Bruins Ignore Excuses, Shoulder Responsibility For Series Deficit

It’s no secret the Bruins and Panthers have been involved in a series chock full of controversy, but neither side is interested in dwelling on it.

Florida, being the team with thousands of fingers being pointed in its direction, obviously has zero interest in talking about it. Boston, somewhat surprisingly, isn’t interested in the readily available excuses.

The B’s don’t have time for that.

“We put ourselves in this position,” Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke said Tuesday, per team-provided video. “We just have to take it game-by-game, day-by-day. That’s our focus here, and obviously you saw last series with what Toronto was able to do to us, and last year with how the series went with Florida and Boston… We’re do-or-die right now, so we have to come out with that mentality and take advantage of it.”

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Panthers forward Sam Bennett, in his lone two games this series, has been a kitchen knife-sized thorn in the side of the Bruins. He’s the key factor in Brad Marchand’s multi-game absence, throwing a punch in what should have been a routine body check that resulted in an upper-body injury. He also scored the game-tying goal Sunday, which should have been taken off the board due to a cross-checking penalty but was somehow missed by the guys in zebra stripes.

Boston has a pair of ready-made excuses at their disposal but has gone the other way in addressing the reason it is now on the brink of elimination.

“We can sit here and point the finger, and fortunately that’s not what we’re gonna do,” Pat Maroon said, per Boston.com. “We had a 2-0 lead (in Game 4). We didn’t give ourselves an opportunity and we didn’t play good. You just gotta take it like that. We haven’t been playing good.”

The Bruins and Panthers will take the ice for Game 5 on Tuesday, with puck drop set for 7 p.m. ET in Sunrise, Fla. NESN+ will have you covered with pregame and postgame coverage.