The Bruins are down 2-1 in the best-of-7 series against the Panthers, and they’ll be playing Game 4 tonight without their captain Brad Marchand.
Sam Bennett is playing his second straight game for Florida after being out with an injury, and he slid in flawlessly in Game 2.
The puck drops at 6:40 pm EST.
As much as the series is only 2-1, this is as close to an elimination game as you’re going to get, and it feels that way. Apart from a sleepy Game 1 from the Panthers, they have dominated almost every minute of the last two games, and it’s hard to visualize anything but a Florida win tonight.
But let’s try.
Depth Scoring the Only Answer for the Bruins
Yes, Jeremy Swayman is an elite goaltender, and they’re going to need him to be perfect tonight. No question. However, the lack of depth scoring has already been a problem, and with Marchand out of the lineup tonight, that is magnified even more.
So far in the playoffs, Marchand has 3 goals and 10 points. DeBrusk and Pastrnak have 8 and 7 points combining for 15. Beyond that, Pavel Zacha has 5 points and 7 other skaters have 4. Plain and simple, they need all four lines to produce tonight. That’s not open for discussion.
The Panthers have scored 3+ goals in every game this post-season, except for Game 1 of this series, and they’ve scored 5+ four times. Swayman is a great goalie, but you can bet on Florida putting up at least 3 tonight.
For the Bruins, they’ve scored 3+ goals only four times this post-season, three of them coming against Toronto where empty net goals were scored in all three. The point is, you’re not beating the Panthers 2-1, so somehow, some way, they have to produce without their captain.
Forecheck Relentless for Florida
The Florida Panthers come in waves, and the waves are long and relentless.
A bright spot for the Bruins in Round 1 was the way they were able to clog up the neutral zone. That has proved to be a non-factor so far in this series. The Panthers cruise into the offensive zone with speed and a physicality that has been unmatched by the Bruins thus far.
The other side of this is that their shots come from all over the ice. Reinhart, Barkov, Tkachuk, and Verhaeghe have all combined for 119 shots on goal, which is important, and proves that they’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
What’s more impressive though, is their D-men’s ability in their opponent’s territory. Florida’s defensemen have combined for 76 shots, with only two of the six not yet registering a goal.
That means that as mean, aggressive, and offensively threatening as their forwards are, they have playmakers on the blue line they can always fall back on.
As much as the “big boys” for the Panthers are getting the job done, the amount of weight that their depth players pull, including their defense, is what is really overwhelming the Bruins, and will continue to do so as the series plays out.
What to Expect in Game 4
After a couple of days of speculation, Jeremy Swayman is getting the nod tonight in goal, and as previously stated, Brad Marchand will miss Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury.
In Game 3, the Bruins managed only 15 shots on goal. That’s not going to get it done against this Panthers team.
The other issue for the Bruins that has yet to be mentioned is the fact that they allowed four powerplay goals on Friday night. The penalties and lack of depth didn’t hurt them in Round 1, but it’s hurting them now. It has to change for this series to go back to Sunrise 2-2.
There are too many adjustments that Boston has to make for me to see them getting the win. Florida is just too good and too consistent, and I don’t see that changing tonight, especially without Marchand on the ice.
