5 Takeaways: Turnovers Prove Costly in Panthers Loss to Bruins

SUNRISE, Fla. - Florida Panthers coach Bob Boughner felt most his team's wounds were self-inflicted after finishing with 24 giveaways in a 7-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at BB&T Center.

"We beat ourselves," Boughner said. "Twenty-four turnovers. The first four goals all came off our sticks on turnovers. I wish I could sit here and talk about structure and details and that we didn't do this or didn't do that as a team, but it wasn't that…. Bad turnovers that ended up in the back of our net."
Trailing just 1-0 after the first 20 minutes, the Panthers struggled mightily in the second period, where they were outscored by Boston 5-2. Those five goals were the most that Florida has allowed in a period since surrendering five in the second period of a 6-5 shootout loss to Philadelphia back on Oct. 16.
Jayce Hawryluk and Mike Hoffman each scored for the Panthers (33-30-12) in the middle frame.
"It's tough, especially with a young goalie. We hung him out to dry," Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle said of the second period. "It's something we talk about as a team. You don't want to do that, especially when you're fighting for your lives, fighting for your spots."
In the third period, Vincent Trocheck scored on the power play to cut Boston's lead to 6-3 at 3:57. But at that point it was too little too late. At 19:33, Patrice Bergeron cashed in on the empty net to make it 7-3.
"I think they were pretty self-inflicted," Trocheck said of Florida's mistakes. [The Bruins] do the same thing every night. Like I said, they're obviously a very structured team. They work really hard… It's on all of us to kind of get back and do the right things that we work on every day in practice."
Here are five takeaways from Saturday's loss in Sunrise…

1. JAYCE IN THE PLACE

The Bruins struck early in the second period, but Hawryluk answered.
After forcing a turnover, Hoffman led a 3-on-1 rush into the offensive zone before sliding a backhand pass around a defender to Hawryluk, who finished off the dish with a one-timer from the doorstep that got the Panthers on the board and cut Boston's lead to 2-1 just 52 seconds into the middle frame.

A second-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, Hawryluk has been making a name for himself throughout his rookie campaign for the amount of energy he brings to each and every shift. In addition to posting five goals and four assists in 36 games, the 23-year-old is tied for the team-lead in hits per game (2.3).

2. SNIPE CITY

Hoffman must be getting close to burning out the red light.
Flying up the right side of the ice into the offensive zone, the 29-year-old winger snapped a rocket of a wrist shot past Jaroslav Halak to cut the deficit to 4-2 at 10:04 of the second period. His team-leading and career-best 35th goal of the season, Hoffman currently sits tied for 15th in the league in goals.

Easily one of the best offseason pickups of any NHL team this past summer, Hoffman continues to shine during his first season with the Panthers. In addition to leading the team in goals, he also paces the club and ranks tied for third in the league in power-play goals (17) -- two away from tying a franchise record.
With two points tonight, Hoffman has now tallied 22 points (10 goals, 11 assists) over his last 20 games.

3. TRO'S GOT POWER

Another game, another goal on the power play.
With the Panthers on the man advantage early in the third period, Trocheck took a backhand pass from Aaron Ekblad and cracked a fiery one-timer from the left circle that cruised over Halak's glove and into the net to trim Boston's lead down to 6-3 at 3:57 of the final frame.

Despite having his season cut in half by a 27-game stint on the injured reserve list after fracturing his ankle in mid-November, Trocheck has still managed to notch eight goals and 21 assists for 28 points in 48 games this season. Of his eight goals, three have come with the extra attacker on the ice.
Entering tonight with the second-ranked power play in the NHL, Florida went 1-for-1 against Boston.

4. MR. 900

Yandle suited up in the 900th NHL game of his career tonight.
Of those 900 games, 780 of them have been played consecutively, giving him not only the longest active ironman streak in the league, but also the fifth-longest streak in NHL history. Joining the Panthers in the summer of 2016, he has competed in the 15th-most games by a defenseman in franchise history (239).

An offensive wizard from the blue line, Yandle has already set new single-season franchise records for both points by a defenseman (58) and power-play points (38). With two more points, the Boston, Mass. native can become just the 14th U.S.-born defenseman to ever reach the 60-point plateau in a season.

5. ROAD TRIPPIN'

The Panthers are packing their bags for one last trip.
With the regular-season winding down, the team will kick off its final road trip of the season on Monday in Toronto. After that, they will visit Montreal on Tuesday and Ottawa on Thursday before closing out their four-game trek through the Northeast with a rematch against the Bruins on Saturday in Boston.
Florida will return to Sunrise on April 1 to begin their final homestand of the season against Washington.
"I just don't want us to beat ourselves. I want to play hard," Boughner said when asked what he wants to see from his team over the final weeks of the season. "We've been doing that lately. We've been playing good hockey. Tonight was one of those games where it wasn't a good game against a good team."