BOSTON — The Bruins may have been shorthanded up front without their captain Patrice Bergeron, but the depth of the team lifted Boston to a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Monday night.
Even with Bergeron out, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery was able to move Pavel Zacha up to the top line with Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk because David Krejci returned to the lineup after missing the final seven games of the regular season. Krejci centered Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak.
“It speaks of the leadership underneath Patrice, and it also speaks to our depth,” Montgomery said. “We were very confident with Zacha in the middle. We know in the future he is going to be an excellent and top to center for us and he showed that.”
The Bruins were able to shut down Florida’s top line of Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov, Anthony Duclair, mainly because Boston’s third line with Taylor Hall, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic and having the ability to roll all four lines give the Bruins the advantage over the Panthers.
“I think it’s hard to match up. That’s what it does for the other team and what it does for our team,” Montgomery said about the third line. “It just gives us energy. Same thing with the (Tomas) Nosek line, they had some great shifts. And you know, I know that was a disallowed goal, but that was an incredible shift by them and that’s the depth we have right.”
The Bruins did not allow a shot on goal during the two man-advantages Panthers had keeping the puck the perimeter and clogging the lanes to the net. The return of Derek Forbort certainly aided the penalty kill.
“Well (Forbort) is so good on his d-zone coverage and his penalty kill,” Montgomery said. “He showed that today and down the stretch there with the last four to five minutes, he was out there with (Brandon) Carlo killing a lot of minutes for us, especially with the goalie pulled.”
Montgomery did not provide an update on Bergeron or what his plans were for Game 2.
Here are more notes from Monday’s Bruins-Panthers Game 1:
— In his postseason debut, Bertuzzi notched a first-period assist on a behind-the-back pass to David Pastrnak, who potted his first goal of the season.
“I just kind of knew he was going to be there. You know, he’s always around the net and in good spots,” Bertuzzi said. and if I could just kind of get it over and into an area, you know, he would have a good look.”
— Brad Marchand joined Cam Neely as the second Bruins player to notch 50 career Stanley Cup playoff goals.
— Nick Foligno returned to the lineup after missing considerable time from and injury he suffered on Feb. 28.
— The Bruins will look to take a 2-0 series lead Wednesday against the Florida Panthers. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
