The Boston Bruins’ Florida road trip continued on Nov. 22 as they took on the Florida Panthers. The Bruins were coming off of an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 20 while the Panthers had won their last game against the Edmonton Oilers.
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It was the second matchup of the season for these two teams which are quickly developing an exciting and feisty rivalry. Between the Panthers defeating the Bruins in the first round of the 2022 Playoffs and their first meeting this season with Charlie McAvoy landing a hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsson that saw him facing a four-game suspension, the bad blood is clearly present between these teams. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that they are one and two in the division at the moment.
From the get-go, it was an aggressive game. Both goaltenders were in excellent form, and it was a much closer game than the score might indicate.
Slow Start From the Bruins
The Bruins did not come out ready to play against the Panthers. They have one of the best goal differentials in the NHL in the first period and have traditionally started games strongly throughout the 2023-24 season. Many of their games have followed a bit of a pattern of starting strong with a good first period, and then seeing more of an up-and-down play in the second and third periods.
This game was the opposite. The Panthers came out ready to play, having not only multiple shots on goal but legitimate scoring opportunities before the Bruins had even registered one goal. Within the first five minutes of the game, the Bruins were pinned in their own zone for an extended period of time. Mason Lohrei had a two-plus minute shift since the team simply could not clear it out of their zone.
While the Bruins went into the first intermission with the lead thanks to a phenomenal goal from Charlie Coyle, the Panthers were the better team throughout the first period. Still, it was a good example of the resilience of this team. Even when they are not the best team on the ice, they still find ways to get back into the game and stick with it.
Charlie Coyle is the Best Skater
The best players on the Bruins all season have been the goaltenders, Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. That was no exception in their matchup with the Panthers as Ullmark played phenomenal, even when facing a volley of shots to start the game. But the best skater in last night’s game and arguably one of the team’s best skaters for the month of November was Coyle.
His goal in the first period was a thing of beauty and helped shift the momentum away from a lively Panthers team. He continued to generate shots and opportunities and just looked like one of the best players on the ice for the black and gold. Overall, he led the team with four shots on goal.
Coyle is on pace to have the best season of his career at the age of 31. Through 18 games, he has seven goals and 16 points. This puts him on pace to finish with 30 goals and 70-plus points. His career-high for goals came in 2015-16 when he scored 21 for the Minnesota Wild. His career-high for points came the following season when he registered 56.
A Quiet Night From Forward Stars
Brad Marchand of course was in on some of the more physical moments of the game, but all in all, it was a fairly quiet game from him and the rest of the top-six, save for Coyle. David Pastrnak was especially quiet with only two shots on goal, breaking his seven-game point streak. Pavel Zacha exited the game early but just as quickly returned, and otherwise went pretty unnoticed in the game. As a consequence of the top players not being at their best, the powerplay was pretty dead and uninspiring.
In an 82-game season, not every game is going to be the best and Pastrnak is still in the top five of points for the whole NHL and could make a legitimate push for the Art Ross Trophy this season. But, the team was able to pull it together thanks to the great play from their depth guys.
Similar to last season, the Bruins have demonstrated in this game and throughout the 2023-24 season that they have a good amount of depth. The goals don’t only have to come from their top line. In past seasons, if the top line wasn’t scoring, the team wasn’t scoring. It’s good to see that even with the changes from last season, their depth still seems to be in decent shape.
Final Notes From Florida
Jake DeBrusk has not had the strongest of seasons after several people, myself included, thought this would be the season he finally breaks the 30-goal mark. He scored his second goal of the season against the Panthers, bringing him up to seven points in 17 games. He looked pretty good in the game and hopefully, he’ll continue to get back to the scoring level he is more than capable of.
It’s still early in the season, but it was nice to see how the Bruins were able to match and respond to the physicality of the Panthers. They were a team clearly looking for blood and while they were outplayed for most of the first period, they didn’t shy away from the physicality and sent it right back at them.
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Jakub Lauko is not the flashiest of players on the ice, but he continues to be excellent at drawing penalties. He has shaped himself into a solid fourth-line player and makes the most of his limited role. Would it be nice to see some more offense out of him? Of course. But he continues to do well in other areas of the game like physicality and drawing penalties.
Johnny Beecher had an excellent Florida road trip. He scored goals against both the Lightning and Panthers, bringing him up to three goals and four points for the season while averaging 10 minutes of ice time a night.
The Bruins’ next game is against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, Nov. 24. They don’t play the Panthers again until March 26 and it will certainly be interesting to see if that game matches the physicality of this one.
