The Bruins had the opportunity to send the Panthers home for the summer on Wednesday night, but miscommunication behind Boston’s net in overtime allowed Florida to extend the series to Game 6.
Boston has a second opportunity to eliminate Florida on Friday night, and forward Taylor Hall told reporters after the team’s morning skate that he believes the recipe to victory is something the Black and Gold can achieve.
“Combine a little bit of a looser, happy-go-lucky mentality with a lot of urgency,” Hall said, per team-provided video. “That’s a tough thing to combine but to close out a series; you know that the team you’re facing is going to play their best, if not better than the last game, and we’re going to have to match that desperation but also be in the moment.”
The Bruins outshot Florida 47-25 in Game 5 but played from behind the entire back-and-forth game, with Boston matching each of the Panthers’ goals in regulation, but the Bruins know they need to match the desperation in order to move on to the next round.
“The team on the other side has nothing to lose, and they know what they’re up against,” Hall said. “They’re going to play desperate, and that’s a tough thing in sports. … The team that’s down, plays like they have nothing to lose, and they just go for it, and we’re going to have to be better than a really good team tonight.”
The Bruins will need to execute clean breakouts and zone entries, along with capitalizing on rebounds to defeat the Panthers in Game 6, something they did in the games they have won so far, and with David Krejci a game-time decision, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery appears to be rolling out lines that have had success in the regular season as well as in the postseason. Hall is slated to skate alongside Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic on the third line — the one most experts said was the best third in the league.
“We’re looking to close this out. This is a huge game for us. We don’t want to go back for a Game 7,” Hall said. “You know what they say about game sevens; anything can happen. Our mindset is to do whatever we can physically and mentally to get this done tonight.”
Puck drop for the Bruins-Panthers game from FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Fla., is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
