The Boston Bruins have been the predators, not the prey, throughout their historic 2022-23 season.
That might not be the case throughout their first-round series with the Florida Panthers, however.
The Bruins came away from TD Garden with a win Monday night, but it came in a game where the Panthers had ample opportunity to pull off the upset. Florida goaltender Alex Lyon was superb, almost pulling off the old hockey cliché of "goaltender steals a playoff game."
Instead, Boston put together a few scrappy goals, including one on a rare Lyon mistake, for a Game 1 win.
"It's always good to throw the first punch," Charlie McAvoy said postgame, per team-provided transcript. "With that being said, it's a long series. It's good to get one out of the way, but you know with everything, everything changes. These games get a lot more movement as we go.
"I like that we won, and we didn't really play, I think, to the best of our ability. I think that we're going to keep building, get some pieces back. Whatever you want to call it. We know that we can keep building. We can find our playoff game, find the way that we want to dictate and play our game. There's a lot to be encouraged of."
Speaking of encouraging, it sounds as though Patrice Bergeron could make a Game 2 return. That would undoubtedly provide a big boost to the Bruins, though he was plenty influential off the ice.
"The same as it's been all year," McAvoy said of the Bruins' mindset without Bergeron. "Knowing that we trust in our depth and we trust in each other. That whoever's going out there is going to get the job done. We believe in one another and we believe that whoever it is, they're going to help pull their weight."
During the regular season, the Bruins were never really tasked with winning games in the manner they did Monday. More often than not, Boston would rout its opponent while adding another record to the book. Game 1 was just an extremely early and important reminder that the Stanley Cup playoffs are different, even if you are the Big Bad Bruins.
