On Tuesday night, the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers took the ice for their first matchup of the season. And as expected, it was one goal that made the difference.
Boston’s Brad Marchand ended the game at 3:27 in overtime to give the Bruins a 2-1 overtime victory against the Panthers. The loss brought Florida’s record to 4-2-4 and marked their ninth game that was only decided by one goal. Both the Bruins and the Panthers were missing key players during this game, with Boston missing Zedeno Chara (knee), David Krejci (unknown), Kevan Miller (shoulder), and Torey Krug (finger) and Florida missing Jonathan Huberdeau (flu), Dave Bolland (lower-body), Aleksander Barkov (lower-body), Sean Bergenheim (lower-body), and Brandon Pirri (upper-body).
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
PANTHERS LINEUP
Tomas Fleischmann – Jussi Jokinen – Brad Boyes
Scottie Upshall – Nick Bjugstad – Jimmy Hayes
Rocco Grimaldi – Vincent Trochek – Colby Robak
Tomas Kopecky – Derek MacKenzie – Shawn Thornton
Willie Mitchell – Dmitry Kulikov
Brian Campbell – Aaron Ekblad
Dylan Olsen – Erik Gudbranson
Roberto Luongo
Al Montoya
BRUINS LINEUP
Milan Lucic – Chris Kelly – Seth Griffith
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Reilly Smith
Matt Fraser – Carl Soderberg – Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille – Gregory Campbell – Simon Gagne
Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton
Joe Morrow – Adam McQuaid
David Warsofsky – Zach Trotman
Tuukka Rask
Niklas Svedberg
GAME SUMMARY
While both team’s played very evenly throughout the first period, the scoring kicked off at 4:04 of the second period when Aaron Ekblad carried the puck across both blue lines and made a nice pass to Brad Boyes, who calmly gave the puck to Jussi Jokinen and one-timed a shot past Tuukka Rask for his first of the season to give the Panthers the first goal of the game.
Then just minutes later, at the 7:29 mark, a fight for the puck along the boards between multiple players ended up in Brad Marchand’s possession. Marchand then passed the puck to Patrice Bergeron, who turned around and released a blistering wrist shot that went above Roberto Luongo’s right shoulder and into the net to tie the game at 1.
The rest of the game was played very evenly, with both teams exchanging scoring chances throughout the second and third periods to send the game to overtime. The overtime period was Boston’s chance to shine, as the Bruins played with a very-aggressive style and kept the Panthers on their heels for most of the period. Then, at 3:27 of the overtime period, Dougie Hamilton passed the puck to Brad Marchand in the neutral zone, who then carries the puck over the blue-line and makes a nice move to get around Dylan Olsen and releases a nasty wrist shot that flew over Luongo’s left shoulder and into the net. The overtime gave the Bruins the 2-1 lead, and therefore, the 2-1 win.
3 STARS OF THE GAME
1. BOS C Brad Marchand (1 goal, 1 assist)
2. BOS C Patrice Bergeron (1 goal)
3. BOS D Dougie Hamilton (1 assist)
CAT BITES
- Brad Marchand’s game-winner capped off a two-point night for the Bruins winger, who now has six points (4 goals, 2 assists) in his past three games.
- After playing their first nine games of the season staying relatively healthy, the Panthers lost three players during their game against the Coyotes, with another player catching the flu before their game against the Flyers.
- Due to their injury troubles, the newly formed “A” line of Rocco Grimaldi, Vincent Trocheck, and Colby Robak (who was moved from defense to right-wing due to the team’s injuries) played some solid hockey the past two games. So well, in fact, that Gerard Gallant decided to give Grimaldi and Trocheck some shifts during the crucial overtime period. The three players logged at least 12:00 TOI throughout the game.
- Speaking of Trocheck and Grimaldi, the stats do not lie, as Trocheck has three shots and Grimaldi has four shots in their two games played. The two almost combined on a goal midway through the second period, and have had numerous chances throughout the game.
- Now ten games into his NHL career, Panthers rookie Aaron Ekblad continues to impress. He logged an impressive 24:05 TOI over 25 shifts, while earning an assist and made 3 SOG. In fact, he almost ended the game in overtime on a fantastic play that started with a chase for the puck after a dump-in. The young defenseman now has three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in his past five games, and looks like the Panthers best defenseman so far during this young season.
- Jussi Jokinen’s first goal of the season extended his point streak to five games (1 goal, 5 assists). In addition, Brad Boyes now has four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in his past five games.
- After taking 12.7 penalties per game, including 54 major penalties, the Panthers did not take a penalty during last night’s game. The last time Florida played through a penalty-less affair, it was on March 5th, 2013 against the Winnipeg Jets.
- The Panthers have a GAA of 1.90, the fourth best in the league. Give credit to the defense and to Roberto Luongo, who has only allowed 2 goals in 5 of his 9 starts and only 4 goals in his past 3 games. This team is firing on all cylinders right now and when the team plays a 60 minute game, the Cats are a tough team to beat on any given night.
- The most impressive thought to take away from the team’s first ten games is that the team went 4-2-4, earning 12 points, without Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, and Nick Bjustad actively contributing to the score sheet. The team has found success without their top young guns contributing nightly, and will surely find even more success once their top players start to click offensively.
- The main storyline of the game: Shawn Thornton returned to Boston for the first time since he left the team during the offseason. He spent seven years with the organization and won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011. The Bruins gave him a video-tribute during the first period and the crowd gave him a huge standing ovation. "It's pretty touching you know. Very, very kind ... to get a standing ovation in a visiting arena is pretty special and I appreciate it," said Thornton, who makes his offseason home in Boston. ”The fans have always been great to me here and again tonight. It's pretty nice.” [NHL.com]
THE ROAD AHEAD
FLA BOS
11/06 @ PHI 11/06 - EDM
11/08 - CGY 11/10 - NJD
11/11 - SJS 11/12 @ TOR
11/14 - NYI 11/13 @ MTL
11/16 @ ANA 11/15 @ CAR
FINAL THOUGHTS
In a game where one might have circled the game as a “loss”, the injury-filled Panthers made something out of nothing by earning a hard-earned point in a 2-1 win. The Panthers are now 4-0-3 in their last seven games and have earned points in every road game. They have continued to play a hard-nosed, defense-first style of hockey that has found them more success that they have found in previous seasons early on. In fact, the last time that the Panthers finished the month of October with a record above .500: October of 2011, which was the last season that the Panthers made the playoffs. The Panthers hope to have Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau back in the lineup on Thursday as they take on the Philadelphia Flyers, who the Cats beat 2-1 on Saturday night in Sunrise.
[All rosters, dates, and stats are credited to NHL.com]