Florida's game was night and day from their loss in Buffalo on Saturday

The Florida Panthers are not very welcome in Boston.

You couldn’t tell from their recent record in TD Garden, but the Bruins and their fans do not enjoy when Florida comes to town.

Monday afternoon was the latest example, when a shorthanded Panthers team playing without Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk still found a way to frustrate the Bruins both on the scoreboard and between the circles.

For the second time in a week, much to the chagrin of the Boston faithful, the Panthers defeated the Bruins, with both coming in different but equally frustrating ways.

That’s from a Boston perspective, not Florida’s.

For the Cats, it was an incredibly positive victory for those same very reasons…they were playing an inspired, angry Bruins team and they beat them without two of their absolute best players.

Let’s get to the takeaways:

BIG BOUNCE BACK FROM BUFFALO

Saturday’s loss to the Sabres was frustrating for many reasons, but perhaps most because Florida never really got into their style of hockey.

Suddenly having to play without two of the team’s busiest and most stilled forwards can be jarring, and clearly it had some kind of an impact on the team because they helped a winless Buffalo squad look quite good in front of their home fans.

To see that same shorthanded Panthers team bring such a stronger, team collective effort Monday against a much better Bruins team than the one they faced in Buffalo was huge for the players and the coaching staff.

“We were able to change our game, we didn't like our last game,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “Whether you win or you lose, you have to aspire to look the same way every night, if you can, and we were back to looking the way we should look without Barkov and Tkachuk. So we're not going to look the same (as we would with them), you wouldn't hold your team to that standard, but we can hold ourselves to a standard of a style of game that we play, and I thought we were great at that tonight. It wasn't smooth, it wasn't easy, it wasn't pretty, and that's pretty much how we play. So really pleased with it.”

CLOSED OUT TOUGH WIN

Even with Florida playing a faster, tighter checking game, the goals seemed to come fast and furious during the first forty minutes.

Once the game reached the third period, though, Florida began to clamp down a bit on Boston’s opportunities and give them less time and space to work with.

The effort was supreme, and the result was earned.

“We couldn't get the clean outs that we might if you had a Barkov or Tkachuk on the wall or Barkov in the hole – they're going to make a play to get you out clean – but then we stayed and fought and battled and really didn't get into too much trouble,” Maurice said. “I mean, they're going to have their chances, but I thought the compete was right on. We were really hard on pucks tonight.”

LUNDELL LINE SHINES

We’re now going back two seasons to when Sam Reinhart skated regularly with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.

Florida’s depth in the time since has allowed the team to spread out their talent a bit, but whenever the trio is placed back together, things always seem to go well for them.

In Boston, they combined for all four of Florida’s goals, six shots and a plus-six on-ice rating.

“It's always been a great safety blanket, right?” Maurice said. “We can always come back to it. They're incredibly (responsible), there's three penalty killers on the same line and they scored four goals tonight, so they can do both.”

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