Boston Bruins
“We didn’t respect the Stanley Cup champion. And that was it. That was the game.”
Marco Sturm wasn’t thrilled with his team’s efforts on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
April 3, 2026 | 7:17 AM
2 minutes to read
The good news? The 2025-26 Bruins have showcased a knack for elevating their play against some of the top teams in the NHL this season — as evidenced by four-straight victories over the Sabres, Wild, Blue Jackets, and Stars.
The bad news? A Bruins team that has steamrolled some elite competition as of late keeps getting tripped up by cellar-dwelling opponents down the stretch.
Bruins head coach Marco Sturm acknowledged Boston’s propensity for playing down to its competition following Tuesday’s home win against Dallas.
“Everyone was talking about the schedule,” Sturm said of Boston’s arduous final stretch of regular-season games. “The Bruins have the toughest schedule. Yeah, I believe that, too. But what I liked about it is it always seems like we play better when we are playing against better teams.”
Such was the case on March 24 when Boston fell to a woeful Toronto Maple Leafs team, 4-2, at TD Garden.
And on Thursday night, the Bruins once again let two points slip through their grasp against a severely shorthanded Florida Panthers squad — losing 2-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers might be the reigning back-to-back Stanley Cup champions — and a longstanding thorn in Boston’s side over the last few seasons.
But the 2025-26 season hasn’t been kind to Paul Maurice’s team, with several critical injuries forcing a contending Panthers club into a lost season.
Entering Thursday’s game against Boston, the Panthers were situated near the bottom of the Eastern Conference Standings with a 36-35-3 record.
The sting of the injury bug was evident when glancing over Florida’s depth chart on Thursday, with Aleksander Barkov (out all year with a torn ACL), Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues, Uvis Balinskis, Niko Mikkola, Jonah Gadjovich, and Cole Schwindt all ruled out against Boston.
And yet — with two points seemingly served on a silver platter for Boston — Sturm’s club once again stumbled down in Florida.
Speaking to NESN postgame, Sturm did little to mask his frustrations.
Marco Sturm after tonight’s loss to the Panthers
“We saw a lot of guys out, and we didn’t respect the [reigning] Stanley Cup champions.” 😳 pic.twitter.com/xKOuaN0T47
— NESN (@NESN) April 3, 2026
”We didn’t respect our opponent,” Sturm acknowledged. “I think that’s the bottom line. We looked over probably and we saw a lot of guys out, and we didn’t respect the Stanley Cup champion. And that was it. That was the game.
“And then after that, we were chasing. We addressed it before the game, it doesn’t matter who’s in or who’s out for them. You know, they’re champions for a reason, and we didn’t really respect that at all. That’s the frustrating part.”
Boston didn’t offer much of a fight until the final 20 minutes of play on Thursday, giving up a pair of goals just eight minutes into the action before Fraser Minten scored the Bruins’ lone goal of the night at 19:33 in the first.
Minten’s late tally didn’t lead to much in terms of momentum, given that Boston was outshot, 12-5, in the next period of play.
By the time the Bruins woke up in the third and peppered Sergei Bobrovsky with 14 shots on goal, it was too little, too late — as the 37-year-old netminder turned aside all of those attempts to help gut out two points for his team.
Following Thursday’s loss, the Bruins’ playoff odds still sit at 95 percent, per MoneyPuck. Still, it was a sour end to an encouraging stretch of strong play from Sturm’s club — especially with the start of the playoffs now just a few weeks away.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
