Bruins Notes: Boston’s ‘Pack Of Wolves’ Mentality Helps Fuel Win

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins captured their third-consecutive victory Monday, improving to 3-0 to kickstart the 2022-23 campaign.

The 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers was a game of runs, with both teams putting together dominant offensive stretches throughout the contest. Though there were multiple shifts in momentum, head coach Jim Montgomery can point to one specific moment that he believed provided the Bruins with their biggest spark.

“The big turning point in the game for me was that scrum at center ice,” Montgomery said. “You have Dan Renouf, you have A.J. Greer, you have everybody in there, right? I didn’t see the hit, but obviously they were trying to get after (Tomas) Nosek. We were five, we were a pack of wolves in there, and after that I thought we had our best three minutes of the game. And we were down to three lines. So I think it speaks volumes to how hard they play for each other.”

The aforementioned scrum came after a big hit on Nosek from Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, who gave the Bruins winger a little extra as he was down on the ice. From that point, a few different Bruins, including Renouf and Greer, ran at Tkachuk in an effort to stick up for their teammate.

Matching penalties would render the scrum disadvantageous, but as Montgomery mentioned, a fire seemed to be lit under Boston. In the ensuing three minutes, the Bruins would put five shots on goal and completely shift the momentum. Jake DeBrusk and Patrice Bergeron would combine for a nifty breakaway goal off of a tremendous Linus Ullmark save to give Boston the lead — one they would never give up.

Bruins Wrap: Boston’s Early Dominance Helps Avoid Late Collapse

Oct 17, 2022

Here are more notes from Monday’s Bruins-Panthers game:

— Florida entered this matchup with just five defenseman, after Brandon Montour was scratched with an upper-body injury. They went down to four defenseman following an in-game injury to Aaron Ekblad. Montgomery spoke to how Boston looked to attack following the injuries.

“When they went down to four, I was like, ‘Drive pucks wide or put pucks in behind, let’s make sure they have to cover 200 feet,’ ” Montgomery said.

— The three stars of the game were Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and DeBrusk, who combined to score four of the Bruins’ five goals.

— In his first game with Boston, Renouf tied with DeBrusk for the second most shots taken in the game. Their five was second to only David Pastrnak, who took eight.

— The Bruins have a quick turnaround, travelling to Canada to play the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame and postgame coverage with NESN 360.