Recap: Bruins stumble against Panthers, fall 5-2

Nov 24, 2022 - 3:05 AM

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There was bound to be a night like this at some point, right?

Blinded by the baby blues of Florida’s Reverse Retro jerseys, the Bruins allowed the game to get away from them via three unanswered goals in the second period, ultimately losing to the Panthers, 5-2.

The loss is just the third of the season for the Bruins, who saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end with a thud.

Things got off to an inauspicious start for the Bruins, as Sam Reinhart opened the scoring off of a beautiful passing play to make it 1-0 Panthers less than two minutes into the game.

The Bruins would respond late in the first period, as Charlie McAvoy made it a 1-1 game with a PPG.

The Bruins found themselves in Bizarro Florida World after that: they scored three unanswered goals in the second on Monday, then allowed three unanswered goals in the second on Wednesday.

Anton Lundell got the first at even strength, making it 2-1 Panthers five minutes into the period.

Aleksandr Barkov would add a PPG off a skilled deflection ten minutes later, making it 3-1 Panthers.

Matthew Tkachuk would add the exclamation point with a PPG of his own, deflecting a puck past Jeremy Swayman to make it 4-1 Panthers with just 14 seconds left in the period.

After being given another 5-on-3 PP, David Pastrnak got the Bruins within two with a “why not” slapshot early in the third, cutting it to 4-2 Panthers.

Unfortunately, that was as close as the B’s would get.

Aaron Ekblad added an empty-netter to seal it late in the third (you can use your imagination, no highlight) to make it a 5-2 Florida final.

Game notes

• As I said at the beginning, I guess a night like this was bound to happen. The Bruins simply weren’t “on” tonight, as it’s hard to point to a guy in the lineup who had himself a good night.
• The second period ended up being the difference again tonight, just in a bad way — the B’s used a great second to earn a W in Tampa, but fell flat tonight and ended up with the loss. The Bruins took four penalties, allowed three goals, and were outshot 17-11 (which makes sense given all the penalties).
• Swayman ended the night with an ugly .857 save percentage, and while it’d be unfair to pin the loss on him, he certainly wasn't close to his best.
• While we know plus/minus isn’t the most beloved stat, Hampus Lindholm post a minus for the second game in a row, after going about 392 games without doing so.
• This game didn’t have much of a flow to it, mainly due to all of the penalties: there were 11 penalties called in the game, including two double minors, for a total of 26 PIM. Hard for either team to get in a rhythm when you spend nearly 50% of the game on special teams.

Overall, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from a game like this - it was just one of those nights.

For perspective, along with just being the third loss overall, tonight was the first time all season the Bruins lost by more than two goals, so...positives.

I’ll certainly take 17-3-0 going into Thanksgiving.

The B’s will be back at it on Black Friday, a 1 PM home game against Carolina. I miss the weird 11 AM Black Friday games.

If you’re American and observing, have a great Thanksgiving! Everyone else...have a great Thursday!