Montgomery calls out Bruins' 'catastrophic' mistakes in Game 2 loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Florida Panthers deserve credit for beating the Boston Bruins in a decisive 6-3 victory Wednesday night. But make no mistake: The Bruins also beat themselves.
Boston committed a whopping 15 turnovers in an ugly Game 2 performance that allowed Florida to tie the first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series at 1-1. Several of those turnovers came in the Bruins' own end and directly led to Panthers goals.
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B's head coach Jim Montgomery didn't sugarcoat his team's puck mismanagement after the game.
"Players didn't make the best decisions at moments," Montgomery told reporters. "I thought for the majority for the first two periods, we were doing really good things with the puck, but the turnovers we had tonight were catastrophic. Right through the middle of the ice. Not typical of the turnovers [we have]."
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The Bruins were particularly sloppy in the third period, where Florida poured in four goals -- including the back-breaker from Carter Verhaeghe off a brutal Charlie McAvoy giveaway that gave the Panthers a 4-2 lead.
Despite boasting the NHL's best defense by a wide margin, Boston wasn't particularly firm with the puck this season, committing the 12th-most turnovers in the league. Wednesday night's effort was still uncharacteristic by their standards, though, and opened the door for an opportunistic Panthers team to even the series.
"I think it was just trying to make plays when plays weren't there to be made," Montgomery added. "It was just execution in certain areas of our game with the puck that really cost us tonight."
The Bruins were playing without their best defensive forward, Patrice Bergeron, so if he's able to return for Friday's Game 3 in Florida, that should help their cause. Montgomery also said he's considering changes "everywhere" in the lineup after Wednesday's display.
It's too early to panic in a seven-game series, but Boston needs to be far more disciplined if it wants to advance to the second round.
