Bruins set the tone: Panthers need to be perfect to pull off upset and weren’t in Game 1

On the Florida Panthers’ 16th shot of the first 24 minutes, Givani Smith corralled a rebound behind the net, tried to jam the puck around the right post and was just a beat too slow. Linus Ullmark slid over, covered up the fourth-line left wing’s attempt and let the Boston Bruins reset.

Less than a minute later, the Bruins, on only their 10th shot, beat Alex Lyon for the second time, on a long-range, wide-angle attempt the goaltender knew he should have stopped. The Panthers, as feisty as they were for the first period and change Monday in Boston, fell into a hole they could never overcome in their postseason-opening 3-1 loss despite outshooting the Bruins and getting a mostly spectacular performance from Lyon in net.

It’s just how tough it will be for Florida to upset Boston in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Bruins didn’t just win the Presidents’ Trophy this year. They won more regular-season games than anyone else in NHL history — a season so dominant it made the Panthers’ Presidents’ Trophy-winning campaign last year seem ordinary by comparison.

Still, Florida’s success — both during the 2021-22 NHL season and since March of this year — left the Panthers feeling like they could knock off the No. 1 seed, even as the biggest first-round underdog.

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They knew it would take four near-perfect performances, though, and they were off by just enough in Game 1 to fall into a 1-0 series hole to the Stanley Cup favorite.

Most of the Florida’s 5-on-5 numbers rank among the best in the NHL — it finished the regular season third in shots, third in high-danger chances, fourth in shot attempts, fifth in scoring chances and fifth in goals — and yet the Panthers didn’t clinch a wild card until Tuesday because no one committed more penalties than them and their special teams were mostly middling. The primary point of emphasis all weekend, then, was to stay out of the penalty box and Florida broke its cardinal rule twice in the first five minutes.

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On its second chance, Boston made the Panthers pay. Lyon made one save and knocked the rebound to his, every one of his teammates turned their heads to track the puck and superstar right wing David Pastrnak wound up with an uncontested shot on a wide-open net after Bruins winger Tyler Bertuzzi reversed the puck back to the opposite of the goal.

Florida trailed 1-0 at the end of the first period, despite outshooting Boston, 15-8, and 13-4 at even strength and getting two spectacular saves from Lyon to deny 2-on-1 chances.

On the first, the 30-year-old goalie anticipated a centering pass from versatile Bruins forward Pavel Zacha and slid to his left to stop Bertuzzi’s redirection attempt right on his stick. On the second, Lyon waited until precisely the moment Boston left wing Taylor Hall made his cross, then slid to his right to kick away a one-timer by Bruins forward Trent Frederic.

Lyon, who had started only 31 games in his seven-year NHL career before taking over when star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky got sick last month, made 25 saves on 28 shots and none of the goals he gave up were exactly normal.

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The first was on a power-play. The third, which gave Boston a 3-1 lead late in the second period, happened after the puck landed on his right pad and he couldn’t find it to cover it. Only the second was one he really could have done anything about and it was crippling — right after a barrage of chances for the Panthers, Bruins left wing Brad Marchand caught Lyon a bit too far out of his net and zipped a shot from beyond the faceoff circles over his left leg to give Boston a 2-0 lead with 16:19 left in the second period

It was a rare gaffe for Lyon, who posted a .943 save percentage in the final eight games of the regular season, and the raucous crowd of 17,850 at TD Garden tried to rub it in by slowly chanting his last name, “Lyyyon, Lyyyon!” Florida briefly mustered a response when superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk answered 2:53 later and Lyon was mostly unflappable the rest of the way, but the Bruins were too deep and too stout defensively to blow a two-goal lead in the third period..

It will only get harder from here, too. Boston played this first game without three-time All-Star center Patrice Bergeron, its captain and a five-time Frank J. Selke Trophy winner, and could have him back from his illness for Game 2 on Wednesday.

The Panthers played well enough to win in Game 1 and can win games in this series if they keep playing the way they did Monday. They missed an opportunity, though, and they might not be able to waste any against a team like the Bruins.