As comfortable as Spencer Knight appears in his first full season in the NHL, everything still feels new.
Growing up in Connecticut and starring in net at Boston College, Knight had been to TD Garden before and had watched more Bruins games than he could remember.
But standing between the pipes for the Florida Panthers with family and friends scattered throughout the arena as he made his first start against the team he group up watching was a completely different experience.
“It was cool,” Knight said. “It was fun to play in an atmosphere like that. Just eight months ago, seventh months ago, I was watching them on TV in my dorm room at BC.”
With the Panthers trying to keep their perfect record intact, Knight stopped 31 of the 33 shots that came his way, but found himself facing another first.
Knotted at 2 after overtime, Knight took part in his first shootout.
He turned away Jake DeBrusk on the Bruins’ first attempt.
But Charlie Coyle fed Knight fakes until he finally lunged. Coyle’s goal sealed the Bruins’ 3-2 shootout win.
Coyle, who is 12 of 32 on shootout attempts in his career, had a hard time putting his shootout thought process into words.
“To be honest, I don’t really know,” he said. “Sometimes you have some things in mind and sometimes you tell yourself not to do certain things and then you end up doing them, and then sometimes you make the last second move or shot.”
There wasn’t much disappointment on Knight’s face after the loss. Coyle got to Knight twice on the night, putting the Bruins on the board with 42 seconds left in the first period.
But Knight took the intensity of the shootout as another experience in a season that will have plenty, especially the crowd erupting when Coyle scored.
“It was cool, it was fun,” Knight said. “The crowd’s always crazy. You see it. They love the Bruins, right?”
Knight was selected by the Panthers with the 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft. After two seasons at BC, he made the leap to the next level this past March.
He impressed in his first four games last season, going He went 4-0 with a .919 save percentage and a 2.32 goals-against average.
He picked up right where he left off this season (2-0, .923, 2.01) as the Panthers jumped out to to a league-best 8-0-0 start.
Having the streak snapped gives the Panthers a chance to regroup and Knight said he’ll look at the shootout loss and build from it.
“I felt all right,” he said. “I thought I could do better. I think there’s always areas that you can improve. I’m going to go back to the drawing board. There’s a way you look to people watching but also a way you feel and I felt a little off. I felt like I could’ve been better. I’m just going to continue to work.”
With just seven career games under his belt, Knight just scratching the surface.
“I honestly want to work on every area of my game, really,” he said. “I’m 20 years old. I’m not going to say, well, this is my way and that’s right. I’m open to everything and anything. I want to keep on improving and evolving because just because I’m playing at the highest level doesn’t mean I’m there yet. I still think I’m very far away from what I’m going to be and what I could be. So I think I just need to keep working.”
Eventually, Knight said, he’ll look back on his first experience at TD Garden. It might not hit him for a couple weeks, it might not hit him until summer.
For right now, though, he said, “When you’re playing, you’re just playing.”
Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.
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