Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery believes one area for "significant improvement" sticks out among all the rest with Boston entering a win-or-go-home Game 7 against the Florida Panthers at TD Garden on Sunday evening.
"We think the only area that we need to significantly improve is O-zone play," Montgomery told reporters after Sunday's morning skate, per the team. "Besides that, we want to hit singles all night long. We're not looking for home runs in the first period. We're looking to hit singles and build our game. If we build our game we wear teams down. And we think for the majority of the series we've done that."
The Bruins came up short in their previous two opportunities to eliminate the Panthers. The most recent of which was Friday night when the Panthers earned a 7-5 victory in a contest where seven goals were scored in the third period alone at FLA Live Arena.
As far as additional areas of improvement, Montgomery expressed how he would like to see the Black and Gold put more traffic in front of Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, but noted the amount of goals scored hasn't been the problem. And Boston's penalty kill, which was atop the league and dominant throughout both the regular season and start of the playoffs, now has allowed three power-play goals including two in Game 6. Montgomery, however, credited the Panthers for their ability to move the puck better and attack the net in those situations.
"It's a combination of things but Florida is doing a good job. It comes down to that," Montgomery said of the penalty kill. "There's a couple of things we need to adjust to and I know we will."
Those improvements surely will go a long way with the Bruins looking to avoid an opening-series disaster. NESN's coverage of Game 7 begins at 5:30 p.m. ET with puck drop scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
