Three reasons why Bruins lost second-round playoff series vs. Panthers originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON — The Bruins put up a strong fight against the Panthers in their Eastern Conference second-round playoff series, but Florida just had too much talent and too much depth.
The result?
A season-ending 2-1 loss for the Bruins in Game 6 at TD Garden on Friday night.
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman posted a .917 save percentage through six games. The only netminder with a better save percentage in the second round is Igor Shesterkin (.924) of the New York Rangers. Swayman gave up two goals or fewer in three of the six games, including each of the last two. He did his job.
So, what ended up costing the Bruins in Round 2? Here are three key areas where they consistently failed.
Bad special teams
Special teams were one of the primary reasons why the Bruins eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. Boston‘s penalty kill gave up just one goal and its power play scored six times over seven games.
The Bruins were unable to maintain that level of success versus the Panthers. Not even close, actually.
The B’s scored just one power-play goal — a David Pastrnak tally in Game 4 — in 16 opportunities with the man advantage. The penalty kill also struggled and allowed six goals, including four in Game 3.
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It’s not just that the Bruins failed to score on the power play, they didn’t generate many great looks at the net, either. The B’s spent 26:19 on the power play and tallied just 14 shots on net over six games. The power play consistently failed to give the Bruins any momentum.
Another problem for the Bruins was staying out of the penalty box. Sure, the officiating was bad at times in this series, but Boston needed to be much more disciplined. You cannot give the Panthers 28 power plays in six games and expect to survive. Florida spent 49:37 on the power play in the series and generated 45 shots and 65 scoring chances, in addition to its six goals.
The Panthers used a four-minute power play in Game 3 to increase their lead from 1-0 to 3-0 in the span of a minute.
Special teams have the ability to swing a playoff series, and unfortunately for the Bruins, they were badly outplayed in this facet of the game in Round 2.
Even-strength goals were actually…