How the Bruins Dug Deep Against the Panthers, and Other Notes on Monday Night’s Win

Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, overtime, TD Garden.

Pavel Zacha’s wrister from the right circle at 3:36 of the extra hockey on Monday night gave that list a new meaning as Boston secured a 3-2 win over the Panthers who, six months prior, had eliminated the Bruins from the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs in Game 7 overtime on the same ice.

“It was an important win I think, especially after last year,” Zacha said postgame. “There was something that this game meant a little bit more than, not usual, but you want to beat teams like this especially after playoffs.”

Zacha’s third tally of the season completed a three-goal comeback for the B’s after they came out flat in the first period and didn’t fully play to their direct, grinding identity until the third.

Boston’s defensive structure, well, had no structure, and they failed to sustain O-zone pressure long enough to get any real high-danger chances. The Panthers’ sparky and speedy transition game caught the Bruins on their heels and gave Florida a 2-0 lead in the first thanks to goals from Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart.

“Probably had too many careless plays through the middle – either in the offensive zone or approaching the offensive blueline – that led to them just coming at us wave after wave,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said postgame. “They looked super fast, we looked super slow.”

Florida was the better team through a majority of the night, but the Bruins found a way to win late, and that’s an invaluable lesson in believability and grit early on in the 2023-24 campaign. A Charlie McAvoy game-tying goal at 7:20 in the third period, followed by a shutdown five-minute penalty kill, brought the B’s back to life, and they put the game away from there.

“I just think you can build some confidence. These are the games, especially going down the stretch in playoffs, that you have to be able to win,” Brad Marchand said postgame.

“Right now, it’s just another two points, but definitely something we can understand when we come in between periods and look at our game and make adjustments that they make a difference. You saw that tonight.”

McAvoy followed his goal with a five-minute match penalty at 9:28 for an illegal check to the head of Panthers forward Oliver Ekman-Larsson. With Matt Grzelcyk leaving the game in the first period due to an upper-body injury – Montgomery said he’ll be out “a couple of weeks” – the Bruins were down to four defensemen, but they didn’t make any excuses.

Hampus Lindholm, Brandon Carlo, Derek Forbort and Kevin Shattenkirk put their heads down and worked through the remainder of regulation, playing a key role in forcing overtime where Zacha would eventually seal the victory.

“The guys showed character, they played really well in the third period,” Linus Ullmark, who recorded 35 saves, said of the four defensemen postgame. “We know they’re in very good shape, I see it all the time. We always have that mantra to be better in the physical condition than the other teams, and the guys proved it tonight.”

McAvoy will potentially face a suspension from the league for the high hit, and there’s no concrete timeline for Grzelcyk, so the door now opens for blueliners Mason Lohrei and/or Ian Mitchell to find their way back to Beantown from Providence (AHL).

It’s also come time for the Bruins to make a final decision on Matt Poitras. Monday night against the Panthers marked his ninth NHL game in the test run to see if he can handle the big-league rigor instead of being sent back to the Guelph Storm in the Ontario Hockey League.

Marchand, alongside anyone who has watched a Bruins game this season, thinks the 19-year-old center has done everything in his power to stay.

“He’s definitely made the best case possible for himself. He’s a heck of a player, he’s going to have a very long career,” the captain said. “He does all the right things on and off the ice to be a good pro and it’s very impressive to see at his age. And he’s a great kid, he’s a lot of fun to have around.”

Montgomery said the team will have a decision on Tuesday.

Monday’s all around performance isn’t how the Bruins want to play night in and night out. But, short-handed, they pulled out a win in a game that had a little extra meaning. The regular season victory doesn’t erase the heartbreak of last April, but it shows the depth of this year’s new-look squad.

“It was a big character win,” Montgomery said. “Just tremendous character by our four defensemen, they gutted it out. And also just our team, coming back from 2-0 against a real good team, and being able to come away and find a way to win.”