Bruins-Panthers Game 4 takeaways: B’s push Florida to brink of elimination originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins have pushed the Florida Panthers to the brink of elimination.
The Original Six club was once again without its top two centers, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, for Sunday afternoon’s Game 4 at FLA Live Arena. But it didn’t matter, as the Bruins earned an emphatic 6-2 victory. Boston has won back-to-back games in Florida after losing twice in this building during the regular season.
Taylor Hall (twice), Jake DeBrusk (twice), Tyler Bertuzzi and Brad Marchand all scored for the B’s. Linus Ullmark started in net and made 43 saves on 45 shots (.953 save percentage) for his third win of the series.
WATCH: Tkachuk cheap shots Hathaway with cross check after whistle
The Bruins now have a 3-1 series lead and can eliminate the Panthers in Game 5 on Wednesday night at TD Garden. Before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Panthers Game 4.
1) Special teams dominance by B’s
The Bruins scored twice on the power play in Game 4 — once in the first period and again in the second frame.
Brad Marchand opened the scoring for the B’s at 9:45 of the first period by pouncing on a loose puck in the crease. It was Marchand’s third goal of the series after scoring just once during his last 18 regular season games.
The Bruins doubled their advantage early in the second period after Matthew Tkachuk was penalized for cross-checking at the end of the opening 20 minutes. Jake DeBrusk capitalized on a great pass from Dmitry Orlov.
Boston’s power play is now 4-for-13 in the series and it has scored in three of the four games. The Bruins also went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill in Game 4. This unit is 9-for-10 through four games after leading the league with a 87.1 percent success rate in the regular season.
The Bruins should have no problem winning this series if their special teams continue to dominate at this level.
2) Jake DeBrusk providing valuable scoring depth
DeBrusk just completed the best regular season of his Bruins career, and he has carried that success into the first round of the playoffs.
The 26-year-old right wing gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead with a power-play tally in the second period. He put the Bruins up 4-2 with a goal at 8:05 of the third period. DeBrusk crashed the net and won a puck battle in the crease.
It was a huge tally for the B’s because the Panthers had cut the lead to 3-2 with a goal from Sam Bennett just 114 seconds before. Florida had all the momentum until DeBrusk grabbed it back for Boston.
DeBrusk now has five points (three goals, two assists) through four games in this series. His three goals are tied with Marchand and Taylor Hall for the team lead. DeBrusk has tallied five goals and four assists in his last 11 playoff games dating back to Game 1 of last season’s first-round series versus the Carolina Hurricanes.
One of the issues with DeBrusk earlier in his career was consistency, especially offensively. Consistency wasn’t a problem during the 2022-23 regular season, and it definitely hasn’t been a concern in this series so far. DeBrusk has points in three of the four games and he’s also played an important role on a Bruins penalty kill that’s 9-for-10 in the series.
One of the primary reasons why the Panthers are one more loss away from their season ending is the lackluster performance from Barkov in this series.
The Panthers captain and No. 1 center finished the regular season with 78 points (23 goals, 55 assists) in 67 games, but he has made almost no impact offensively against the Bruins. Barkov has zero goals and two assists in the series. One of those assists was a secondary helper on a meaningless goal late in Florida’s Game 3 loss.
The ice was tilted pretty heavily in the Panthers’ favor when Barkov was on the ice at 5-on-5 in the regular season. The Panthers accounted for 56.8 percent of shot attempts and 54.1 percent of all shots on net during Barkov’s 5-on-5 minutes. That trend has been reversed in Round 1. The Bruins have a 58-50 advantage in shot attempts, a 33-20 lead in shots on net and a 3-0 goal differential during Barkov’s 49:52 of 5-on-5 ice time through four games.
The Panthers cannot win this series if Barkov and his line are getting dominated to this degree.
