games, the first of which will be on Friday and the second of which will be on Sunday.

Should the series require more than 4 games, the series will head back to Boston the following Wednesday for Game 5, back to Florida on the following Friday for Game 6, and finally back to Boston on the following Sunday should Game 7 be required.

Here’s a full look at the schedule, including the start times for the first four matchups:

Monday, April 17 – 7:30pm EST – TD Garden
Wednesday, April 19 – 7:30pm EST – TD Garden
Friday, April 21 – 7:30pm EST – FLA Live Arena
Sunday, April 23 – 3:30pm EST – FLA Live Arena
Wednesday, April 26 – TBD – TD Garden
Friday, April 28 – TBD – FLA Live Arena
Sunday, April 30 – TBD – TD Garden

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Maple Leafs explain what went wrong vs. Panthers

The Globe and Mail

The lasting image of last night’s game at Scotiabank Arena between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the visiting Florida Panthers will be Panthers bench boss Paul Maurice absolutely exploding on his squad for what he clearly felt was a lack of effort during a break in the 2nd period.

That seemed to wake up the Panthers, who are scrapping and clawing (no pun) towards securing a playoff spot in the tightly contested Eastern Conference. It would eventually be Brandon Montour playing the role of hero for Florida, scoring in overtime to secure a valuable extra point that was also made possible thanks to a strong 38 save performance from goaltender Alex Lyon. 

Florida now sits just one point out of the final Wild Card postseason spot, while the Leafs have already locked up their postseason reservation.

“Played a good game,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said afterward in his postgame media session. “Didn’t score enough to win and then made some mistakes at the end. Cost us the extra point.”

However, a stat that fans will immediately notice is that the Leafs were unable to score on four separate power play opportunities, which could have proven to be the difference in the game.

“Not great,” said Auston Matthews on being unable to cash in with the man advantage. “Just a little bit disconnected there and maybe over-complicating things at times instead of just keeping it a little more simple and breaking them down at the start and then letting things open up.”

“Rather have it happen now than in the playoffs,” explained Zach Aston-Reese of giving up the lead. “Six-on-four situation, you know it’s going to happen again for sure. Definitely something we can watch the tape and learn from and hopefully down the stretch be a lot better at.”

The Leafs will be back in action when they visit the rival Ottawa Senators in the Canadian capital city on Saturday evening.