Bruins Found Formula for Florida?
Bruins fans are painfully aware the regular season doesn't matter, but two meaningless games with eerie similarities really did.
Twice in two years the Bruins have come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against the Florida Panthers.
Both times the game was at TD Garden. Both times Pavel Zacha scored the winner and both times the game really meant something to fans of the Black and Gold.
Last year the 7-0-1 Bruins played the Panthers for the first time since blowing a 3-1 series lead in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That series ended the greatest regular season ever and was the last time we saw our beloved captain Patrice Bergeron on the ice in a Bruins sweater. It still hurts.
I distinctly remember the team saying that game mattered more than the first eight games because of what had happened in May. I also distinctly remember thinking they were full of crap because the Panthers held a very comfortable 2-0 lead after the first period.
Happily, I was wrong.
Newly appointed captain, Brad Marchand (more on him later) scored in the second. The aforementioned Zacha tied the game in the third and then beautifully sniped the winner in OT. 3-2 Bruins.
I screamed, Jack Edwards screamed, TD Garden ROARED.
Yes it was just a regular season game but we had to win it. It just mattered more.
The Panthers would end our season again in the playoffs. Again at TD Garden in a game Zacha scored his first ever playoff goal to give us a 1-0 lead. (Zacha sure does love those Panthers). And they went on to win Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Bleak times in Boston.
Which brings us to this regular season game in March that suddenly meant more.
Friday March 8 2025 was trade deadline day in the National Hockey League. Friday March 8 2025 was also the day the Boston Bruins traded Brad Marchand, whom, as I mentioned earlier, we have more on.
At the time of writing Marchand has only ever played for the Bruins. 1090 games, 976 points (422 goals and 554 assists), 1113 penalty minutes, 36 short handed goals, eighth all time in NHL history and 21 overtime goals, third all time in NHL history.
He won the 2011 Stanley Cup with Boston, scoring two goals in game seven against the Vancouver Canucks. He was named the 27th captain of the franchise in its 100th season. Brad Marchand was a Boston Bruin
Every commentator says the same thing about Brad Marchand. “You loved him if he’s playing for your team and you hate him if he is playing against your team.”
For the first time the latter will apply to Bruins fans.
For many Bruins fans trading Marchand was bad enough, trading him to the Florida Panthers was unacceptable.
This is particularly cruel when you consider the ending of Game 5 of the 2023 series against Florida. I’m sorry to do this but I must.
With 7.7 seconds left in a tie game, the Panthers have a o-zone draw. They win the face-off but Marchand steals the puck and has a clean breakaway against Sergei Bobrovsky. Remember, the Bruins are up 3-1 in the series.
I have no doubt in my mind if he scores this goal, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round (in Game 7 no doubt) and the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.
I’m not going to flippantly give them a cup (Vegas was a WAGON that year) but maybe they win it and Marchand now has two cups as a Bruin.
He shoots with one second left on the clock. It is the 43rd shot the Bruins have taken in this game. It smashes into Bobrovsky’s right pad with 0.9 seconds left. That’s how close the Bruins were to winning the series. Instead the Panthers win in OT, win a back and forth Game 6 then tie Game 7 with less than a minute left and win in OT.
So to recap the Florida Panthers twice ended our season in our own barn and then we traded our captain to them for a rather meagre return.
Yeah, this game meant more.
But it felt like every game against those damn Panthers since Game 4 in 2023.
Of course they took the lead on a bomb from the blue line. Of course they doubled it on a 5 on 3 when the only player sent to the box after a scrum was a Bruin. Of course half the penalties called against the Panthers were mandatory (delay of game).
Of course our commentator was pointing out how Panthers were doing dirty things and the referees were not calling anything (the ghost of Jack Edward lives in Judd Sirott and we are so back). Of course the third most penalized team in the league turns into innocent choir boys when they play the Bruins.
However this also felt like many a Bruins game this season. Any chance of a goal lads? Most teams are happy when they get a powerplay with a chance to half the deficit in the third. Most teams do not have the 2024/25 Bruins powerplay.
Down 2-0 with an upcoming powerplay and 11 minutes and 38 seconds to go in the third, I didn’t think they were going to score. Neither did you, don’t lie to me. Even if they did they certainly weren’t coming back.
Sometimes being wrong is just the best.
2-1, David Pastrnak. We do not deserve him. Five minutes later Mason Lohrei, the boy is an absolute stud, ties it 2-2. And then, because obviously, it had to be, it was always going to be, with just over three minutes to go PAVEL ZACHA GIVES THE BRUINS THE LEAD.
I screamed, Judd Sirott screamed, TD Garden ROARED.
Nothing else really happened after that. Florida started a scrum and to no one’s surprise the refs gave matching penalties, again Florida has to kill someone to get a call against.
Oh and at the very end Nikita Zadorov, who has had a torrid season, CLOBBERED Sam Bennett in a fight Bruins fans have been wanting since Bennett sucker punched Marchand in the face in the playoffs.
I was genuinely afraid for the roof at TD Garden. What a cacophony of noise.
So yes, this absolutely meaningless game between a bad team, I’ve been saying for weeks will miss the playoffs, and the defending cup champions was actually very important (because we won).
And the Bruins clearly now have a formula for these important meaningless games against the Panthers.
Play the game at home. Go down 2-0. And get the puck to Pavel Zacha in the third period.
Oh, and lose your beloved captain.
Bruins 3 Panthers 2 Go Bs.