Bruins’ coach accuses one person for the humiliating 6-2 loss

The Boston Bruins are far from out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they are moving in the wrong direction.

After losing to the Florida Panthers in their last two games, conceding six goals and scoring three, the Bruins will enter Game 4 trailing 1-2 in the second-round series.

Following the 6-2 loss in Game 3 on Friday, May 10, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery held his normal postgame press conference.

“I don’t believe we’re on top of our game. “Our execution in the last two games has simply not been good enough,” Montgomery told reporters on May 10. “That’s my fault, I’ve got to be better.”

The Bruins demolished the Panthers 5-1 in the series opener on Monday, May 6, but they lost their last two games, 1-6 on May 8 and 2-6 on May 10.

Bruins Defense Dominated by Florida’s Superpowered Offense

Montgomery criticized himself after Boston suffered its second consecutive loss on Friday. He believed the biggest reason the Bruins lost Game 3 was a poor start in which they gave Florida too much room to operate, making a comeback unlikely later in the game with the Panthers up 3-0.

“We’ve had a couple of games where we started slow,” Montgomery said. “We haven’t created much offense.

“I need to offer the players a better plan. Florida performed substantially better than us. I need to come up with a better game plan.”

Evan Rodrigues opens the scoring in Boston! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/BIkSerjnpb

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2024

Evan Rodrigues scored Florida’s opening goal less than eight minutes into the game. Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe added two more goals in the second frame (both on power plays), and Brandon Montour scored the Panthers’ fourth uncontested goal 3:09 into the final period.

The Panthers outshot Boston 13-3 in the first period and 24-8 at the end of the second. The Bruins did not score until 5:01 in the last session, due to Jakub Lauko’s effort. Jake DeBrusk added another goal three and a half minutes later to put the score 4-2, but that was the closest Boston would go to Florida.

The final two goals of the game, scored by Sam Reinhart (on an empty net) and Evan Rodrigues (on another power play), sealed Game 3 and Florida’s 6-2 victory.

Bruins Might Have Lost Captain Brad Marchand to Injury

May 11, Noon, Update: Brad Marchand missed practice on Saturday and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Head coach Jim Montgomery called out Sam Bennett, who might have punched Marchand in the head concussing him. Read the full story here.

Not only did the Bruins lose Games 2 and 3, but they may be facing a difficult uphill struggle to level the series, let alone win it, after Boston’s captain Brad Marchand was forced to leave Friday’s game early due to an upper-body injury.

Marchand skated for only 10:51 minutes in the first two periods of play and missed the whole third period, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The cause for his absence was a hit by Panthers’ Sam Bennett on him early in the game, while the game was still in the first quarter. Bennett and Marchand collided in the neutral zone, and while it appeared that the Bruins captain was the primary contact instigator on the play, he received the brunt of it.

The Bruins have announced Brad Marchand is unlikely to return to the game with an upper body injury.

Marchand played the rest of the first and second after taking this hit from Bennett pic.twitter.com/kwx3LfOGP8

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 11, 2024

Marchand went down, then went to the bench before returning to the ice for shifts during the first and second periods of play. He skated eight shifts in the first period and seven in the second.

Speaking after the game, Montgomery couldn’t provide an update on Marchand’s status and availability for Game 4.

“Upper body,” Montgomery told reporters when asked about Marchand’s injury. “We’ll know more [Saturday].”

Bruins’ Failed Comeback Inspired by Brad Marchand

Even without Marchand, the Bruins did everything they could to get closer to the Panthers late in the game and stage a comeback that ultimately failed. Montgomery believed that Marchand’s absence had motivated his players.

“You know, I thought we rallied because of our captain,” Montgomery said after the game, per NESN’s Greg Dudek. “I thought [David Pastrnak] and Charlie McAvoy did an excellent job with him not on the bench.” And I thought our players had all improved, and we were competing like Brad Marchand would.”

At the end of the day, Boston lost and will host one final game in Boston on Sunday, May 12, unless the series can be extended past Game 5 on May 14 in Florida.

The Panthers could seal their spot in the Eastern Conference Finals right away if they defeat Boston in their next two matches, preventing hockey from coming to Boston until next October.