Bruins Notes: Frequent Problem Plagues Boston In Lopsided Loss To Panthers

The Boston Bruins kicked off their 2024-25 campaign on Tuesday night with a 6-4 loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

The score itself makes the game look closer than it was. In reality, the Panthers looked like the same team that ended the Bruins’ playoff hopes the last two seasons. Florida came out and punched Boston in the proverbial mouth — physically and mentally.

“Their execution was really good, our execution was really poor,” Jim Montgomery told reporters. “I can’t pinpoint why we looked so slow, but we looked slow the entire game, not just the first 10 minutes, in my opinion.”

Before the eight-minute mark of the opening frame, the Bruins trailed 2-0, and the Panthers held a 10-1 shot advantage. However, Montgomery didn’t blame starting goalie Joonas Korpisalo.

“Korpisalo was not the problem tonight, it was the people in front of him,” Montgomery said. “You can’t give up four backdoor tip-ins and expect your goalie to make save after save. He made a lot of saves on breakaways. He was good tonight. The players in front of him, the rest of the team and the coaching staff, we weren’t good enough.”

The Bruins brought in defenseman Nikita Zadorov and center Elias Lindholm in the offseason with high expectations that the duo would help Boston battle Florida and other contenders. However, the whole team fell short in their quest to start the season off with a win. Zadorov said the roster being revamped in the offseason is partly the reason for the loss.

“We didn’t play well,” Zadorov told reporters, per team-provided video. “… I don’t think we made a play in the first period for the puck. We lost every battle on the walls, in our zone, net front, everything. So that was the result of the first period.”

Zadorov added: “It’s the first game. There’s a lot of new faces. Emotions, obviously, the history and the past against that team, so I feel the focus level wasn’t there a little bit today. But it’s Game 1 out of 82 games; we’re gonna get used to each other. We’re going to be fine.”

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Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Bruins-Panthers game:

— Trent Frederic was one Bruin who made his presence known in Sunrise, Fla. The forward tallied his first goal of the season in the third period to get the Bruins within three and tousled with Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk a couple of times in the contest. Tkachuk even baited Frederic into taking an unsportsmanlike conduct infraction in the opening frame. Frederic took issue with Tkachuks’ disrespect of the game.

— The Bruins got two special teams goals in the loss. The first came when Pavel Zacha lit the lamp shorthanded with Zadorov in the box for cross-checking Tkachuk in the first period. It was his sixth-career shorthanded goal — his first in a Bruins uniform. David Pastrnak scored the first power-play goal of the season with less than three minutes to play in regulation. Boston held Florida scoreless on six power-play opportunities but surrendered a shorthanded goal to Sam Reinhart one minute after Zacha scored for Boston.

— Boston lost its season opener for the first time in five seasons. The last time the Bruins dropped a contest on Opening Night was against the Washington Capitals to begin the 2018-19 campaign. Ironically, just like the Panthers, the Capitals raised their 2017 championship banner that night.

— The Bruins return to action Thursday night with an Original Six matchup against the Montreal Canadiens. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.