It doesn't avenge last spring's first-round loss. No regular-season game can. But Monday's 3-2 comeback, overtime win against the Florida Panthers might build some character for this year's Boston Bruins team.
Early on, this one was trending towards disaster – not the same level of disaster as that playoff loss, but certainly a rude awakening for a team that was 7-0-1 entering the night.
The Panthers completely dominated the first period, outshooting the Bruins 16-6 and taking a 2-0 lead. Some of the same sloppiness that cost the Bruins in the spring popped up here. They got caught with four guys up ice on an Aleksander Barkov 2-on-1 goal to open the scoring. Matt Poitras had a rookie moment with a defensive-zone turnover that set up Sam Reinhart for the second.
To make matters worse, Matt Grzelcyk left the game with an upper-body injury midway through the first and did not return. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said after the game that he is expected to miss "a couple weeks." Grzelcyk would not be the last Boston defenseman forced to exit the game.
Instead of rolling over and accepting their first regulation loss of the season, though, the Bruins came roaring to life in the second period and completely turned the tables, with a little help from Montgomery's trusty lineup blender.
Montgomery shuffled up his top three lines to start the second. One of the new combinations was one that he actually opened the season with, but hasn't used much since: Brad Marchand with Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk.
On one of their first shifts together, they cut Florida's lead to 2-1. Coyle made a nice play to keep the puck in the offensive zone, and then DeBrusk went to work shielding off a defender as he wheeled into the right circle before centering a pass that Marchand got just enough of to poke past Sergei Bobrovsky.
Other changes included Pavel Zacha shifting to the wing with Poitras – who was not benched for his first-period turnover and would reward his coach's faith with a strong effort the rest of the way – centering him and David Pastrnak. The new third line was Morgan Geekie between James van Riemsdyk and Trent Frederic. All three lines looked good and kept the pressure on, with the Bruins outshooting the Panthers 12-3 in the period at one point.
"I just wanted to change up the lines. I thought we were flat after the first," Montgomery said. "I changed three lines. You put people in different spots within a game and sometimes it gives them a little bit of juice. I thought it did give us juice, those three lines in particular."
Still, the Bruins trailed by a goal heading to the third. They kept pushing, though, and tied the game with 12:40 to go. Zacha made a great transition pass to Pastrnak in the neutral zone, and Pastrnak then cut across the middle of the offensive zone before making a nice pass of his own to a driving Charlie McAvoy, who beat Bobrovsky with a forehand finish in close.
Then disaster nearly struck again. Less than two minutes after scoring, McAvoy put his team in a bind with an unnecessary blindside hit to the head of Oliver Ekman-Larsson away from the puck. He was rightly assessed a five-minute major and a match penalty, and it would not be surprising at all if he gets a call from the Department of Player Safety about a suspension on Tuesday.
The game was there for the taking for Florida. Instead, the Bruins' league-best penalty kill, led by goalie Linus Ullmark and the four remaining defensemen (Hampus Lindholm, Brandon Carlo, Derek Forbort and Kevin Shattenkirk), put on its best performance yet, killing all five minutes to keep the game tied and send it to overtime.
Just over three and a half minutes into OT, Zacha stepped up to play the role of hero, taking off on a 2-on-1 with Danton Heinen (making his season debut after finally signing a contract Monday afternoon) and snapping a shot stick-side past Bobrovsky.
Tuesday will be a busy day for the Bruins. They will have to call up at least one defenseman with Grzelcyk out, and likely two with a McAvoy suspension expected. They will also have to make a decision on Poitras, who has reached the end of his extended nine-game tryout. The Bruins can either keep him and begin the first year of his entry-level contract, or send him back to juniors. It would be shocking if they don't keep him given how well he's played, but it's still a decision nonetheless.
Those are problems – the defense in particular – for Tuesday, though. Monday night was a win worth celebrating, one that showed some character, even if it doesn't change what happened in the spring.
"It was a big character win," Montgomery said. "We lose Grizzy halfway through the first. We're down to five D. You have a five-minute major you have to kill off and you're down to four D. Just tremendous character by our four defensemen that gutted it out, and also just our team coming back from 2-0 against a real good team and being able to find a way to win."
