How Montgomery’s timeout helped Bruins secure Game 1 win vs. Panthers originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins were under immense pressure from the Florida Panthers to begin the third period in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Monday night.
The Panthers trailed 3-1 and made a tremendous push to get back in the game. Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm took a bad penalty to put the Panthers on the power play just 1:21 into the period. The Bruins were lucky to escape that penalty kill with their two-goal lead intact as the Panthers generated three high-danger scoring chances with the man advantage.
The successful penalty kill didn’t give the Bruins any momentum, though, as the Panthers continued to tilt the ice in their favor. Florida tallied 11 (!) shots on net over the first six minutes of the frame.
Sensing his team was not sharp and needed a reset, B’s head coach Jim Montgomery used his timeout to halt the Panthers’ surge.
Montgomery was seen giving his players a stern message during the break. Whatever was said clearly made an impact because the Bruins started to play much better after the timeout. Their passes were crisper, they started winning more puck battles, they exited the defensive zone more effectively, etc. Florida had a 11-1 edge in shots at that point in the third period. The Bruins outshot the Panthers 7-5 and outscored them 2-0 following the timeout.
“(Montgomery) knows the game so well,” Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman said postgame when asked about the timeout, per the NESN broadcast.
“He knows when to have our bench and take a timeout. He has such a great sense of game management. I think after that timeout, you could tell the momentum was shifting. I had no doubt in my mind the guys were going to respond the right way. Seeing the way they did it, it’s just a testament to the kind of group we have, how we can stay in the moment and make sure the next shift is our best shift.”
Rookie forward Justin Brazeau scored his first career playoff goal two minutes after the timeout to put Boston ahead 4-1 with 12:47 remaining. This goal effectively ended the Panthers’ comeback attempt as the B’s cruised to a 5-1 win.
The Bruins had a lot of trouble closing out games during the regular season. In fact, they had the sixth-worst win percentage (.786) when leading after two periods.
Montgomery deserves a lot of credit for realizing his team was starting to lose its focus and taking action to address it immediately. The Panthers…