Three takeaways: Panthers must capitalize on chances, take advantage of strong starts
Florida scored the first goal in Game 1. Things went downhill from there.
The Florida Panthers will be heading back to the drawing board after losing Game 1 against the Boston Bruins on Monday night.
Florida scored the first goal of the game and looked pretty good during the the opening 20-25 minutes before Boston slowly began to poke holes in the Panthers game.
Statistically, there was more to like than not to like from how the home team performed, but as they say, that’s why they don’t play the games on paper.
Now the Panthers will look to regroup ahead of a crucial Game 2 coming up on Wednesday night.
Falling behind 0-2 heading back to Boston would be a recipe for disaster.
Let’s get to the takeaways from Game 1:
Good start, not so much after
Florida carried the play during the first half of the first period, earning the game’s first five shots and three scoring chances.
Then Boston finished the period strongly, but the game remained scoreless.
It would all go downhill from there, despite the Panthers getting the better of the visitors in several areas…except the scoreboard.
“I didn’t think it started poorly for us, I liked our start,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I thought as we thought through it, after the 2-1 goal in the second we started to do some unusual things. That’s why it’s a never-ending learning process, to continually cement the things that you need to be good. I didn’t care for our game. I think we need to fix a big chunk of the things we didn’t like.”
Where things went wrong
The Panthers picked up the game’s opening goal in the middle frame off a great steal by Sasha Barkov and a nice shot from Matthew Tkachuk.
It seemed like momentum was on Florida’s side.
Boston scored the next three before the second period came to a close.
It wasn’t like they were grossly out-chancing Florida, but what the Bruins did do was take advantage of their opportunities.
The Panthers did not.
“We gave up seven shots in that period and we let three of them in," Maurice said. "It's not Sergei (Bobrovsky). Two of them we didn't break the puck out, the third one we got a bad read off a rush on play that should get killed fairly easily. Coaching. It’s on the coach.”
Need to finish
A good portion of the game was played in Boston’s end with the puck on Florida sticks.
Most of the shots on goal came off Panthers sticks, not Bruins.
Alas, Boston ended up scoring not one, not two, but four more goals than Florida.
“Scoring is not the issue, chances were not the issue.,” Maurice said. “We weren't great tonight. I don't know that the game was exactly like the score, but it doesn't really matter. They played well. They looked like they're in a bit of a rhythm. I thought they played a very patient game, so good for them. Not so good for us.”
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