Florida Panthers begin Stanley Cup title defense with ‘emotional’ win over Boston Bruins
The Florida Panthers lined up together on the ice Tuesday as they watched their Stanley Cup banner rise into the Amerant Bank Arena rafters.
It’s the final memento from their championship season, the last longstanding reminder of what they accomplished.
“It’s an emotional start to the season,” center Sam Bennett said. “Obviously, seeing that banner going up and being shoulder to shoulder with all the guys was a pretty special moment.”
The emotions never left the ice, and the Florida Panthers began their title defense in championship form.
The Panthers used a four-goal first period to take a massive and never looked back in their 6-4 rout of the Boston Bruins at a sold-out Amerant Bank Arena.
“It definitely gave us little juice to start the season off,” said Bennett, who scored two of those four first-period goals. “We came out flying. We were playing right back to our to our style of hockey right away. It was a great start.”
Panthers fans got just about everything they could have wanted on Tuesday.
That final remembrance of last season’s Stanley Cup-winning season, the first in franchise history.
A feisty game against a division rival with whom tensions have risen over the past two years.
And best of all for them: A victory to start their title defense even though the game got a little close for comfort late.
Florida led by as many as four goals in the third period before Boston scored twice in less than 90 seconds to cut the Panthers’ lead to two with 1:45 left in regulation.
“You like to think you know what you’re going to look like the opening game, but you never do, and that’s what keeps you awake the night before the first game,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “And then we looked right and fast and quick. Our gap was good. We skated very well. ... Great buzz in the building.”
Florida received contributions from up and down the lineup. In addition to Bennett’s two goals, Eetu Luostarinen and Sam Reinhart also scored in the opening frame, with Reinhart’s goal coming shorthanded. Jonah Gadjovich added to Florida’s tally in the second period, and Evan Rodrigues capped scoring in the third. Eleven Panthers overall recorded at least one point.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves, giving up a shorthanded goal to Pavel Zacha in the first period and even-strength goals to Charlie McAvoy in the second as well as Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak in the third. This is career win No. 397 for Bobrovsky, putting him three away from becoming the 14th player in NHL history with 400 career wins.
But the entertainment value extended beyond the scoring.
There was a fight less than six minutes into regulation — with Florida’s A.J. Greer (a one-time Bruin) dropping the gloves with Boston’s Mark Kastelic — and multiple near-skirmishes and scrums throughout the game.
It hit a crescendo with 13:34 left in regulation following Rodrigues’ goal when all 10 skaters were involved in a lengthy scrum behind the Bruins’ net after Mason Lohrei hit Bennett, which sent the Florida center flying into Boston goalie Joonas Korpisalo.
“There’s a bit of a rivalry there,” Rodrigues said, “and it’s continuously growing.”
It should come as no surprise that this game got chippy early and stayed that way. Bad blood has quickly formed between these teams over the past two postseasons.
Florida in 2023 erased a 3-1 deficit to knock out a Boston team that set the NHL record for most regular-season points in NHL history in the opening round of the playoffs on its way to a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Final.
And then last year, the Panthers beat the Bruins in six games in the second round of the playoffs on their way to winning the Stanley Cup.
“It’s a wonderful part of our game — that competitive nature with multiple organizations,” Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito said pregame Tuesday. “It’s fun. That’s what we’re about. We’re in the entertainment business, and it’s fun, and from a hockey standpoint, it’s competitive and it’s hard.”
Well, the Panthers made things look easy early. Bennett and Luostarinen scored 64 seconds apart to give Florida a 2-0 lead 7:31 into regulation and kept adding on from there.
Bennett’s first goal came when he cleaned up a rebound on an Rodrigues shot from the right point and poked the puck past Korpisalo. Luostarinen followed by cleaning up Anton Lundell’s shot from the right circle into traffic at the net.
After the Bruins and Panthers exchanged shorthanded goals — Zacha scoring with 4:27 left in the first period, Reinhart scoring with 1:26 left in the frame — Bennett capped scoring in the period with 26 seconds to go. It marked just the third time in Bennett’s career that he has scored multiple goals in the first period of a game when he scored on another rebound generated by a Greer shot attempt.
Gadjovich, who signed a two-year extension with the Panthers in March, scored his first goal of the season on a feed from Jesper Boqvist 9:12 into the second period.
Rodrigues capped Florida’s scoring with a wrist shot from the slot with 13:34 left in regulation before the final fracas unfolded.
This and that
▪ Panthers defenseman Adam Boqvist exited the game in the first period after taking a puck to the face on a clearing attempt during a power play. He did not return.
▪ With his assist on Reinhart’s shorthanded goal, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov became the third player in NHL history to record an assist in at least 10 consecutive home openers. The others: Jaromir Jagr (10 games) and Wayne Gretzky (13 games).
This story was originally published October 8, 2024 at 10:13 PM.
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