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After clawing their way back to within one goal, the Florida Panthers simply couldn’t recover from their early deficit in an eventual 7-3 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Monday.
With the loss, Florida now sits at 15-14-4 in the standings.
“I don’t think our game was a whole lot different until it got to 6-3,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “I think we had things that we’d like to do better with the puck and in the transition game that kind of bit us in the butt, but we put up 39 [shots on goal]. We had enough to score.”
For a quick recap of the game, click HERE.
To read up on five key takeaways for the Cats, continue below.
1. SLOW START
The Panthers fell into a deep hole early in Boston.
After Connor Clifton opened the scoring at 10:51 of the first period, Brandon Carlo and Charlie Coyle tacked on two more goals at 14:04 and 16:07, respectively, to put the Bruins on top 3-0.
At the end of 20 minutes, Boston led 12-6 in scoring chances, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
“You give them chances, they’re going to score,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “They’re a really skilled team. If you give up what we gave up, they’re going to make plays.”
Strong starters, the Bruins have outscored opponents 31-18 in the first period in 2022-23.
2. REINHART ON A ROLL
Less than two minutes after David Pastrnak extended Boston’s lead to 4-0 on the power play just 1:38 into the second period, Sam Reinhart jumpstarted a strong pushback for the Panthers.
Setting up in his favorite spot right on top of the crease, Reinhart followed up on a shot from Matt Kiersted and swept the ensuing rebound past Linus Ullmark to cut the deficit to 4-1 at 3:02.
Extending his goal streak to four games, Reinhart has lit the lamp five times during that run.
Stepping up during a recent string of injuries and ailments for the Panthers, Reinhart finished second on the team with a 66.67 CF% at 5-on-5 against the Bruins, per NaturalStatTrick.com. Over the 16:07 he spent at 5-on-5, the Panthers led 18-9 in shot attempts and 2-0 in goals.
With his goal, Reinhart also notched the 400th point of his NHL career.
3. STAAL STRIKES
Feeding off the momentum from Reinhart’s tally, Eric Staal followed suit by teeing up a pass from Gustav Forsling and blasting a one-timer into the twine to cut the deficit to 4-2 at 5:42 of the second period.
With 443 goals in his career, Staal ranks fifth among active players in goals behind Alex Ovechkin (800), Sidney Crosby (534), Steven Stamkos (497) and Evgeni Malkin (454).
Seeing an uptick in production after moving up the depth chart to help Florida’s ailing core of centermen, Staal has recorded seven points (two goals, five assists) over his last 10 games.
In Boston, Staal also went 7-for-13 (53.8%) in the faceoff circle.
4. VERHAEGHE NETS ANOTHER
Verhaeghe’s scoring spree continues.
Netting his 17th goal of the season, the speedy sniper backhanded the puck under Ullmark during a scramble right around the net to slice the deficit to 4-3 at 8:22 of the second period.
Capping off a wild sequence, Florida’s three goals were scored within a span of 5:19.
“Once we got going, we had a lot of jump,” Verhaeghe said. “I thought we had a really good second period and gave ourselves a chance to win the hockey game. They were up 4-0, but we had a chance. We just fell short.”
On pace to blow past the career-high 24 goals he scored in 2022-23, Verhaeghe has needed just 32 games to net his team-leading 17 goals. On a nice run in December, he’s lit the lamp in each of his last two games and scored five total goals over his last eight contests.
5. COMING UP SHORT
Like Verhaeghe said, the Panthers ran out of gas in their comebak attempt.
After David Krejci put the Bruins ahead 5-3 at 11:50 of the second period, Patric Bergeron scored goals at 8:52 and 13:18 of the third period to help Boston claim the 7-3 win and improve to 17-0-2 at home this season.
Helping the Bruins weather a storm of shots all night, Ullmark made 11 of his 37 saves in the third period as the Panthers kept on pushing. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, Florida led 21-12 in shot attempts, 12-7 in scoring chances and 1.23-0.7 in expected goals in the final frame.
“We want to string a couple [wins] together,” Verhaeghe said. “It’s tough. We’re all battling. It’s just costly errors. I think we can learn from this and move on.”
As they look to bounce back from this loss, the Panthers are focusing on one key element.
“The shift-by-shift consistency in our game and confidence that’s built through it,” Maurice said.
For more News about the Florida Panthers visit: www.floridapanthers.com
For more sports coverage from MLB, NBA, NFL, to NCAA contact Julian Ojeda: Call 786-501-9082 | Email julian@communitynewspapers.com
