Boston Bruins Game 1 Takeaways: Flat-footed in Florida

It wasn’t the kind of banner start the Bruins were looking for.

Sam Bennett potted a pair of goals, as the Florida Panthers rolled the Bruins, 6-4, in opening night action at Amerant Bank Arena.

The defending Stanley Cup champions, Florida appeared in midseason form, bombarding Boston for 17 shots and four goals against in the opening stanza.

It appeared that the Panthers simply got into the Bruins heads, quickly grabbing a 4-1 lead in the first period and never looked back. Boston played catch-up for the remainder of the contest, making things interesting in the closing moments.

“In general, we just weren’t good enough in so many areas tonight,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. “And they were.”

After stalling out of the gates, the Bruins offense switched into gear. Pavel Zacha scored a shorthanded goal off a feed from Elias Lindholm in the first period, cutting the lead in half to 2-1. Defenseman Charlie McAvoy potted a second period goal with Johnny Beecher and Hampus Lindholm picking up helpers.

Hurley-Burly: Welcome Boston Hockey Now’s Newest Beat Writer

Still trailing 6-2 in the third period, Boston made a late game push. Trent Fredric and David Pastrnak both scored 1:15 apart. The surge prompted Montgomery to pull Joonas Korpisalo (29 saves) for the extra attacker, but it was too little too late.

Boston will have its chance to even the score with the Panthers next Monday on home ice.

Korpisalo not the problem

Designated the Game 1 starter over a week ago, Korpisalo deserved a better fate.

The Boston netminder faced a deluge of first period shots, surrendering four early goals. He also took a big hit from Bennett on Florida’s sixth tally in the third.

“The game was 4-1 after the first,” said Korpisalo. “I’m not too happy with that. A couple weird bounces, but four goals in one period, it doesn’t matter how many shots they got there. It’s pretty tough to climb back. I just got to be better.”

But despite the onslaught, the netminder was fairly solid. He made several sprawling saves, but probably could have benefitted from better team defense.

The pairing of Mason Lohrei (-3) and Brandon Carlo (-2) had a particularly rough night surrendering three giveaways each. They’ll undoubtedly look to bounce back in Thursday’s home opener.

“Korpisalo was not the problem tonight,” said Montgomery. “It was the people in front of him. You can’t give up four backdoor tap-ins and expect your goalie to make save after save. He made a lot of saves on breakaways. He was good tonight. The players in front of him, the rest of the team, the coaching staff, we weren’t good enough.”

McAvoy was his steady self, netting a goal and an assist, while logging a team-high 21:54 of ice time. The Bruins assistant captain was paired with Hampus Lindholm (21:30). The duo was the only Bruins defensemen to finish at +1. Fourth line right winger Cole Koepke was the only other +1 Bruin in the lineup.

Nikita Zadorov led blueline brigade with six hits. The big Russian also attempted to tangle with several Panther players but found no takers.

“Obviously there’s history in the past against that team,” said Zadorov. “The focus level wasn’t there a little bit today, but it’s one of 82 games. We’ve got to get use to eachother and we’ll be fine.”

Credit coach Montgomery for keeping Korpisalo in the game. There was no need to hit the panic button, bringing in a stone-cold Jeremy Swayman to face a red-hot Panther squad, It would have just played into Florida’s hands. Especially since the game was pretty much decided by the first intermission.

That said, one can only imagine the hit team management would have taken had Swayman remained unsigned following this game.

Thankfully, that crisis was avoided,