How Montgomery’s timeout helped the Bruins secure Game 1 victory against the Panthers originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins were under immense pressure from the Florida Panthers to start the third period in Game 1 of the second round playoff series Monday at night.
The Panthers trailed 3-1 and made a tremendous effort to get back into the game. Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm took a bad penalty to put the Panthers on the power play just 1:21 into the period. The Bruins were lucky to escape the penalty with their two-goal lead intact, as the Panthers generated three high-danger scoring chances with the man advantage.
The successful penalty did not give the Bruins any momentum as the Panthers continued to tilt the ice in their favor. Florida recorded 11 (!) shots on net in the first six minutes of the frame.
Sensing his team was not sharp and needed a reset, B’s coach Jim Montgomery used his timeout to halt the Panthers’ advance.
Montgomery was seen giving his players a stern message during halftime. Everything that was said clearly had an impact because the Bruins started to play much better after the timeout. Their passes were crisper, they started winning more puck battles, they got out of the defensive zone more effectively, etc. Florida had an 11-1 shot advantage at that point in the third quarter. The Bruins outscored the Panthers 7-5 and outscored them 2-0 after the timeout.
“(Montgomery) knows the game so well,” Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman said after the game when asked about the timeout, according to the NESN broadcast.
“He knows when to stay on our bench and take a break. He has a great sense of game management. I think after that break, you could tell the momentum was shifting. I had no doubt the guys were going to respond in the right way. Seeing the way they did it, it’s just a testament to the type of group we have, how we can stay in the moment and make sure the next round is our best.”
Rookie forward Justin Brazeau scored his first career playoff goal two minutes into the timeout to put Boston ahead 4-1 with 12:47 remaining. This goal effectively ended the Panthers’ comeback attempt, with the B’s winning 5–1.
The Bruins had a lot of trouble closing out games during the regular season. In fact, they had the sixth-worst winning percentage (.786) when leading after two periods.
Montgomery deserves a lot of credit for realizing that his team was starting to lose focus and for taking steps to resolve the issue immediately. The Panthers looked like they were ready to score a goal or two with the type of energy they played with and the quality of scoring chances they created at that time. And if they had reduced the deficit to one, the last half of the period could have been very different.
Many coaches don’t even use the timeout or save it until late in the game when a team has their goalie pulled for the extra attacker. Montgomery wisely didn’t wait until it was too late, and that decision helped the Bruins finish the game strong with an impressive series-opening win.
