BOSTON — The Bruins won’t win their Eastern Conference second-round series versus the Florida Panthers if their top-six forwards don’t start scoring goals at a higher rate.
These guys need to be Boston’s best players. And not only is this group failing to perform at a high level through three games, the Panthers’ top-six forwards are starting to fire on all cylinders.
If this trend doesn’t reverse, the Bruins likely will be facing a 3-1 series deficit come Monday morning.
The Bruins lost 6-2 in Friday night’s Game 3 at TD Garden, and for the third time in the series, their top-six forwards weren’t able to generate much offense.
It also was the fifth time in the last six games the Bruins have scored two or fewer goals. They’ve been able to survive this lack of offense primarily because of Jeremy Swayman’s elite goaltending, but it’s unfair to expect him to maintain a .950 save percentage for two rounds.
“We haven’t generated much offense. We have to get better,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said postgame. “I have to give the players a better plan. Florida was significantly better than us. I gotta come up with a better game plan.”
David Pastrnak has scored only one goal in his last six games. It was a pretty important one — the series-clinching tally in overtime of Game 7 in Round 1 — but he needs to be a lot better for the Bruins to have a chance in this series. Pastrnak has zero goals with seven shots in three games versus the Panthers.
Pavel Zacha has not scored a single goal in 19 career playoff games. He registered only one shot and was held without a point in Game 3. His brutal turnover in the defensive zone during the first period led to the Panthers’ opening goal.
Charlie Coyle has scored one goal in 10 playoff games. He tallied zero points and only one shot, while losing 10 of 18 faceoffs in Game 3. Morgan Geekie has been the second-line center of late. He has scored one goal with zero assists in the last four games. He didn’t tally a point in each of the last two matchups versus the Panthers.
