Jim Montgomery Shoulders Blame For Bruins’ Game 3 Loss

BOSTON — The Bruins lost 6-2 to the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Friday night at TD Garden.

Boston head coach Jim Montgomery was quick to take responsibility for the loss when he spoke with the media following the game.

“We’ve had a couple of games where we started slow and didn’t generate much offense,” Montgomery explained. “We got to get better. I have to give the players a better plan. Florida was significantly better than us. I gotta come up with a better game plan.”

The Bruins have started to falter on the penalty kill in the last two games against the Panthers. Boston went 2-for-6 shorthanded in the loss. The Black and Gold have given up five power-play goals in Games 2 and 3 to the Cats.

“I don’t think we’re on top of our game,” Montgomery said. “Our execution, to be honest, the last two games, the last two periods of (Game 2) and the first two periods of (Game 3) is just not been good enough. That’s why I say that’s my fault. I gotta be better.”

Montgomery added: “Generally … it’s not good enough. We didn’t play well enough. That’s why I take responsibility.”

Even though the Bruins were whistled for six penalties, including a controversial third-period goaltender interference on Jakub Lauko and a double minor high-stick on Mason Lohrei, and the Panthers only had two penalties the whole game, Montgomery didn’t think the officiating had an outcome on the game.

“We weren’t very good for the first two periods,” Montgomery said. “I can’t really say that we earned any more power plays. I thought in the second period we were coming, and unfortunately, we got the high stick in the stick battle fighting for the puck, and that really changed the game.

“I thought the third period, we started to get juice because our crowd got us into it. I salute our fans for giving us the energy that we needed after that fourth (Florida) goal went in on us.”

The Bruins trail the best-of-seven series 2-1, but Montgomery said it was still too early to know if lineup changes would be made for Game 4.

“We gotta do our due diligence and look at the game again,” he said. “See who is executing and who’s playing with the effort that you guys have asked about.”

Boston will look to even up the series on Sunday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for  6:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on TBS with NESN carrying an hour of pre- and postgame coverage.