B's Save What Otherwise Was A Rough 24 Hours for Boston Sports Fans With a 3-2 Win vs. Buffalo

The Celtics (22-8) getting waxed 113-97 last night at TD Garden by the Raptors (22-11)-only their second home loss this season and revenge for their beating in Toronto on Christmas-was one thing but seeing the Patriots (12-4) crap themselves this afternoon at Gillette Stadium and falling 27-24 to the hapless Dolphins (5-11) thereby throwing away a bye and the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs was downright shocking. Nobody nationally will ever feel bad for Boston sports fans with the unmatched run of success that all of our teams have had in the past few decades but at least locally, we needed a win. Thankfully, the Bruins (24-7-9) were happy to oblige with one of their favorite longtime punching bags-the Sabres (17-16-7)-in town. It was harder than it had to be but Boston held on for a 3-2 win, their third in a row overall and second in three days vs. Buffalo.

The Bruins improved to 3-0 vs. the Sabres this season with sadly only one more meeting left: March 13 in Buffalo. Additionally, the B's built their Atlantic Division lead back to double-digit points, in this case 10 points ahead of second-place Toronto (21-14-5) just one game away from exactly halfway through the regular season. Boston coasted to a 3-0 victory in Buffalo on Friday thanks to the 50th career NHL shutout of Jaroslav Halak's (9-3-4) career. This evening, Tuukka Rask (15-4-5, 24 saves) got the start and while he wasn't as sharp as Halak had been, he still managed to outduel Linus Ullmark (11-10-3, 19 saves) who oddly enough played in both games while backup goaltender Carter Hutton rotted on the bench.

It was a strange game for the B's who are now 14-1-8 at the Garden. They were outshot 7-2 in the first period yet led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes of action. David Pastrnak staked his team to a 1-0 advantage with his NHL-best 29th goal of the season at 12:39. Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron had the assists as Bergy started the play by winning a puck battle along the boards and pushing the disc ahead to Marchand who skated in with Pasta on a 2-on-1. Pastrnak roofed a beautiful wrist shot past the diving Ullmark. Victor Olofsson hit the crossbar for Buffalo in the first period, a theme for the Sabres as Curtis Lazar also rang a shot off the crossbar late in regulation.

Buffalo got a lucky bounce to tie it at one at 6:37 of the second period. Rask stopped Rasmus Ristolainen's initial shot but Zdeno Chara ended up putting the puck in his own net as he hit it off the back of Rask's skate. Sam Reinhart and former Bruins playoff hero Marcus Johansson had the assists on Ristolainen's fourth goal of the season. Jake DeBrusk was benched in the first period by Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy for lack of hustle (failing to attempt to block a shot) but he responded with a pair of power play goals that were ultimately the difference in the final outcome of the contest. Torey Krug is on IR with an upper-body injury and Charlie McAvoy has also missed the last two games with what I suspect is a concussion so Steven Kampfer has received some rare consistent playing time in the NHL. Credit to him for making the most of it with his first two-point performance in almost nine years (he had a goal and assist on Jan. 13, 2011!). He took a shot that DeBrusk re-directed for his 10th goal of the season at 2:37 with Pasta getting the second assist. Just 18 seconds later, Ullmark gave up a brutal goal as DeBrusk's attempted centering pass actually snuck in the near post that old Linus wasn't up against tight enough. David Krejci and Kampfer had the assists on DeBrusk's second tally.

The Bruins have had trouble recently closing games out on home ice but this time, they were able to get it done in regulation without the need of their worst enemy: overtime and/or a shootout where they are hopeless in both. Of course, there were some nervy moments as Lazar put in a loose puck to cut it to 3-2 at 5:08 of the third period. Rask gloved the first shot but the puck popped loose nearby where Lazar was able to take advantage of that mistake. Boston survived a tripping penalty by bum Brett Ritchie in crunch time. This was another two points where Boston's special teams units carried them with not only DeBrusk's two power play goals (Sabres PK is #28, is that bad?) but their penalty kill was a flawless 3-for-3 (granted Buffalo's PP is #19 in the NHL).

Connor Clifton left in the second period with an upper-body injury of his own but Cassidy didn't think it was too serious. I also saw McAvoy talking in the hall after the game so he's probably not too far off from returning to action. There is only one game left in 2019/this decade for the Bruins which seems crazy to say: Tuesday afternoon (1, NESN) at terrible New Jersey (13-19-6). Thankfully they don't have to spend New Year's Eve in Newark which sounds like the script for a cheesy late-night horror movie on Cinemax. Boston's next home game is also their first of 2020-Thursday (7, NESN) vs. Columbus (17-14-8). They also host Edmonton (20-17-4) on Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) so hopefully the Patriots Wild Card home game (talk about an oxymoron) is either that night or on Sunday. Either way, this is a forgiving stretch against four non-playoff teams in a row (5 games since they played Buffalo back-to-back) which should help the Bruins rack up points. Let me be the first to tell you (albeit a few days early), Happy New Year!

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