in a 2-1 win<\/a>.<\/p>\nBobrovsky was great, making 15 of his 28 saves in the third period.<\/p>\n
He was not alone in playing like the Panthers y\u2019all have come to know and love.<\/p>\n
The Panthers came to play.<\/p>\n
Boston came hard late, but Bobrovsky and the rest of the Panthers did not let the Bruins get any closer in a defensive clinic.<\/p>\n
This was despite having three d-men who will end their seasons in the AHL playoffs with the Charlotte Checkers.<\/p>\n
Seth Jones, Gus Forsling, and Donovan Sebrango all eclipsed 20 minutes of playing time in an effort that was, in a word, outstanding. Mike Benning, Toby Bjornfot, and Mikulas Hovorka also played well in fewer minutes on the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t respect our opponent tonight,\u2019\u2019 said Sturm, who is in his first season behind the Boston bench. Coincidentally, he ended his playing career with the Panthers in 2012 and wore No. 16 for Florida before Barkov took it in 2013 and became the last Panthers player who will ever wear it before it heads to the rafters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a lot of guys out, and we didn\u2019t do our job. Shame on us today. It was a big push in the third, but it was a little bit too late. With a team like that, I don\u2019t care who is out, they are a good structure team and played hard. We weren\u2019t willing to do it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
When told of Sturm\u2019s remarks, Paul Maurice sounded like he understood. <\/p>\n
After all of these years in the NHL, he certainly does. Maurice\u2019s teams have been in both situations many times over the years.<\/p>\n
Boston\u2019s self-inflicted predicament Thursday, however, was not his problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are used to seeing some certain names when you play the Florida Panthers,\u2019\u2019 said Maurice, whose team went 3-0 against the Bruins this season. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple good seasons here. So, we got 11 players out when they\u2019re coming to the rink. And that didn\u2019t look like a Panthers-Bruins game. There was one minor [penalty] through two periods. That has nothing to do with how we play each other.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe can\u2019t be responsible for how other teams perceive us. Our guys played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yeah they did.<\/p>\n
The Panthers have avoided elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs with wins over Ottawa and Boston on this brief two-game homestand. <\/p>\n
Florida remains the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions until the math says they are not.<\/p>\n
It looked like the Panthers take pride in that to the point where they did not want the numbers to go against them on home ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came out right the last two games,\u201d Maurice continued. \u201cThey were ready to play, excited to play. The bench was energetic. They are not just going through the motions. They played hard and deserved to win the game especially when you look at the adversity we have had coming into it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Up 2-0, Boston scored late in the first period and it looked like the Panthers had a fight on their hands. <\/p>\n
And they did.<\/p>\n
Only the Panthers completely sold out as if this was a playoff game, holding strong to get the win.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Panthers, do not kid yourselves, will be knocked out of the playoffs soon enough. <\/p>\n
It may even come before they hit the ice Saturday evening in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
But they continue to fight, scratch, and claw.<\/p>\n
Those who showed up the past two games wearing Panthers colors were certainly entertained.<\/p>\n
Both the Bruins and Senators threw everything they had at the Panthers in the third period the past two games, only for Florida to send it right back. <\/p>\n
Tuesday, the Panthers killed off a long penalty to keep the score where it was; Thursday, they did the same.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s penalty kill is ranked fourth-best in the NHL despite all of the injuries and mass substitutions. <\/p>\n
Some of their best killers (not just Barkov, but Anton Lundell, Sam Reinhart, and Aaron Ekblad) are on the IR.<\/p>\n
Does not seem to matter much.<\/p>\n
Sturm and Ottawa coach Travis Green left Sunrise unhappy the past couple of nights.<\/p>\n
Their teams are, more than likely \u2014 Boston is in, we\u2019ll see about Ottawa \u2014 headed to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Panthers are not. <\/p>\n
But they are certainly showing a lot of heart when counted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good game, very fun. Winning is fun and it is great to be with the guys,\u201d Bobrovsky said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had lots of young faces but they stepped up and did a great job. \u2026 [Boston is] a good team, you know they\u2019re not going to go away. It was going to be a fight. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou just try to savor the moment, enjoy the moment.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Do the Panthers have anything to play for at this point?<\/p>\n
Not really. <\/p>\n
But pride is a dangerous thing.<\/p>\n
Just ask the Bruins.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
ON DECK: GAME No. 76<\/p>\n
FLORIDA PANTHERS at PITTSBURGH PENGUINS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNRISE \u2014 Boston Bruins coach Marco Sturm said his team did not \u201crespect\u2019\u2019 the Florida Panthers enough coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,57,5,6164,4,804,11],"class_list":{"0":"post-538494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruins","12":"tag-florida-panthers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-marco-sturm","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-paul-maurice","17":"tag-sergei-bobrovsky"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116341120907123455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}