Bruins defense struggles against Panthers' speed, trailing 6-4 originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Florida Panthers scored the first goal in Tuesday's season opener against the Boston Bruins and never let up. They continued to attack and by the middle of the second quarter, the defending Stanley Cup champions had a decisive 5-1 advantage over their division rivals.
The Bruins lacked in many areas in their 6-4 loss at Amerant Bank Arena, but the most glaring was the team's defense – both individually and as a team.
Joonas Korpisalo made his debut in Bruins net, and the veteran goalie had a rough day. He conceded six goals in 35 shots. The only goal he really had to prevent was Sam Reinhart's goal in the first quarter.
The Bruins cut the deficit to 2-1 and played on the power play, which resulted in several good looks in the Florida net. However, the Panthers stifled any momentum the B teams had gained when Reinhart beat Charlie McAvoy to score on Korpisalo.
Team B needed defense in this match, but Korpisalo is not at the top of the list of culprits in this match. It was hung to dry overnight. In fact, the result could have been much worse if not for the repeated interventions he made.
“Korpisalo wasn't the problem today, the problem was the people in front of him,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters after the game. You can't give in to four back-door attacks and expect the goalkeeper to make save after save. He made many interventions during escapes. He was good today. The players in front of him, the rest of the team and the coaching staff, we weren't good enough.
The score wasn't as close as the Panthers' two-goal victory might suggest.
“Today we weren't good enough in many areas. That's how it was,” Jim Montgomery said. “Their execution was really good. Our execution was really poor. I can't put my finger on why we looked slow, but I thought we looked slow the entire match, not just the first 10 minutes.
Boston's defense was really bad in this game. The Panthers not only scored six goals; they also had a 53-33 advantage in shot attempts, 27-15 in shots on net, 30-18 in scoring chances and 16-7 in 5-on-5 chances for a natural statistical trick.
Across all situations, the Panthers generated 42 scoring opportunities (22 risky).
You can't give up so many A-grade looks at the net against a team with a lot of attacking power and expect to win the game. The graphic below shows how busy the Panthers were in front of the Bruins goal last night. Look at all the red around Boston's crease. The B players did not create such chaos and pressure in front of Panthers goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Bruins built the lineup on size and toughness, especially on the blue line. However, the Panthers' speed was an issue for most of yesterday's game. Florida scored five of its six goals on a rush.
The pair of Brandon Carlo and Mason Lohrea fared particularly badly. The Panthers were 16-6 in shot attempts while Carlo had 13:15 of ice time at 5-on-5. Florida had an advantage in shot attempts 18-8 during Lohrei's 13:05 of 5-on-5 time.
One match is not a big deal. You may recall that the Bruins' last season-opening loss was also devastating. The Washington Capitals defeated them 7-0 after raising the Stanley Cup banner in October 2018. Nine months later, the B team reached the Stanley Cup finals.
However, Tuesday's loss was a reminder that the Panthers are still a better team than the Bruins. The Panthers can play offensively and not take stupid penalties. They are tenacious in frontal control and use their speed in all three zones. Their goaltenders are usually pretty good and that was again Tuesday.
The Bruins can keep this team going, but there is still a lot of work to do and improve. The good thing for the B team is that they will get another chance at Florida soon. They will host the Panthers at TD Garden next Monday at 1 p.m. EST.
