Morning Skate: Start

Welcome to Tuesday folks!

The first game of what the Bruins hope will be a long playoff run is under our belts, with the B’s taking Game 1, 3-1.

This is true for pretty much any game in any sport, but looking back at last night’s game, I was struck by how many different ways you could interpret the game, depending on your own perspective/bias:

• The Bruins were outplayed for large portions of the game and were lucky to win.
• The Panthers’ only goal was a gift for Matthew Tkachuk, they didn’t bother Linus Ullmark too much otherwise.
• The Bruins didn’t play anywhere close to their best but still won, and without their captain.
• The Panthers’ goals-against were a PPG, a gift, and a fluky loose puck.

The true story of the game is likely a combination of parts of all of the bullets above, but ultimately, it was a win for the Bruins, so we’ll take it.

Among a number of pretty good individual performances, I thought Charlie Coyle, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Pavel Zacha stood out in good ways.

Trent Frederic had an iffy game for me, though it could just be a few fumbles or missed opportunities sticking out in an unfair way.

Overall though, that was very much a playoff-type game between two good teams. Let’s hope there’s more to come.

Today’s discussion topic

Other than hoping that Patrice Bergeron is back, are you making any lineup changes for Game 2?