The Boston Bruins entered Thursday night's game in Florida against the Panthers in search of their fifth straight win. Despite the winning streak, Boston has barely made up ground on anyone in the Atlantic Division. The Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Montreal Canadiens have each been playing well.
Entering Friday's game, the Bruins were 43-24-8, with 94 points. That was six points back of Buffalo, four back of Tampa, and two behind Montreal.
The Panthers appeared to be ripe for the taking. They have fallen to seventh in the division and are near the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff standings. They were also without several stars due to injury. Yet, the Bruins were handed a 2-1 defeat on the road.
After the loss, Boston forward Marco Sturm dropped a stunning admission about the team's preparation.
“We didn’t respect our opponent. That’s the bottom line. We saw a lot of guys out [with injuries], and we didn’t respect the [reigning] Stanley Cup champions. That was it…that was the game,” said Sturm, per Bruins writer Joe Haggerty.
It is not often you hear athletes admit they overlooked an opponent. That's particularly true when that opponent is the defending champions. But everyone knows it happens in sports. Duke basketball nearly fell victim to Siena in the NCAA Tournament. Now you can add the Bruins to that list.
Florida was playing without two of the team's three top scorers: Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand.
The Bruins came out flat, falling behind 2-0 less than eight minutes into the game. Fraser Minten cut the deficit in half before the first period ended. But Sergei Bobrovsky made the one-goal lead stand up, turning aside 28 of 29 Boston shots.
The Canadiens and Lightning both won on Friday. The Bruins still hold a six-point lead for a wild-card spot. But if they put forth another effort as they did on Friday, that can disappear.
