Their best need to be better
da finally pushed the bruins out of their end, rookie defenseman Mason lohrei, the heretofore darling of this postseason, was whistled for a high-stick double-minor penalty. with that, the final respectable phase of the game for the bruins, the penalty kill, wilted along with the rest of the roster.
Two straight power-play goals later, the eighth and ninth straight for the Panthers since Game 2 of this series, and florida was full steam ahead, on their way to flattening the bruins in a 6-2 win and a 2-1 series advantage.
so many questions, but let’s start here . . .
where did boston’s best players go?
Outside of swayman, who continues to sparkle in net, and with a friday night excusal for captain brad Marchand, ruled out of the third period with an upper-body injury likely courtesy of a first-period collision with sam bennett, the bruins aren’t getting enough from their stars. David Pastrnak isn’t shooting enough. charlie McAvoy hasn’t established a consistent presence, and continues to have too many turnovers. Topline center charlie coyle has one goal these playoffs.
As much as coach Jim Montgomery absolved swayman and Pastrnak in the ugly aftermath of friday’s blowout — “I thought they were our two best players tonight,” he said — this was not a night to be throwing bouquets. This was a night to tuck the chin and take the hit, which the coach also did.
“I don’t think we’re on top of our game. Our execution the last two games, the last two periods of last game and the first two periods tonight, just not been good enough,” he said, adding, “that’s my fault. I have to be better. we didn’t play well enough, and I take responsibility.”
for yet another night, as had happened so often throughout the seven-game opening round, the bruins’ engine failed to ignite in the game’s early going. but as bad as the sputtering offense often looked against Toronto, it was exponentially worse friday night, with the Panthers dominating every phase of the game. by the time the Panthers took advantage of a questionable interference call on Jakub lauko and took a 4-0 lead early in the third period, they’d forced the bruins into a new record of ignominy — surrendering an all-time playoffworst 10th consecutive unanswered goal.
Only then did the bruins respond with any real urgency — lauko’s score finally ended the scoreless skid — but nothing more than a classic case of too little, too late.
“Obviously, they’re a good team, and you can see what they do when you kind of take your foot off the gas, per se,” forward Jake Debrusk said. “I don’t think that we’ve been our best throughout this series . . . . Obviously disappointment, you know, you want to win every game and it’s one of those things that you feel the frustration. That’s an easy word to say but I think it’s a good thing to feel a little bit of it. You don’t want to let it take over your mind.”
how can the bruins change the story? how can they stop the momentum of a florida team barreling downhill at them since the second period of Game 2? They need every player who doesn’t have “swayman” stitched onto his sweater to show up on time sunday. It’s only Game 4, but it feels like a must-win.
Remember what Montgomery was saying prior to his team’s previous must-win game, when they returned from Toronto having blown all of their 3-1 series for a win-or-gohome Game 7? Montgomery made a point of calling out his best scorer, insisting Pastrnak had to “step up.” but easily forgotten in that declaration was what Montgomery said leading up to it: “Your best players need to be your best players this time of year . . . . they need to come through with some big-time plays and big-time moments.”
They need Pastrnak to be the creative genius who answered that Toronto bell with an overtime winner in Game 7.
They need McAvoy to stop turning over the puck in the middle of the ice, to be willing to let it fly at the offensive end instead of revving up for every shot like a batter in the on-deck circle.
They need to establish an offense, get out of their own zone, and stop depending on swayman to bail them out.
They need to listen to the pleas of their crowd, reduced to chanting “shoot the puck” any time the bruins touched it inside the blue line.
They need to stop the whiffs, misses, miscues, and mistakes.
They need to be more like swayman, the unlucky goalie at the wrong end of a barrage that ended with the Panthers taking 17 more shots (33-16) than the bruins.
Though it feels like forever ago, it’s only been three games since Montgomery was moved to laud swayman as “our best player in the series, it’s not close,” crediting the goalie after the Toronto series clincher for “his confidence and his swagger,” that “permeated through the group. Took a while, but he got there.”
Time for someone else to step up, too.