Boston Bruins
“We did not respect the Stanley Cup champion. And that was it. That was the sport.”
The excellent news? The 2025-26 Bruins have showcased a knack for elevating their play towards a number of the prime groups within the NHL this season — as evidenced by four-straight victories over the Sabres, Wild, Blue Jackets, and Stars.
The unhealthy information? A Bruins workforce that has steamrolled some elite competitors as of late retains getting tripped up by cellar-dwelling opponents down the stretch.
Bruins head coach Marco Sturm acknowledged Boston’s propensity for taking part in all the way down to its competitors following Tuesday’s home win against Dallas.
“Everybody was speaking concerning the schedule,” Sturm stated of Boston’s arduous last stretch of regular-season video games. “The Bruins have the hardest schedule. Yeah, I consider that, too. However what I appreciated about it’s it at all times looks like we play higher after we are taking part in towards higher groups.”
Such was the case on March 24 when Boston fell to a woeful Toronto Maple Leafs workforce, 4-2, at TD Backyard.
And on Thursday evening, the Bruins as soon as once more let two factors slip by means of their grasp towards a severely shorthanded Florida Panthers squad — dropping 2-1 at Amerant Financial institution Area.
The Panthers is likely to be the reigning back-to-back Stanley Cup champions — and a longstanding thorn in Boston’s facet over the previous couple of seasons.
However the 2025-26 season hasn’t been type to Paul Maurice’s workforce, with a number of vital accidents forcing a contending Panthers membership right into a misplaced season.
Getting into Thursday’s recreation towards Boston, the Panthers had been located close to the underside of the Japanese Convention Standings with a 36-35-3 report.
The sting of the damage bug was evident when glancing over Florida’s depth chart on Thursday, with Aleksander Barkov (out all yr with a torn ACL), Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues, Uvis Balinskis, Niko Mikkola, Jonah Gadjovich, and Cole Schwindt all dominated out towards Boston.
And but — with two factors seemingly served on a silver platter for Boston — Sturm’s membership as soon as once more stumbled down in Florida.
Talking to NESN postgame, Sturm did little to masks his frustrations.
”We didn’t respect our opponent,” Sturm acknowledged. “I believe that’s the underside line. We seemed over in all probability and we noticed a whole lot of guys out, and we didn’t respect the Stanley Cup champion. And that was it. That was the sport.
“After which after that, we had been chasing. We addressed it earlier than the sport, it doesn’t matter who’s in or who’s out for them. You realize, they’re champions for a purpose, and we didn’t actually respect that in any respect. That’s the irritating half.”
Boston didn’t provide a lot of a combat till the ultimate 20 minutes of play on Thursday, giving up a pair of objectives simply eight minutes into the motion earlier than Fraser Minten scored the Bruins’ lone purpose of the evening at 19:33 within the first.
Minten’s late tally didn’t result in a lot when it comes to momentum, provided that Boston was outshot, 12-5, within the subsequent interval of play.
By the point the Bruins wakened within the third and peppered Sergei Bobrovsky with 14 pictures on purpose, it was too little, too late — because the 37-year-old netminder turned apart all of these makes an attempt to assist intestine out two factors for his workforce.
Following Thursday’s loss, the Bruins’ playoff odds nonetheless sit at 95 p.c, per MoneyPuck. Nonetheless, it was a bitter finish to an encouraging stretch of robust play from Sturm’s membership — particularly with the beginning of the playoffs now just some weeks away.
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