BOSTON – Here are five thoughts from the first period with the Bruins leading the Florida Panthers by a 1-0 score after the first 20 minutes of play at TD Garden.
1) Great, hard-working shift for Loui Eriksson who engaged in all the right battles and showed great patience when the puck came back to him as he cut across the front of the net. Eriksson waited for Roberto Luongo to make his move flopping in the crease, and then patiently flipped a backhand over the Florida goalie’s glove hand for the goal. It was Eriksson’s 20th goal of the season, and gives the Bruins their third 20-goal scorer of the season after Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
2) Reilly Smith had an active two shots on net, but missed on his own backhanded chance when Loui Eriksson found him with a perfect lead pass earlier in the period. He might have broken the drought, but Smith still isn’t operating at full efficiency in the finish department.
3) A series of sloppy turnovers by the Bruins in the opening 20 minutes. Zdeno Chara, Matt Bartkowski and Gregory Campbell all had bad giveaways in the defensive zone, but Tuukka Rask was up to the task making seven saves. Bartkowski, in particular, has had a pretty rough opening 20 minutes, and looks like he’s in a bit of a performance lull right now.
4) Brandon Pirri has 20 goals and 2 assists for the season. That is the weirdest stat line I’ve seen in a long time, and makes you wonder if he doesn’t enjoy passing the puck.
5) Decent opening 20 minutes for the Bruins where they lead 1-0, but I didn’t sense a lot of crazy desperation from either team in the first period. The Bruins were breezing through the Panthers didn’t look like this game is make-or-break for their season. I expect the dial to get turned up a few notches in the remaining 40 minutes.