Boston Bruins
“That’s their game. If you’re not ready for it, they’ll probably run you out of the rink. That’s just how you have to play against a team like that.”
The Boston Bruins have historically been a team keen on doling out plenty of welts against opponents.
But over the last several years, few franchises have elicited as much pain from the Bruins as the Florida Panthers.
Once an upstart underdog that transformed into a postseason juggernaut in one fateful spring, the Panthers ripped the final pages out of Boston’s storybook ending in 2023.
A record-setting season and a fitting swan song for Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci ended in the first round after Carter Verhaeghe delivered the dagger in Game 7 at TD Garden.
Florida once again ended Boston’s season the following year, bouncing the Bruins in a six-game, second-round series en route to winning its first Stanley Cup title.
The year after? The Panthers picked over the bones of a listless Bruins roster at the trade deadline — acquiring team captain Brad Marchand for just a conditional second-round pick.
As the Bruins licked their wounds and braced for a potential rebuild that summer, Marchand hoisted the Cup with his new team in June 2025.
Given all that bad blood — coupled with both teams’ pugnacious approach on the ice — Charlie McAvoy expected little pleasantries during Sunday’s matinee meeting on Causeway Street.
“I don’t know if I’ve played those guys in years where it hasn’t been like that,” McAvoy said postgame of a bruising game against Florida. “It’s divisional. They have a championship pedigree over there and that’s their style. That’s how they’ve played. We’ve played them twice in the playoffs when they went on their run.
“That’s their game. If you’re not ready for it, they’ll probably run you out of the rink. That’s just how you have to play against a team like that. There’s nothing new. They’ve been doing it for years. It’s no surprise. It’s what you signed up for when you showed up at the rink today.”
Even with Florida soldiering on for now without both Marchand and captain Aleksander Barkov, Sunday stood as an anticipated measuring stick for Boston as the schedule ramps up and more divisional matchups sit on the docket.
And as evidenced by Nikita Zadorov dropping the gloves off the opening puck drop, the Bruins were more than willing to dictate the terms against the boogeyman looming over the Eastern Conference.
In a game where both teams combined for 126 penalty minutes and seven misconducts, the Bruins set the tone right from the start en route to a 4-1 win.
“I feel like our own mistakes were hurting us against a team like that [in previous games vs. Florida] because they’re real experienced. They can pull you into the fight. At the end of the day, we had each other’s backs today,” Zadorov said. “We settled in. We were smart and then we scored when we could have. We played a real good defensive, 5-on-5 game. We’re a really good team in this league. I know you guys were not betting on us before the season but that’s where we are right now. We’re playing with confidence and it’s great.”
Right off the opening draw, 6-foot-7 Zadorov tried to spark his team by trading a few hooks with 6-foot-4 Brady Tkachuk — eventually dropping the new Panthers power forward to the ice.
“I thought we could get momentum from that. We did,” Zadorov said of the fracas with Tkachuk. “Glad it worked out.”
The Bruins responded in short order after both Zadorov and Tkachuk were ushered to the sin bin.
By the time both returned to the ice, the Bruins were up, 1-0 — with a shot from Elias Lindholm just crossing over the goal line before Jacob Markstrom could glove the skittering puck.
Just 1:21 after Lindholm lit the lamp, Mikey Eyssimont — playing his first game of the year with Boston after opening the year in Providence — jammed another offering past Markstrom down low to double Boston’s lead.
With momentum still on Boston’s side, Mark Kastelic added injury to insult against noted agitator Garnet Hathaway.
In a game where Hathaway landed several hits against David Pastrnak, Kastelic made the Panthers’ scrapper answer the bell for those transgressions against Boston’s superstar forward — popping Hathaway with a salvo of jabs and a heavy uppercut.
Those bouts didn’t lower the temperature of the game, with misconducts and other infractions handed out like candy on Halloween by the officials, Pierre Lambert and Brandon Blandina, to try and ease the hostilities.
Instead, it only seemed to further rankle both teams — with both Brady and Matthew Tkachuk eventually ejected from the game in the third period as the chirps and brouhaha continued.
The Bruins had the last laugh on the scoreboard, with both Morgan Geekie and JJ Peterka also finding the back of the net — while Jeremy Swayman stopped 40 shots down the other end of the ice.
A game in early November may not stand as a telling precursor of what awaits these two Atlantic Division foes in the spring.
But in a season where the 13-4-1 Bruins seem to be well ahead of schedule, pushing back against the schoolyard bully was another welcome sight for Sturm’s squad.
“It was great,” Sturm said of the physicality put on display. “Big Z started off us right away the right way. Kasty to follow, and even [Tanner Jeannot] didn’t get a fight. But I think, especially those three guys, they just kept everything calm. They just let us play the game, and it’s a great feeling.”
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