BOSTON — The Bruins struggled with scoring against the Florida Panthers in their second-round playoff matchup. After putting up five goals in Game 1, Boston didn’t score more than two goals the rest of the way.
Such was the case Friday night when the Bruins fell in Game 6 by a score of 2-1 to Florida to eliminate them from the playoffs. The Bruins had their chances throughout the night — Charlie McAvoy had a backhand that went just wide, while David Pastrnak had a breakaway — but they were unable to find the back of the net more than once.
“I didn’t sense frustration,” coach Jim Montgomery said after the loss. “The lack of our ability to score in the playoffs, in general. You can’t win every game 2-1.”
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Boston’s lone goal came from a great pass from Jake DeBrusk to feed Pavel Zacha for his first-career playoff goal. But they couldn’t build much momentum after that. The Panthers were all over the Bruins in the second period, and Boston struggled to get the puck out of its own zone.
“We had the opportunities, right? I think we had five odd-man rushes after two periods tonight. … I mean it comes down to their goalie was good, and we didn’t beat him at times,” Montgomery said. “We played too much in our in our end in the second and third period tonight.”
Friday’s loss marked the second straight the season the Panthers eliminated the Bruins from the playoffs. After a historic 2022-23, it was unclear how Boston would respond the following season — especially with the losses of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. But the Bruins had a strong season during a time many thought this could be a bridge year.
That wasn’t the case, though, and Montgomery said he was proud of his team despite not reaching the ultimate goal.
“I thanked them. It was an honor to coach them because of the hard work and the competitiveness that they brought throughout the year,” he said. “That was the biggest thing I wanted to get across. You’re never happy when you don’t win your last game of the year. Some players had tremendous growth this year, they can be proud of that. And then in the end, we have to find ways to get better and when our last game of the year.”
The Bruins now have a lot of questions to answer this offseason. There are restricted and unrestricted free agents they have to decide how to handle, and they have to look at how they can get better when it comes to scoring goals.
