B’s can’t reach the top
Stay at No. 2 seed; Leafs 1st-round foe
The Bruins lost an opportunity during their regular-season finale last night against Florida, but they are determined to make up for it during the NHL playoffs against Toronto.
That’s the positive spin given by Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy after a disheartening 4-2 loss to the Panthers at the Garden.
The loss by the Bruins secured the Atlantic Division title and the No.1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bruins (50-20-12) finished with 112 points, which was one behind Tampa Bay (54-23-5). Tampa Bay will face the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
As for the B’s, they will host the Maple Leafs in Game 1 of a best-of-seven first-round series on Thursday at the Garden.
“I feel we will be a lot better than we were tonight and we better be or we’ll be in real trouble,” said Cassidy. “On Thursday, I believe we will be the 50-win team you saw all year and we are not going to let one game define us.
“We understand we let one get away, an opportunity we lost to have home-ice advantage. We’ll see if that haunts us down the road. I think it is too early to tell that right now.”
The Bruins were in a season-long pursuit of the Lightning since turning their fortunes around in early December. The task seemed simple and the goal attainable after the Bruins 5-2 win over Ottawa on Saturday night.
But the visiting Panthers had no intention of rolling over for the Bruins, a fact that should have been evident after last Tuesday night’s 3-2 win over the B’s in Sunrise, Fla.
“I just felt that coming down the stretch here you could start to see us mentally get tired,” said Cassidy. “Physically every team goes through it with the schedule and at the end of the year you are a little heavy legged.
“We were losing some of our passion and that showed in the first period, that’s what we were missing. Then execution crept in when we wanted to get the game back more as individuals instead of as a team.”
Cassidy is intrigued by the Bruins match up with the Maple Leafs. The Leafs took three-of-four from the B’s this season including a backto-back, home-and-home, game in early November.
“I’m looking forward to it with two Original Six teams,” said Cassidy. “They are young but they have veteran guys they expect to lean on and we have younger guys and guys we are going to lean on.
“We both exited in the first round last year and probably learned some lessons. It should be a terrific series if both teams are on their game.”
Cassidy said he will give the players today off to rest and regroup before two busy days of practice and film study.
“I’m excited even though we just lost a game and we are still going to the playoffs and we are still a good team,” said Cassidy. “We just have to live with this for a few more days.”
Goalie Tuukka Rask finished with 22 saves in the loss to Florida.
After the game, he said: “It’s an opportunity lost. We didn’t deserve to win. That’s the reality. The regular season’s over and we move on. We’ll take a day then get back to work and get ready for Toronto.”
The Bruins had goals from David Backes and David Pasternak, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the hard-skating Panthers. Florida got goals from Maxin Mamin, Evgenii Dadonov, Henrik Borgstrom and old friend Frank Vatrano.
“It’s been a long month and a half,” said Bruins AllStar forward Brad Marchand. “We’ve played a lot of games. A lot of hard games, too, not ones you could coast through. A lot of teams battling for playoffs spots and trying to figure out the positioning. The games were tough, not a whole lot of rest. But that’s no excuse. We messed up an opportunity to jump to a higher seed. But it is what it is and now we move forward.”