Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers in overtime on Saturday night at the BB&T Center.
GOLD STAR: Craig Smith has had some decent moments in the last few weeks while working his way out of an early season funk, and Saturday night was one of those good games. Smith scored Boston’s first goal of the night to get them off and running and finished with a strong five shot attempts in his 14:12 of ice time. Smith also had the presence of mind to change late in the third period as the Boston Bruins had the Panthers hemmed in their own end, and that allowed David Pastrnak to get on the ice and snap one home from the high slot as the fresh skater on the ice. Smith also had one takeaway in his 18 shifts for the Black and Gold as well.
BLACK EYE: Brandon Carlo is a player that’s on the ice at the end of games to close things out and he wasn’t able to get the job done in the final couple of minutes. He’s not alone obviously as all five skaters and the goalie failed to close out the game, but Carlo was trying to hold the puck behind the net and run out the clock with a lot of time still left. Instead, Brandon Montour won the puck battle behind the net to free the puck and then he knocked Carlo down in front of the Boston Bruins net. Ultimately the puck then bounced off Carlo’s skate as he was down on the ice and it went straight out to Aleksander Barkov, who buried the tying goal with less than two seconds remaining on the clock.
TURNING POINT: The Boston Bruins have been better than just about every team they have played in the third period this season, but that has not been the case in the lost couple of games. That certainly wasn’t the case on Saturday night in Florida as they were outplayed for long stretches of the third before (and after) David Pastrnak scored the go-ahead goal in the final couple of minutes. The B’s were outshot 13-6 in the third period by a Panthers team that carried the play. The shift leading up to Pastrnak’s 38th goal of the season was Boston’s best hockey of the third period as they had the Panthers running around in their own end. But then they buckled seconds later with the Florida goalie pulled and couldn’t recover in an overtime that Florida quickly ended.
HONORABLE MENTION: The Panthers are in a position where they really have to win games and Aleksander Barkov refused to let Florida lose on Saturday night. It was Barkov that buried the game-tying shot with two seconds remaining in the third period amid a flurry of activity around the Boston net, and it was Barkov again in overtime that fed Sam Reinhart the puck for the scorched one-timer from the face-off circle. Barkov finished with a goal, three points and a plus-2 rating in 22:02 of ice time. Barkov also finished with seven shot attempts, one hit, two blocked shots and won 15-of-23 face-offs in an excellent all-around winning effort for the Panthers.
BY THE NUMBERS: 8 – the goal-scoring drought that Charlie Coyle snapped when he fired home a wrist shot that bounced off Sam Bennett’s stick and eventually went Sergei Bobrovsky for a goal.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “We’re facing a lot of adversity right now. It’s the first time all year that we haven’t prevailed two games in a row. We’ll have to look at it and find ways to get better.” –Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, on the Boston Bruins losing two games in a row for the first time all season.
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