Recap: Bruins start slowly, never recover in season-opening 6-4 loss to Panthers

It wasn’t very fun.

After a summer of big free agent signings and dramatic contract negotiations, Bruins fans were eagerly anticipating Opening Night and getting a new season started.

Maybe we could have waited a little longer.

On the night when the Florida Panthers raised their Stanley Cup Champions banner, the Bruins looked slow, out-of-sync, and just generally a mess in a 6-4 loss.

Truthfully, a two-goal spread at the final buzzer flattered the Bruins, who were second-best by a giant margin from the opening face-off.

The Panthers got goals from five different skaters, including two from Sam Bennett, who also ran Joonas Korpisalo in the third period.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

After struggling to get going for much of the first period, the Bruins found themselves behind 2-0 less than eight minutes into the game.

A Pavel Zacha shorthanded goal with just under five minutes left in the first made it 2-1, but the B’s then allowed two goals (one of them shorthanded) in the final two minutes of the first period to put themselves in a hole.

Korpisalo allowed six goals on 35 shots in his Bruins debut, and while he certainly wasn’t stellar, this wasn’t the kind of loss you can pin on goaltending.

Along with the Zacha goal, the Bruins got goals from Charlie McAvoy, Trent Frederic, and David Pastrnak (PPG).

Game highlights

I’m not sure why you’d want to subject yourself to this punishment, but here you go:

(For most games this season, we’ll likely go back to Twitter/X embeds, but the juice didn’t seem worth the squeeze for this debacle.)

Game notes

• Where to begin? This game reminded me, in many ways, of the worst parts of last season’s playoff series: getting outshot a billion to one to start the game, undisciplined play, trouble with the forecheck and defending the rush…you name it, it was bad (aside from the penalty kill, I guess, which was 6-for-6 and added a shorthanded goal).
• As poorly as the Bruins played in that first period, they were still very much in the game and had a chance to tie it at 2-2 with a late power play. Instead, they allowed a shorthanded goal to Sam Reinhart, with McAvoy not exactly laying it all on the line defensively prior to the goal (you might expect more from Korpisalo too, though Reinhart deserves credit for the quality of the shot).
• There’s still plenty of time to settle in, but the big summer signings didn’t exactly set the world aflame in their debuts, with Elias Lindholm losing two-thirds of his face-offs and Nikita Zadorov taking two minor penalties. Lindholm did have an assist on the Zacha goal, though.
• Max Jones took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for slashing the linesman during an altercation with Evan Rodrigues, which is a good snapshot of how recent Bruins-Panthers interactions have gone.
• It wasn’t a good night for Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo, with the pair allowing chances (and goals) galore. We’re talking off-the-charts bad, so…only way to go is up!
• There were some shenanigans after Bennett accidentally-on-purpose ran Korpisalo, including Frederic mixing it up with Matthew Tkachuk, who showed no interest in fighting. One can’t necessarily blame Tkachuk for being unwilling to fight when up four goals — but it’s also not surprising to learn that he reportedly went about it in a very Matthew Tkachuk way.
• These two teams will renew acquaintances in short order, with the Bruins hosting Florida on Monday.
• In true “burn the tape” fashion, Ty Anderson reports the Bruins won’t practice on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s home opener against Montreal.

If you’re looking for some perspective, perhaps we’ve been a bit spoiled of late:

2018-2019 season? Another run to the Cup Final, confirmed.

See ya Thursday!