The Bruins are hoping the hometown fans don’t head home disappointed for the second night in a row.
Boston will get its first chance to close out the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series at TD Garden. The B’s are hoping to avoid the same fate experienced by the Celtics a night earlier. The C’s had a chance to end their own first-round playoff series in five games, but Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks stormed back to steal the game and extend the series.
While the Bruins can’t glean much from what went down on the parquet Tuesday night, it was at least reinforcement of the importance of closing out a series when you have the chance.
“I think you can take bits and pieces whether it’s from other (NHL) series or different sports, too, and kind of learn from that as well,” Bruins center Charlie Coyle acknowledged Wednesday while speaking with reporters following Boston’s morning skate. “I’m sure the Celts would want to have that one back, and of course, they’ve got another crack at it, but you don’t want to let things slip and think you have things wrapped when you don’t and you play things a little looser. We want to make sure we’re still hungry and we want to play as if we want it more because we do. We want this thing, we want it bad, and now it’s time to play like it.”
The Bruins don’t really need a reminder, though. Florida’s only win to this point in this series came in Boston when the Panthers steamrolled the Bruins in a listless Game 2. Boston responded as well as anyone could expect, dominating two games in Florida to set up a potential clincher Wednesday night. The Black and Gold has even more momentum with the potential return of Patrice Bergeron for Game 5.
Puck drop from the Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET with NESN’s pregame coverage beginning at 6 p.m.
