The Stanley Cup champions picked up where they left off. A few minutes after raising their first banner commemorating the conquest of the silver chalice last spring, the Florida Panthers served a lesson to the Boston Bruins and poor goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, winning Tuesday by a score of 6-4 . The score does not indicate the progress of the game.
Sam Bennett led the charge with two goals in the first period.
Dominating 14-1 in shots on goal after 12 minutes of play, the Panthers led 4-1 after the first period. The Panthers imitated the 1976-77 edition of the Montreal Canadiens who also scored four goals in the first period of the first game of their regular season after lifting the Slanley Cup the previous season.
Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart each scored a goal and had an assist.
Jonah Gadjovich and Eetu Luostarinen were the others to thwart goaltender Korpisalo, who faced 35 shots, who had a difficult evening under the eyes of Jeremy Swayman, bringing him to 66 million for the Bruins.
After missing all of training camp before signing a contract late last week, Jeremy Swayman watched the game from the end of the bench.
Sergei Bobrovsky gave up four times in 28 shots in front of the Panthers cage.
For the Bruins, Charlie McAvoy, Pavel Zacha, who is the tenth player in his team’s history to score shorthanded in an opening game, Justin Brazeau and David Pastrnak at the end of the game provided the response.
During the game, Bruins player Max Jones tried to hit a Panthers player with his stick while play was stopped. Instead, he hit linesman Devin Berg.
Before the game, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov walked around the ice with the Stanley Cup. The Panthers then raised the banner to the ceiling, then posed one last time with the silver bowl before moving on to the new season.
“Now we have to try to win it one more time,” said Barkov, who, with an assist, moved past Mikko Koivu (711) into fifth place in National Hockey League (NHL) history for points by a Finn with 712.
