Marc Bertrand: ‘I have a newfound respect for Jim Montgomery’

The Bruins find themselves down 3-1 in their second round series with the Florida Panthers. Game 4 ended in controversy when a no-call on a cross check forward Sam Bennett allowed for the Panthers to tie up the game in the third period. But our own Marc Bertrand is not allowing for that to be an excuse for the Bruins, and he is commending head coach Jim Montgomery for the way he handled things after the game:

"I think I have a newfound respect for Jim Montgomery, for how he handles his business after that game, because he knows and he watched the game winning goal. He knows that even if that goal is overturned, he doesn't believe his team wins that game last night. And he doesn't think it's about that goal. He's pissed about it. He was pissed on the bench. He gave it to the officials in game. You can't deny him that. He didn't need anyone to prod him to go give it to the refs, because he did. But I think he looks at it and thinks to himself, "we are not going to make this about that call. Our message here is not going to be that it's all about the call", because in his mind, as a coach, he knows he still has to try and win games in this series, that your job down 3-1 is now to try and win three straight, as improbable as that may be. If he gets too caught up in "the the refs hosed us" all of a sudden your focus is not on the things that you need to do better. It's about how you just got screwed and you're feeling sorry for yourself for what the refs did to you in Game 4. And so as a coach, I think he did the right thing last night. He's going to move on from that. He is not going to focus on that. He is not going to point to that as the reason they lost the game. They had a 2-0 lead in this game. And even if they disallow that goal with the way that game was trending. How do you feel about their chances of winning that game last night? They're not scoring enough offensively. It's a little stagnant and he knows it. And that has to be his focus going into the next game. It can't be about the bad call."

It's back-against-the-wall time for the Boston Bruins.

After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, the Bruins surrendered three unanswered goals to the Florida Panthers over the final two periods to drop Game 4 of their best-of-seven playoff series by a 3-2 final. The Panthers now have a 3-1 lead with a chance to eliminate the Bruins in Game 5 on Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

The Bruins got about the best start they could've hoped for in the first period, considering the circumstances. Defenseman Charlie McAvoy set an early physical tone and ignited the TD Garden crowd just 14 seconds into the game with a thunderous open-ice hit on the Panthers' Sam Reinhart:

Florida out-shot Boston 15-5 in the opening period, continuing a series-long trend. But this time, it was the Bruins who actually cashed in. First, David Pastrnak opened the scoring with a rocket of a one-timer from the faceoff circle during a power play:

Later in the period, defenseman Brandon Carlo made it 2-0 by simply putting the puck on net. His wobbly flip from the point found its way through traffic and by Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to double the Bruins' lead:

The Bruins also seemed willing to mix it up physically with the Panthers, who didn't seem as willing to engage. Even Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman got into it with the Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk.

The B's escaped the first period with the lead, despite the shot totals. It wasn't until well into the second period that the Panthers finally found the back of the net, off the stick of Anton Lundell with a quick one-timer from the faceoff circle. The Bruins were able to get out of the second period clinging to the one-goal lead.

Early in the third period, disaster struck for the Bruins, and in the worst possible way. Public enemy No. 1, Sam Bennett, scored the game-tying goal on a Panthers power play. The B's challenged for goaltender interference, and even though Bennett appeared to crosscheck the Bruins' Charlie Coyle into Swayman, the officials ruled that no interference took place, keeping it 2-2 and putting the Bruins on another penalty kill.

The B's were able to kill off the ensuing delay of game penalty, but the Panthers were able to pull ahead anyway. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov carried the puck into the zone himself and split the defense on his way to his fifth goal of the playoffs to give his team the 3-2 advantage.