Game 2 takeaways: Defensive breakdowns cost Bruins in brutal 6-1 loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The good news for the Boston Bruins is they will leave Florida with a split of the first two games in their Eastern Conference second-round series versus the Panthers.
The bad news for the Bruins is it’s hard to feel good about their play right now after an abysmal performance in Game 2 at Amerant Bank Arena on Wednesday night.
The Bruins used a three-goal second period in Game 1 to power them to a series-opening victory. The opposite happened in Game 2, as the Panthers scored three times in the second period. They added three more goals over the final 20 minutes to finish off a dominant 6-1 win to even the series.
The game got out of hand in the third period as these teams combined to tally 136 penalty minutes. The craziest moment was David Pastrnak fighting Matthew Tkachuk. A total of 12 players were given misconducts in the final 10 minutes of the period.
The Panthers have now won five of their last six Game 2s. They also beat the Bruins in Game 2 of their first-round series last season. The B’s have lost five consecutive Game 2s dating back to 2021.
The series will shift to Boston for Game 3 on Friday night. But before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Panthers Game 2.
Costly mistakes doom Bruins
The Panthers are hard enough to beat when you execute at a high level. When you make silly mistakes, that task becomes much harder.
The Bruins had a miscommunication on the Panthers’ first goal. Florida forward Steven Lorentz was able to skate to the front of the net without any resistance and tipped a shot from the point past Jeremy Swayman.
The Panthers’ second goal came after John Beecher and Charlie McAvoy both whiffed on the puck and couldn’t clear the zone. McAvoy also lost his stick and wasn’t able to do much defending as a result.
The third Panthers goal was scored with just 1.3 seconds remaining in the second period. McAvoy and Brad Marchand screened Swayman in front of the net, making it hard for the B’s netminder to locate the shot from the point.
The Bruins also took a too many men on the ice penalty in the second period. It was the fifth time they’ve taken that penalty in the playoffs so far. That’s one more than the rest of the 15 playoff teams combined. One too many men on the ice penalty in a playoff run is bad enough. Five is totally inexcusable.
The Panthers scored a lot of goals off turnovers, bad penalties…