from Fluto Shinzawa and Michael Russo of The Athletic,
The Boston Bruins barely had time to take a breath after their seven-game tilt against the Toronto Maple Leafs concluded in overtime Saturday night. They traveled to South Florida on Sunday afternoon. Their only on-ice preparation for the Florida Panthers was during Monday’s morning skate at Amerant Bank Arena.
It didn’t matter.
The Bruins, cruising from their first-round momentum, took advantage of Florida’s loose play to claim a 5-1 win.
“I think our confidence has gone to another level after pushing through in the first round,” said coach Jim Montgomery when asked how the team reset for the Panthers following the emotional first round. “That confidence makes you believe that you can. It’s a great place to be mentally.
“But we made a lot of mistakes. If not for Jeremy Swayman, that would have been a lot closer game. Maybe they come out on top. We didn’t have enough scoring chances. The score was not indicative of the way the game went.”
Swayman, making his sixth straight start since the team ditched its regular-season and early-postseason goalie rotation, stopped 38 shots. He now has a .955 save percentage and 1.42 goals-against average in the playoffs, both tops in the NHL among goalies who have played more than three games.
The Bruins discussed going with Linus Ullmark because of the emotional surge of Game 7 and the rapid turnaround.
“We contemplated going with Ullmark, because we have so much confidence in him too,” Montgomery said. “But when a guy is playing that well, it’s like, ‘Don’t outsmart yourself.'”
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Game highlights are below.
from Michael of The Athletic,
After eight days of golfing, boating, fishing and grabbing the rays that come with playing hockey in the Sunshine State in the middle of a postseason respite while one awaits a second-round opponent, the Florida Panthers got one loud and extremely clear wake-up call Monday night.
Despite the prognosticators mostly picking the Panthers to roll over the Bruins, including unanimously by The Athletics hockey staff, the Boston Bruins reminded everyone that they were the team that spent 159 days atop the Atlantic Division this season compared to the division-winning Panthers 28 and arent about to simply lay down and give them a free pass back to the Eastern Conference final.
No, this wont be a cakewalk for the Panthers and on Tuesday when players take their golf carts the short distance from their waterfront homes down to their impressive downtown Ft. Lauderdale practice facility, they know they must awaken from their weeklong siesta and refocus for whats going to be a difficult task at hand.
Im not going to come in here and brag about our game, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after a Game 1, 5-1 loss to the Bruins, Floridas first home loss since March 28. I didnt think it started poorly for us. The 2-1 goal (and after), we started to do some unusual things. I didnt care for our game.
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