Billy Jaffe: Expect The Florida Panthers to be More Physical Against The Bruins
On Wednesday’s edition of Toucher and Hardy, Billy Jaffe who is a Bruins analyst for NESN, joined the show and predicted that the Florida Panthers physicality will drastically increase against the Boston Bruins in their playoff series. The Bruins won the first Game 1 of the series 5-1 on Monday night.
Much More Involved in The Scrums…
Billy Jaffe: Well, the one who really surprised me was Forsling who’s become their best all around defenseman. You didn’t really notice Montour, who’s I think a very dangerous defenseman too when he gets moving, especially through the neutral zone and the o-zone. With all that said for the most part, unless I’m forgetting somebody, their big guys are all back. The best part about game one in my eyes, besides the Bruins responses, they had numerous responses in that game that were really important, not just the goal a 1:07min after Florida’s goal. Obviously huge. But there were other moments, where they responded after the timeout. I know you guys talked about that yesterday. The timeout was a response to the 11 shots that Florida had in the first five minutes of the third, like where the Bruins responded to that and they settled down. So I thought that was great. But you’ve got you’ve got the big guys for Florida, and I cannot imagine tonight that they are not absolutely five times more physical than they were in game one. They being Florida, I look for them to be much more involved in the scrums after the whistle. They’re the team that does more of that crap in the NHL than anybody, and Tkachuk usually leads the way and then slithers out. Bruins, don’t get invested in those scrums? Those will tire you out, and you never know when the officials is going to call one player versus the other for a penalty. But there’s no team better in the league than the Florida Panthers at starting scrums and then jumping away, you know, and getting out of them right there. I think they’re going to be looking to run around and be more physical because they were nowhere near as physical. This is what Paul Maurice wants. He wants this team to be, nasty and hard to play against.
Fred Toucher: Okay, so they were talking about the way that on the broadcast, they play defense and saying that they don’t play zone.
Billy Jaffe: They play like man to man. More of a man to man.
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Latest lineup changes keep engine humming along for Bruins
Pastrnak keeps push coming
May 6, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) shoots against Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) in Game 1 of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports)
Was the Game 7 overtime goal that’ll break the dam for David Pastrnak? Pastrnak and his teammates believed that to potentially be the case, and if Game 1 was any indication of what’s to come, Pastrnak is indeed back to feeling himself with the puck on his stick. Even with the puck off his stick, for that matter.
Coming out of the gate absolutely flying, Pastrnak’s first shift of the night featured two looks on the Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky, a strong defensive effort, and even a solid thump on Florida winger Sam Reinhart.
David Pastrnak with a great defensive play and then plants Sam Reinhart pic.twitter.com/kgvD6thQRt
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) May 7, 2024Pastrnak even jumped into the play and helped create what was Boston’s first goal of the night (scored by Morgan Geekie), and in the immediate aftermath of the Panthers taking the lead. This was a night where you could tell that No. 88 had his A-game, and the Bruins were a noticeably better team for it.
Deployed for 19:03 of time on ice, Pastrnak finished Monday’s win with an assist and four shots on goal, but the Bruins were on the attack each and every time he was out there, with a 12-7 on-ice edge in shots during Pastrnak’s five-on-five play, and with Boston outscoring Florida 2-0 with Pastrnak out there.
An extremely promising sign.
And here’s where things get even more interesting in my opinion: Even if Pastrnak isn’t finding the back of the net, if he can continue to set up his linemates, that’ll mean good things for the Bruins, especially in this series, and especially for Pavel Zacha. Currently playing left wing opposed to center, Zacha entered this series as one of just three NHL players to record at least five points against the Panthers during the regular season (the Devils’ Jesper Bratt and Montreal’s Nick Suzuki were the others), and Zacha’s Game 1 line featured a two-assist performance.
A perfectly-timed timeout from Montgomery
SUNRISE, FL – MAY 6: Head coach Jim Montgomery directs the players during a time out against the Panthers in the third period in Game One of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Amerant Bank Arena. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
Things got a little too dicey for the Bruins in the third period of this win.
Clinging to a two-goal lead, the Bruins were getting absolutely blitzed by a desperate Panther attack. In addition to a Hampus Lindholm holding the stick call early in the third period (a good penalty in the sense that it denied the Panthers of what would’ve been a fantastic scoring opportunity right in Jeremy Swayman’s kitchen), the Bruins found themselves outshot 9-1 and icing the puck a bit too much for Montgomery’s liking.
So, Montgomery decided to call his timeout to settle ’em down.
The response? A Justin Brazeau putaway strike just 1:25 later.
“I just wanted us to relax, be calm, have poise, and execute,” Montgomery said of the decision to call the timeout. “I could tell players were hurried, a little frantic with the puck. We had opportunities to make plays, I saw a couple of icings, so, I just thought we needed the time there to just reset.”
Things are the things that make a difference in a playoff series.
Brazeau is on the board
May 6, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Bruins right wing Justin Brazeau (55) scores against Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) in game one of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports)
And don’t look now, but the Bruins might have something cooking with this third line with Justin Brazeau to the right of James van Riemsdyk and Trent Frederic.
A late-season standout injured on Apr. 2 and thrown back into action in Boston’s Game 5 loss to the Maple Leafs in the first round, the 6-foot-5 Brazeau has looked more comfortable with each passing game, and is now riding a point streak, with his first career playoff goal in Game 1 following what was a game-tying assist in Game 7.
OH MY BRAZEAU
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 7, 2024
4-1 BRUINS 😳 pic.twitter.com/cqBH565CmU“The plays we’re seeing in Game 7 and [Game 1], we were seeing that in the regular season,” Montgomery said of Brazeau. “And that’s why I put him in Game 5, because he needed to get in a rhythm. And we kept playing him because we believe he’s an excellent hockey player that can really help you offensively and defensively. So what you’re noticing there is something that we think is part of him.”
Togther for just under 22 minutes of five-on-five time over four games now, the van Riesmdyk-Frederic-Brazeau line, which checks in at a combined 648 pounds as a line, has out-chanced teams 15-4, outshot them 11-7, and most importantly outscored them 2-0.
