Florida Panthers couldn’t get past Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman and start Round 2 down 1-0
If the Florida Panthers are going to beat the Boston Bruins, priority No. 1 is simple: Find a way to beat their goaltender. Jeremy Swayman almost single-handedly carried the Bruins through their first-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the 25-year-old netminder remained in top form to begin Round 2.
“Make his life uncomfortable,” Panthers top-line center and captain Aleksander Barkov said.
Florida couldn’t do that in its first crack against him.
The Panthers scored just one goal on 39 shots in their 5-1 loss to the Bruins to begin the best-of-7 series on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena. The Panthers had their volume of shots, especially in the final two periods, but even they were quick to admit that they didn’t challenge Swayman enough.
That will need to be fixed quick as they prepare for Game 2 on Wednesday, with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Sunrise.
“We had a lot of shots,” Barkov said, “but he saw so most of them. Obviously, he’s a good goalie. He’s gonna stop them if he sees the puck. We need to work a little more and get in front of him.”
Of Florida’s 39 shots on goal, only nine were classified as high-danger shots, according to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick. Seven of those nine came in the third period, after Florida was already down 3-1.
The only shot that beat Swayman came 11:45 into the second period, on a Matthew Tkachuk wrist shot from the slot to open scoring.
Swayman denied everything else that came his way, including a 16-shot onslaught in the third period.
“We had a couple of good looks,” Tkachuk said, “but against some of the better goalies in the league, you’ve got to get right in front of him. We were off to the side and maybe looking for plays back door, maybe just putting our stick in front of them. You’ve got to stand right in front of them. ... We’ve got to get better at that. That’s probably the number one thing we’ve got to get better at.”
Now, this isn’t a one-off from Swayman. Through seven starts in the playoffs — six against Toronto and Monday against Florida — he has a .955 save percentage and a 1.42 goals against average.
He has not allowed more than two goals in any of those games.
“It’s not ‘if you do it right, you get seven [goals].’ It doesn’t work like that,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He made some really nice saves. We missed some things around the net. I think we have some opportunity to generate more with a different mindset perhaps, but you’re gonna find an elite goalie in all the nets going in every net in all the playoff series.”
The Panthers know a lot needs to go right to get the slightest edge against a top goaltender. They are normally the benefactor of a solid performance in net, with Sergei Bobrovsky and a strong defense more often than not carrying the team this season.
On Monday, after an even game through the first 30 or so minutes, Boston took control, capitalized on its opportunities and ran away with Game 1. With Swayman holding things down in net after giving up the goal to Tkachuk, Boston scored on each of its final three shots in the second period — by Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo — to take a two-goal lead into the second intermission. Justin Brazeau gave Boston a 4-1 lead 7:13 into the third, and Jake DeBrusk capped scoring on an empty-netter with 3:22 left in regulation.
“They played well,” Maurice said of the Bruins. “They looked like they were in a bit of a rhythm. I thought they played a very patient game. Good for them. Not so good for us.”
