Bruins still have ways to go to reach Panthers’ level after latest loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON — The Florida Panthers are not only a more talented team than the Boston Bruins, the defending Stanley Cup champions also are the gold standard of winning battles all over the ice.
They do a masterful job winning 50-50 pucks and fighting for inside ice. They also are excellent at getting under the opponents’ skin and knocking them off their game. And when the other team does make an undisciplined mistake, the opportunistic Panthers often capitalize.
That’s been the story of the Bruins-Panthers rivalry over the last two-plus seasons, including two playoff series, and it was again the case in Monday afternoon’s matchup at TD Garden.
The Bruins were undisciplined with their emotions and with the puck, and they lost way too many battles in a 4-3 loss to the Panthers, who now have a 2-0-0 edge in the season series. The worst part for the Bruins was that the Panthers didn’t even have their two-best players in center Aleksander Barkov (injury) and left wing Matthew Tkachuk (illness). Those two stars are elite at winning battles, but so are many of their teammates.
The Bruins began to lose their composure when David Pastrnak was hit from behind by Panthers forward A.J. Greer at 11:23 of the first period. Bruins forward Pavel Zacha stepped right in to defend Pastrnak and fought Greer, but for the rest of the period, Boston took too many bad penalties.
“Again, they’re winning the mental side of the battle on us,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said postgame. “Pasta got hit, and I love what Pavel did. Went in and defended him, that’s great. But the penalties after that, it’s just not disciplined. It’s been all four games that we take at least four minor penalties. You can’t win hockey games that way.”
“We can’t lose as many battles as we did. I mean, they’re the standard right now in the NHL for winning battles, and we’re not up to that level yet. We have to vastly improve that.”
A lack of discipline was a huge problem for the Bruins when these teams met last week in the season opener. The B’s took a lot of penalties, and the Panthers had six power plays as a result, including one power-play goal. On Monday, the Bruins gave the Panthers five power plays, and Sam Reinhart cashed in on one during the first period to give his team a 2-1 lead.
Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy cross-checked Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe near the blue line. And it…