Boston Bruins HC Jim Montgomery defends goalie, calls out D-men after 6-4 loss to Panthers 

By ARJUN B

Modified Oct 09, 2024 04:46 GMT

The Boston Bruins suffered a tough 6-4 loss against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday at Amerant Bank Arena. Despite the final score, head coach Jim Montgomery does not place the blame on goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who allowed six goals on 35 shots.

"Korpisalo was not the problem tonight, it was the people in front of him. You can't give up four backdoor tap-ins and expect your goalie to make save after save. He made a lot of saves on breakways, he was good tonight," Montgomery said postgame.

Montgomery took responsibility as head coach, saying the coaching staff and team as a whole did not play well enough.

He also blamed the defeat on mistakes and a failure to execute properly. The Panthers capitalized on these blunders with Sam Bennett scoring twice along with goals from Sam Reinhart, Jona Gadjovich, Eetu Luostarinen and Evan Rodrigues.

"We weren't good enough in some many areas tonight, and they were... Their execution was really good, our execution was really poor. I can't pinpoint why we looked slow, but we looked slow the entire game, not just the first 10 minutes in my opinion." Montgomery added.

The Bruins got goals from Charlie McAvoy, Pavel Zacha, Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak, but it wasn't enough. Sergei Bobrovsky was strong in net for Florida, making 24 saves.

Fans react to Bruins HC Jim Montgomery coming to Korpisalo's defense

Boston Bruins fans were buzzing after head coach Jim Montgomery defended goaltender Joonas Korpisalo following the 6-4 loss to the Panthers.

Fans were quick to criticize Korpisalo's play on social media:

"Korpisalo looking like an EASHL goalie out there," one fan said on X/Twitter.

"Korpisalo should meet with a goalie coach rather than the media. my god. what an embarrassing first game wearing the B," another said.

Here are some more reactions from fans on X:

"Korpi let in several soft goals tonight on shots.. he was bad so was the defense," one fan said.

"Start with who was in net. Other than that just small tweaks boys and we’re ready for one hell of a season," another fan wrote.

"Coach trying to bail the GM out with his horrible Korpisalo trade," one fan commented.

"Monty said it himself. D was letting Korpisalo get peppered all game. Easy to sit there and think Sway would have stopped every shot, but the fact is they were sloppy," another fan opined.

The Boston Bruins face the Montreal Canadiens next at TD Garden on Thursday.