Oftentimes, the fun of a night that begins with the raising of a Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters ends right then and there. But if Tuesday night was supposed to come with a post-ceremony letdown for the fans at Amerant Bank Arena, the Panthers did not get that memo.

Instead, the Panthers picked up right where they left off a year ago, as they outworked the Bruins early and often, blitzed them with their signature snarl, and made a 6-4 victory look downright easy.

Florida’s attack was as fast and furious as ever, too, with four goals dropped on the Bruins’ Joonas Korpisalo in the opening 20 minutes of action, and with a 12 of the game’s first 13 shots credited to the relentless Panther attack.

And by the night’s end, the Panthers had six goals on the board, with five different players credited with a goal, and 11 of their 18 skaters credited with at least one point in the victory.

If we’re looking at the Bruins’ decision to start Joonas Korpisalo in this game, I do think they made the right call. From a team point of view, it would’ve been a bit weird to outright say that Jeremy Swayman would not have enough practice time to be truly ready, laud Korpisalo for his professionalism and strides he made in camp (something Swayman did not participate in due to his contract stalemate), and then go back on that after one practice. The Bruins acknowledged it as a possibility on Monday, sure, but it never seemed like the right move.

But with hindsight being hindsight, it did not play out that way for the Black and Gold, with the 30-year-old Korpisalo tagged for six goals on 35 shots in what was his Bruins debut.

The first Bruins goaltender to make his first start as a Bruin on Opening Night since Manny Fernandez in 2007, Korpisalo was absolutely shelled out of the gate (the Panthers had 17 shots on 30 shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes of play), and surrendered four goals in his first frame as a Bruin. And it truly was a mixed bag.

Given the shot volume, as well as some of the misplays in front of him, I’m not sure anybody would’ve fared all that much better. But some of Korpisalo’s Ottawa struggles came to the table in this contest. His rebound control was suspect out of the gate, and he had multiple instances of outright losing sight of the puck, with two of those ending with the puck in the B’s net. There was also the shorthanded goal that Korpisalo surrendered, which came at a point where the Bruins desperately needed a save to build some momentum their way and stop the bleeding.

And this is going to be the biggest challenge for the Bruins going from Linus Ullmark to Korpisalo, really.

Yes, the Bruins have an absolute wizard of a goaltending coach with Bob Essensa. But the Bruins have relied on their goaltending to make insane save after insane save for the last two years. Possession battles have frequently gone to the opposition, and it’s been the biggest thing I’ve brought up when people have said, “Oh, well he’ll be great in Boston because the Bruins are the Bruins and the Senators are the Senators.” If you looked at those two teams a year ago, they surrendered chances at comparable rates, but the biggest difference was the Bruins’ goaltenders made saves they had no business making while the Sens’ goaltending tandem crumbled. Even if you went back and looked at Korpisalo’s brief-but-successful tenure with the Kings, you’d notice that the Kings were one of the best teams in all of hockey when it came to limiting chances and shots against.

The Bruins were not that team on Tuesday night, and if they’re not that team moving forward, this might be a harsh reality check at the ‘G2’ spot in the sense that not every goalie can be a high-danger killer.

Everything else

– Another element of this game that felt like a repeat of last year came with the Panthers’ ability to worm their way into the B’s heads and force them to take some downright bad penalties.

The Bruins were clearly interested in getting some frontier justice on Matthew Tkachuk — be it for last year’s scrap with David Pastrnak or just his general vibe as a downright annoying player to play against — but it was clear that Tkachuk had no interest. That lack of interest led to penalties against for both Trent Frederic and Nikita Zadorov. And, listen, it’s going to piss all of Boston off, but that’s going to remain the case, too. Tkachuk is not going to fight anybody unless it’s the perfect opportunity to pick his spot like with Pastrnak a year ago.

The Bruins committing themselves to trying to make him answer for anything is going to get them nowhere.

– Pavel Zacha opening the scoring for the Bruins this season is one of those things that feels sneaky important to this year’s club. Zacha has been a pretty streaky scorer for the Bruins throughout his Boston tenure, and the Bruins are going to need him to be their third-best scoring threat up front behind David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. Oh, and he has an absolute cannon of a shot and needs to use it more, so there’s also that.

– Given the puck-dominating nature of the Panthers, as well as the overall effectiveness of their team defense, perhaps this night is not the best night to judge the B’s offensive attack. But if we’re gong to, this feels like a middle six that desperately needs the speed and craftiness of a player like Matt Poitras (day-to-day) in action, be it at center or on the wing, to help spark a forward group full of lumbering, heavy hitters.

Join the Discussion: » 11 Comments » Post New Comment

» Bruins fire Jim Montgomery

» Bruins hit with significant blow on backend

» 5 thoughts on 5 Bruins as frustration mounts

» Bruins shutout for 2nd time this season

» B's slide hits three; Marchand, Montgomery address 'The Shove'