Swayman and a three-goal first bury the Panthers 4-1 in Boston

Bruins 4, Panthers 1. Florida threw 41 shots at Jeremy Swayman and lost by three, because the game was over before most of those shots happened.

The first 20 minutes decided it. Boston scored three times in the opening period, and a back-to-back road team playing without Barkov and Marchand doesn't climb out of that hole against a goalie this locked in. The cats pushed hard for the next 40 minutes, but they never found the goal that would have made it uncomfortable.

How it went

It started with a fight two seconds in, when Brady Tkachuk and Nikita Zadorov dropped the gloves off the opening draw.

Elias Lindholm scored at 4:50, from Casey Mittelstadt and Charlie McAvoy, and Michael Eyssimont made it 2-0 at 6:11 with his first of the season. Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad took minors seven seconds apart, and Morgan Geekie finished the 5-on-3 at 15:59.

Carter Verhaeghe got one back on the power play at 18:05, his 10th of the season, with both Tkachuks assisting. Florida actually outshot Boston 17-11 in the first period and still went to the intermission trailing 3-1.

The second period was a scoreless grind that ended with four misconducts, and JJ Peterka put it away 58 seconds into the third, from David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha. Florida outshot Boston 14-9 in the third and got nothing past Swayman, who finished with 40 saves. Jacob Markstrom stopped 32 of 36.

Three things from Boston:

1. The first eight minutes. Two even-strength goals in 81 seconds, and that was the game. Seth Jones and Niko Mikkola finished minus-3 apiece, and Jones, who played a team-high 25:33, had a difficult afternoon. On the second half of a back-to-back, tired legs usually show up in defensive coverage first.

2. Swayman stole the shot count. Forty saves on 41, including 13 of 14 while Boston was killing penalties. Brady Tkachuk had eight shots on goal by himself. You can live with that process most nights, but this afternoon the process lost to a goalie who was seeing everything.

3. The streaks. Sam Reinhart's six-game point streak ended, by our count, and he played 18:34, down from 24:45 against Washington, on a day Florida spent a lot of time shorthanded. Brady Tkachuk pushed his point streak to four games with the assist on Verhaeghe's goal, per NHL data, and so did Matthew Tkachuk.

Ferda play of the night:

Garnet Hathaway. Boston had just made it 2-0 and the bench needed something, so 21 seconds later Hathaway dropped the gloves with Mark Kastelic. He also led the team with seven hits in 12:56 of ice time. It didn't flip the scoreboard, but it's exactly the shift you want from a veteran in that role, and the room remembers it.

What they said

"I liked our start," Maurice said. "We're down 3-0, but that was probably the best we were playing."

Verhaeghe on the edge in this one: "Our team is definitely not backing down from anyone."

Pabs' read

Maurice liked the start, and the shot clock backs him up. I'm grading the scoreboard, though, and three goals against in 16 minutes is a donation. That's two losses in two days, and without Barkov, Marchand and Sandis Vilmanis the margin for error is thin.

The effort is there: 41 shots on the road with a patched-up lineup and no rest. The Tkachuks were involved in everything, including the penalty box, with 41 penalty minutes between them. Some of that is the job description against Boston, and some of it is a power play the Panthers handed back.

Next game

The cats are in Columbus on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+, Hulu, Disney+). A day off first, and then a start that has to look nothing like this one. Game page.