Bruins defense struggles mightily against Panthers’ speed in 6-4 loss

Bruins defense struggles mightily against Panthers’ speed in 6-4 loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Florida Panthers scored the first goal in Tuesday night’s season opener against the Boston Bruins and never relented. They kept attacking, and by the halfway point of the second period, the defending Stanley Cup champs had a commanding 5-1 lead over their division rivals.

There were many areas that were lacking for the Bruins in this 6-4 loss at Amerant Bank Arena, but the most glaring was the team’s defense — both individually and as a unit.

Joonas Korpisalo made his Bruins debut in net, and the veteran goalie had a rough outing. He gave up six goals on 35 shots. The one goal he really needed to prevent was a shorthanded tally by Sam Reinhart in the first period.

The Bruins had trimmed the deficit to 2-1 and were on a power play that produced several good looks at Florida’s net. But the Panthers squashed all momentum the B’s had built when Reinhart beat Charlie McAvoy to the net and scored on Korpisalo.

The B’s needed a save there, but Korpisalo is not atop the blame list for this game. He was hung out to dry all night. In fact, the score actually could have been a lot worse if not for the multiple breakaway saves he made.

“Korpisalo was not a problem tonight, it was the people in front of him,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters postgame. “You can’t give up four backdoor tap-ins and expect your goalie to make save after save. He made a lot of saves on breakaways. He was good tonight. The players in front of him, the rest of the team and the coaching staff, we weren’t good enough.”

The outcome was nowhere near as close as a two-goal Panthers win might suggest.

“We weren’t good enough in so many areas tonight. They were,” Jim Montgomery said. “Their execution was really good. Our execution was really poor. I can’t pinpoint why we looked slow, but we looked slow the entire game, not just the first 10 minutes, in my opinion.”

Boston’s defense was really bad in this game. The Panthers didn’t just score six goals; they also had a 53-33 lead in shot attempts, a 27-15 edge in shots on net, a 30-18 advantage in scoring chances and a 16-7 margin in high-danger chances during 5-on-5 action, per Natural Stat Trick.

In all situations, the Panthers generated 42 scoring chances (22 high-danger chances).

You can’t give up that many Grade A looks at the net against a team with lots of offensive firepower and expect to win the game. The graphic below shows how busy the Panthers were in front of the Bruins’ net last night. Look at all of the red around Boston’s crease. The B’s didn’t generate the same chaos and pressure in front of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Bruins built a roster with size and toughness, especially on the blue line. But for most of last night’s game, the Panthers’ speed was a problem. Florida scored five of its six goals off the rush.

The Brandon Carlo-Mason Lohrei pairing was particularly bad. Shot attempts were 16-6 for the Panthers during Carlo’s 13:15 of 5-on-5 ice time. Florida had a 18-8 shot attempt advantage in Lohrei’s 13:05 of 5-on-5 ice time.

One game isn’t a huge deal. You might remember the Bruins’ last season-opening loss was also a bad one. The Washington Capitals beat them 7-0 after raising their Stanley Cup banner in October of 2018. The B’s were in the Stanley Cup Final nine months later.

But Tuesday’s defeat was a reminder that the Panthers are still a better team than the Bruins. The Panthers are able to be physical without taking dumb penalties. They are relentless on the forecheck and use their speed in all three zones. Their goaltending is usually pretty good, and it was again Tuesday.

The Bruins can hang with this team, but there is plenty more work to do and improvement to be made. The good thing for the B’s is they will get another shot at Florida soon. They host the Panthers at TD Garden next Monday at 1 p.m. ET.