After taking down the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games, the Boston Bruins have a quick turnaround with their second-round series beginning Monday night in South Florida against the Florida Panthers.
If there is one team that the Bruins know what to expect from, it's the Panthers. Last season, Florida rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to stun the Black and Gold in seven games. Now one year later, Boston is going to get another shot at them and if they are to have a different result this season, they will need more from these five players than what they got in the first round against the Maple Leafs.
Hampus Lindholm
One big reason as to why the Bruins are in the second round is because of Hampus Lindholm and the Game 7 he had Saturday night. There were multiple games in this series where you needed to look hard, well, very hard to notice if he was even playing. There were games where a Lindholm/Brandon Carlo pairing struggled mightily at times.
The one that tied it up 🔨 pic.twitter.com/JVhJKCxGzs
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 5, 2024
However, in Game 7, Lindholm gave the Bruins the answer they needed in the third period with a game-tying goal right after William Nylander gave Toronto a 1-0 lead to force overtime. In the extra session, he placed a perfect dump into the corner for the Maple Leafs' end where David Pastrnak was the benefit of a bounce off the boards and beat Ilya Samsonov on the backhand for the series-winning goal. Boston is going to need a lot more from Lindholm like they got in Game 7 against Florida.