Jim Montgomery Defends Joonas Korpisalo After Ugly Bruins Loss

The Boston Bruins lost an ugly, lopsided decision to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to begin the 2024-25 campaign.

With Jeremy Swayman not ready for game action yet, Joonas Korpisalo was given the nod to start in net for Boston. In his Bruins debut, Korpisalo stopped 29 of 35 shots, but head coach Jim Montgomery defended his goalie when speaking with the media.

“Korpisalo was not the problem tonight, it was the people in front of him,” Montgomery told reporters in Florida. “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 breakaways. He was good tonight.”

Montgomery continued: “The players in front of him, the rest of the team and the coaching staff, we weren’t good enough.”

The Bruins found themselves chasing the score from the get-go after the Panthers took a 2-0 lead before Boston registered more than one shot. However, Korpisalo wasn’t particularly pleased with his performance.

“I mean, the game was 4-1 after the first, so I’m not too happy with that,” he told reporters. “A couple of good bounces, four goals in one period, it doesn’t matter how many shots you got there; it’s pretty tough to climb back (in) there.”

Along with trying to stop the puck, Korpisalo found himself on the losing end of Sam Bennett’s hit when the Florida forward crashed into him after Evan Rodrigues tallied the Panthers’ sixth goal.

“I was just trying to focus on the puck,” Korpisalo said. “I didn’t really see what happened, and I don’t think anyone wants to run over the goalie on purpose, so I don’t know what happened.”