But Wednesday night in Florida, a strong final 20 minutes was enough to lift the Bruins to a 3-1 win over the Panthers and snap Boston's two-game losing streak.
After falling behind 3-0 to both Los Angeles and Tampa Bay in the previous two games, the last thing the Bruins should have done was come out flat and let the Panthers jump ahead. But that's exactly what they did, as Florida scored in the second period to take a 1-0 lead into the final frame.
But the third period has been the Bruins' time to shine this season, and Boston finally awoke from its slumber with three unanswered goals in the third for another late rally.
"It just seemed in those first two periods we were skating in quicksand," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "I don't know what it is or whether the fatigue is starting to show from the heavy schedule, but one way or another we're finding ways to win. That third-period comeback was a big one for us and I thought we played very well in the third."
The Bruins have owned the third all season. They are an NHL best plus-17 in the third, scoring 26 goals and allowing just nine in the period this year. Still, the Bruins know they can't keep falling behind and relying on late-game rallies.
"We did it the hard way again," said Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, who stopped 31 of 32 shots he faced to improve to 11-1-1. "We seem to be developing this habit of waiting until the third period. It's something that we want to get out of. I think we're just going to have to start pretending it's always the third period."
The Bruins wouldn't mind pretending the first two periods on Wednesday didn't happen. They were far too reminiscent of Monday's poor effort in a 3-1 loss at Tampa Bay, but at least this time the Bruins rallied in time to avoid being swept on their two-game trip through Florida.
"We wanted to be .500 on this trip," said veteran forward Mark Recchi. "We wanted to stop [the losing streak]. We know we didn't play well in Tampa and we weren't very good the first two periods [on Wednesday]. We wanted to be better. And give the guys a lot of credit. We sucked it up and dug down deep and got a big win."
Brad Marchand got things going with a short-handed goal just eight seconds into the third when he pounced on a loose puck in front after Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun mishandled a dump-in. After that, it was all Recchi. He fired in a feed from David Krejci from behind the net at 2:54 to give Boston its first lead, then added another with a rebound at the right post on a 5-on-3 advantage with four minutes remaining.
"We just had to work," said Recchi. "We had to get back to working. We've been pretty lackadaisical the last couple games and we just wanted to get back to work and we did. We got a lucky break on the first one, but we'll take it. It was a lot of hard work on [Recchi's] first one. Jordan [Caron] made a good forecheck, Krech was in there and made a great pass to me."
Recchi knows plenty about work. The 42-year-old in his 22nd second became just the 13th player in NHL history to collect 1,500 career points when he reached the milestone with his second goal.
After the game, the future hall of famer admitted it was a meaningful accomplishment, but having the milestone point help secure a win made it really special.
"It did [mean a lot], and it was a big goal as well," said Recchi. "It gave us a two-goal cushion. It's nice to get it in a big win. My teammates are unbelievable. They support me all the way and obviously you can't do it without them. It's been a long career. It's been a lot of fun, and I've really enjoyed it."
The Bruins have enjoyed having Recchi around to continue to reach these historic numbers.
"Obviously it's quite a milestone," said Julien. "I just finished congratulating him and told him I'm glad all these things are happening with our team."
The example Recchi set and the work the Bruins put into the third period weren't the only factors in the comeback. Julien also shuffled his lines to try to get something going.
He put Patrice Bergeron back between Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton on the top line to start the third, while reuniting the old Krejci-Blake Wheeler–Michael Ryder unit that was so successful two years ago. Greg Campbell moved up between Recchi and Caron and Tyler Seguin shifted back to center between Marchand and Shawn Thornton.
"I guess it was mostly after the first two periods we weren't getting much done and so I just made a change and changed the lines to see if it would spark things a bit," said Julien. "And obviously we got three goals."
Those three goals earned the Bruins two points — and one very happy holiday on Thursday.
"We're going to have a much better Thanksgiving than the Florida Panthers probably," said Thomas. "It's one of the things we talked about. We wanted to get the win and at least come out .500 on this little road trip that we had and feel good about ourselves tomorrow going into Friday [against Carolina]."
