Bruins Blow 4 Goal Lead, Lose in Shootout

The Boston Bruins approached an important divisional game at TD Garden against the Florida Panthers.

They had an ongoing three-game losing streak, which they wanted to put an end to. It all appeared as the Bruins come back to their defensive system, before capitalizing on a few mistakes by the Panthers.

To sum this up, it was 4-0 for the Bruins after two periods. The Bruins turned this game from a 0-0 stalemate to the rout in just under eight minutes. There was a reminder of how quickly the game can go south.

The Bruins will never forget how quickly can the game go south after that third period.

The Bruins lost a game, in which they had a four-goal lead in the third period for the first time in 30 years. The last time this happened for the Bruins was on the road in Toronto in December 1989, where the Bruins lost 7-6 from being up 6-2 at the beginning of the third period. Now the Bruins possess a four-game regular-season losing skid, which lastly happened in November 2017. It’s also the first time in Florida´s history to recover from a four-goal deficit in any game.

Boston´s Head coach Bruce Cassidy has a lot what to think about from this massive cough-job by his team. Their next game is, fittingly, in Toronto on Friday. “This is a team that’s closed out games for years,” Cassidy said after the game.

“The last goal, to me — put everything else aside — is disappointing. Structurally, we were bad on that goal. That’s the disappointing part for me. That’s when we’re usually rock solid.” The Bruins gave up the first goal in the third period while Joakim Nordstrom, who scored in the second period, had his stick broken, and the Panthers took advantage of that.

The other two goals the Panthers managed to score on their power-play. The Bruins’ penalty kill to open the night was ninth-best in the NHL. Last year, they were 17th on the kill, while they ended up seventh in the 2017-18 season. That trend of bad penalty killing is worrisome for the Bruins, and their Head coach, as well.

“We’re going to have to sit down and address the penalty kill in those situations — how we broke down — and get better in that area,” said Cassidy. In the late stages of the third period, the Bruins turned aside numerous chances to shoot to puck instead of passing it. Same with Charlie McAvoy in overtime, where he tried to find David Pastrnak instead of ripping a one-timer following a quality pass from David Krejci.

In conclusion, the Bruins lost concentration to suffer their worst blow in almost 30 years. Boston lost a special-teams battle, once again. We don’t have to sit there for long to see that the Bruins are 0-4 in the games past 60 minutes because since three-on-three overtime was implemented to the NHL, the Bruins have to be one of the worst teams in that category. Also, they experience their worst losing skid in two years. Time for brave hearts, and deeds, in Toronto on Friday night.

Not even Florida thought that this is going to be a game in the third period.