Bruins have 'something brewing' after comeback win against rival Panthers

BOSTON -- In a season that has been disappointing for the Boston Bruins, a season that has seen their captain shipped out of town and their Stanley Cup Playoff chances all but left for dead, there haven’t been a lot of these moments at TD Garden, the ones where the noise swells and the fans stand and the anticipation churns in their stomachs.

It was there again on Tuesday, against the opponent that swiped that captain, the opponent that has dashed their playoff hopes in each of the past two seasons, the opponent that has left them bruised, mentally and physically.

It was there as the Bruins came back from a two-goal deficit, scoring three times in the span of 7:47 in the third period to end the Florida Panthers' six-game winning streak, in the process earning their second straight victory against an Atlantic Division foe.

It was a spark in what has been an uncharacteristically dark season.

“It’s just been a lot of ups and downs this year, and I think we’re trying to find this consistency, trying to find this momentum,” defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “There’s a lot of guys who play with their pride and they play with their heart and they try to prove something for either themselves or management or fans or their teammates. We play for something.

“So, that’s what I see. The guys show up. All the guys since Friday have been showing up, ready to work, ready to work their [butts] off and play for the crest. There’s no quit in this team, and we’re going to keep pushing until the end. We’re just trying to build the momentum we haven’t had the whole year. I think you get a couple wins, you start feeling great, you feel confident inside the group. I think that’s a good thing.

“Something's brewing, for sure.”

In the past week, the Bruins shipped out a boatload of talent, sending Brad Marchand to the Panthers, Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Charlie Coyle to the Colorado Avalanche, Trent Frederic to the Edmonton Oilers, and Justin Brazeau to the Minnesota Wild.

Their top two defensemen, Charlie McAvoy (shoulder) and Hampus Lindholm (knee), are out, with Lindholm likely done for the season.

This is not a team that should win a whole lot of games down the stretch.

And yet.

Last Thursday, they lost 3-2 on a freak play in the final seconds to the Carolina Hurricanes. Two days later, they shut out the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 before knocking off the Panthers on Tuesday. It’s as good a run as they have had. An unexpected one, too.

“We’re never going to give up,” defenseman Mason Lohrei said. “We know where we’re at. We’re just going to keep fighting. You saw it tonight.”

Earlier in the day, Panthers coach Paul Maurice, an astute observer, pointed out the situation the Bruins find themselves in, down and out, without the belief that usually attends every season and every game they play.

“They’re in a really interesting situation,” he said. “I watched their game against Tampa. How many years has it been since the Boston Bruins had the pressure come of them? In terms of what the expectation [is]?

“We’re talking about decades where, at the start of every year, they considered themselves a legitimate threat, and they were. ... It’s been a dominant team for a long time. So, there’s a bit of a reset here. But now you’ve got a bunch of guys -- and I never like to say, well, these guys are playing for jobs -- but there’s opportunities now that haven’t been here for a while.”

Maurice added that the game on Tuesday would be difficult, as difficult for the Panthers as it has been in a while.

He was right.

“We understand where we’re at in the standings,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “And we understand what just transpired with our group. We have new players here. It’s an opportunity for these guys. Whatever motivates them, if it’s the underdog role, taking that on, if it’s, 'I have an opportunity here maybe that I did not have before somewhere else.'

“What I’m trying to do and we’re trying to do as a staff is, we want to see us come together as a team as quickly as we can. I think that produces winning hockey.”

For a while, it seemed that wouldn't come on Tuesday, with Boston falling behind 2-0, the second goal seemingly a dagger, coming as it did from Mackie Samoskevich with three seconds remaining on a 5-on-3 power play at 4:49 of the third period. But then, David Pastrnak found himself with room to drift to the net, where he was perfectly placed to receive a centering pass from newly acquired forward Casey Mittelstadt at 8:56.

However, it wasn’t until Lohrei came down the slot, picking up an errant clearing pass from Dmitry Kulikov and scoring past the glove of Sergei Bobrovsky at 13:51, that the cheers overtook what has, this season, been a far more staid crowd at TD Garden.

Maybe this game, they hoped, would be different.

And it was, with Pavel Zacha scoring the game-winning goal for the Bruins, beating Bobrovsky five-hole from the left circle off a backhand pass from Pastrnak at 16:43.

That wasn’t the end, though. It was in the final seconds that Zadorov and Sam Bennett dropped the gloves, a boiling over that was par for the course in a feisty game full of the bad blood these two teams have built up over the past three seasons.

The decibel levels rose.

“I haven’t been that fired up in a long time,” Lohrei said. “That was unbelievable.”

Perhaps it is too late for this team to start putting up wins, to try and get back into a playoff race that they all but conceded with their moves at the deadline. Still, the Bruins are only two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

They have the Ottawa Senators up next, on Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre.

“Just a good, spirited game,” Sacco said. “That’s the type of hockey we want to play, right? We’re not going to quit. We’re going to battle right to the end, and that’s the Bruins, right? That’s what we want to be.”