3 Takeaways from the Florida Panthers & Boston Bruins Game 01/11/2025

A short stint at home against the in-division rival, the Boston Bruins. In a matchup that always promises a playoff-caliber style of play and plenty of hatred, the Panthers dominated so much of the game. It wasn’t for lack of trying, that’s for sure, as the Panthers severely outshot the Bruins 42-18. Ekblad didn’t draw in today as the Cats are trying to get him 100% healthy and the power play felt that as it didn’t look as good as it does when he’s on. Florida walked away with a point after Reinhart forced overtime, so they’re still comfortably in second place in the division. Undisciplined penalties have been an issue for the better part of the month, and the Cats need to find their discipline, as the penalties have bitten Florida more than once. The top line provided all the scoring against Swayman and sent things to OT. The Panthers have yet to lose a one-goal game in regulation, they are 8-0-3

Out Blocked:

Defensively, the Panthers didn’t have to do much as they spent most of their time in the Boston zone, but with that said, the Bruins played better defensively than Florida did. While there were good stretches of defensive play for the Cats, the defensive lapses allowed the Bruins to convert their limited chances into goals. And on top of that, Boston worked hard in their defensive zone out-shot, blocking the Panthers 9-29 and out-hitting them 30-42. The second goal by Boston was unfortunate, as even though Kulikov was all over Pastrnak, he was still able to muscle his stick down to get the tip in on the pass from Geekie. Boston got into the shooting lanes to support Swayman and did a decent job boxing Florida out during long stretches of the match. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible outing from the Panthers, but in terms of specific parts of their defensive game, there’s still work to be done. Bjornfot got the call to play with Balinskis with Ekblad out and played pretty well, he didn’t stand out good or bad. The PK, when it has all its normal players, is still elite, and when those are the guys in the box, it struggles to some degree, as evident from the first goal that Geekie scored when Luostarinen was in the box.

Needed Discipline:

The lack of discipline on the team is becoming a concern at this point, with Bennett and Tkachuk being the biggest repeat offenders. Bennett especially has taken several penalties late in matches leading to game-tying or game-winning goals for opponents. The Pittsburg game is the most recent one prior to this game, where Pitt was able to tie the game with a late goal to send it into OT. The Panthers have always taken a bunch of penalties under Paul Maurice, but currently, it’s hindering more than helping. Last season, the team was so good during the playoffs at not taking nearly as many penalties and had the PK to handle opponents when they did take them. Tkachuk stayed out of the penalty box, but Bennett didn’t, regardless of whether his stick was raised into the Bruins’ player’s face or not. Florida’s penalty killers also didn’t stay penalty-free as Lundell (holding), Luostarinen (holding, slashing), and Greer (roughing double minor) were all in the box at some point. Lundell and Luostarinen are two of the Panthers’ best penalty killers so to have them in the box is a big disadvantage. Reinhart you’d want him to get the clear at the end of OT, instead it went straight to a Bruins player and they got a game-winner off a shot that deflected off of Reinhart’s stick and in the net.

Top Line Goals:

It felt like this match was top line vs top line as the big names did the majority of the scoring for both teams, the one outlier being Wahlstrom for Boston. Geekie and Pastrnak scored for the Bruins, while Rodrigues and Reinhart got it done for the Panthers. The puck luck wasn’t there for either team at points as Pastrnak missed an empty net goal where the puck bounced and hit the outside of the post, while Florida had more than a couple of chances on loose pucks that didn’t find their way into the back of the net. Rodrigues tied the game in the first period on a goal where he got a rebounded shot over Swayman’s pad and under his arm. It was a hard-working goal that rewarded his net-front presence. Reinhart scored early in the third period to tie the game again at two a piece and then a third time on a funky goal that went high and dropped in behind Swayman, sending things into OT. Rodrigues, in his post-game, said that he thought it was the best game the team has played in a while and that they’re not going to hang their heads on only getting one point. Maurice said that the team played a certain way from start to finish and that they played well. It seems that Florida is more concerned with building their playoff game at the moment rather than living or dying with every single win or loss. They’ll take the point, sit comfortably in a playoff position, and move on to the back-to-back against Philly and New Jersey next week.