The Bruins find themselves in an unfamiliar position, one they haven’t really seen all season, and it just happens to come at the most important time of the year.
They believe they’re up for the task.
Boston will look to regain control of its first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series against the Florida Panthers on Friday night after the two teams split in Boston. It’s without a doubt the most adversity the Black and Gold has faced all season long.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery is embracing the moment, hoping his team rises to the occasion.
“I’m excited about where we’re going right now,” Montgomery told reporters Thursday, per MassLive.com. “We lose last night, and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, the sky’s falling.’ We’re not going to heaven. We’re going to hell. To men, here we’ve got an opportunity to get better. Playoffs aren’t easy. It’s not easy. But you become so much better — your resolve, your resiliency. This is where you get tested. It’s where I feel we have the right people in our dressing room to do that.”
Part of the adversity Boston faces comes from the absence of captain Patrice Bergeron. It’s very much unclear whether he even traveled with the team to Florida. He remains a question mark for Game 3 after missing the first two games of the series. As Montgomery pointed out Thursday, the Bruins’ record without Bergeron this season had been pretty solid until a Game 2 loss at home on Wednesday.
Montgomery believes the Bruins’ next-man-up mentality serves them well in these situations, but he also knows his team needs to get back to the things it did all season to become the NHL’s most successful regular-season team of all time.
But he also knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“That’s playoff hockey,” he said Thursday. “It’s 1-1. It’s a series. Let’s get better.”
Game 3 is Friday night in Florida. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on NESN.
