A Slow Start Doesn't Doom the Bruins as They Find A Way to Hold Off the Free-Falling Sabres, 3-2

The Sabres (10-9-3) got off to a fantastic start this season but they have predictably dropped off a cliff the last few weeks so they served as the perfect foil for the Bruins (14-3-5) tonight at TD Garden as they try to get back into a groove. Buffalo scored first and outshot Boston 12-0 to begin the tilt before the Bruins woke up with three straight goals en route to hanging on for dear life in a harder-than-it-should-have-been 3-2 victory for the home team. Believe it or not, the B's actually haven't lost in regulation at the Garden in 2019-20 (8-0-4) and they improved to 3-0-3 in their past six games. On the other side, the Sabres dropped to 1-7-2 in their last 10 games.

Brad Marchand scored two goals, David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist while Danton Heinen added two assists but there was no question that as Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy pointed out after the game, Tuukka Rask (36 saves) was Boston's best player. Rask is now 10-2-0 this season and he faced a barrage of pucks for most of the contest as Buffalo outshot Boston 38-27 including 17-4 in the first period and 14-9 in the third period. Boston's power play only got two opportunities but they managed to convert on both of them with tallies from Marchand in the second period and Pastrnak early in the third. Along the way, Rask also made one of the best saves of his career as he robbed BU's Evan Rodrigues with a diving stop across the goal mouth that ended with the puck hitting him on the underside of his blocker. Check the interwebs for it!

Buffalo came in with a terrible power play (ranked #24 in the NHL) but they scored on their first one 5:25 into the contest. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen parked his large Finnish body (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) in front of Rask and he was able to stuff in a loose puck. North Chelmsford's Jack Eichel and Victor Oloffson had the assists on Ristolainen's first goal of the campaign. Eichel leads the Sabres with 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) and he's one of the best players in the league with nine points (6 goals, 3 assists) in his last six games. He is signed with Buffalo for years to come but you wonder how many more of these fruitless seasons with no playoffs that he can take before he starts to lose his mind. As a local guy (that won the Hobey Baker in his 1 brilliant season at BU), you hope that at some point he can be surrounded by teammates, coaches and a front office worthy of his incredible talent.

The Bruins tied it up on their second shot on goal of the game: Marchand cruised in front of Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark (24 saves, 4-5-1) and he tipped in Zdeno Chara's shot from the point. Pasta had the second assist on Brad's 14th goal of the season. That goal woke the B's up and the crowd got fired up to another level after that as Chris Wagner sort of dropped the gloves with Curtis Lazar after the latter poked Rask who had covered up the puck for a face-off. Boston was lucky that it remained 1-1 after 20 minutes but they came out a much better team in the second period. They outshot the Sabres 14-7 and went ahead 2-1 at 14:45 on Marchand's power play strike. He put in a rebound, assisted by Matt Grzelcyk and Heinen. Marchand is proving that last year's 100 points (a 1st in his NHL career) was no fluke as he has nine points (5 goals, 4 assists) in his last six games and 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) in his last 21 games. You don't have to be a Bruins honk to see that he's a top star in the NHL.

The B's were up 2-1 after two periods and that advantage increased to 3-1 at 1:56 of the third. Pasta's power play goal was pretty similar to Marchand's, he put in a loose puck with assists going to Heinen and Patrice Bergeron (who returned after missing 2 games with a lower-body injury). Pasta leads the NHL with 20 goals and he became the fastest Bruin to reach 20 goals since Cam Neely in 1993-94 (who did it in 19 games). Ironically, Rask's worst moment of the evening came very shortly after that show-stopping save. UMass alum and defenseman Brandon Montour beat him from way out with a shot that simply appeared to elude Rask's glove. Montour's second goal of the season was at 12:58, assisted by another Minuteman Brandon Sheary and Rasmus Dahlin. Buffalo had three guys named Rasmus in the lineup tonight, don't forget Rasmus Asplund their fourth line center. Even stranger than that is the fact they come from three different places: Ristolainen is from Finland, Dahlin is from Sweden and Asplund is from Minnesota.

Charlie McAvoy had a wonderful chance to put the game on ice/get his first goal of the season but his backhander on a breakaway went wide of the net. This meant that Boston had to sweat out the last few minutes of regulation, including Ullmark getting pulled for an extra skater but luckily for them, they weren't facing the Capitals or another high-caliber team that could make them pay for allowing a whopping 69 (hi Gronk!) shot attempts (38 on goal, 17 blocked, 14 missed net). It certainly wasn't pretty like their 5-1 blowout in New Jersey on Tuesday but the Bruins will happily take those two points thank you kindly. Another cupcake comes to the Garden on Saturday night (7, NESN) in the form of the Wild (9-11-2)-the second worst team in the Western Conference. Minnesota has won its past two games and they are 5-3-2 in their last 10 which should show you just how terrible they were to start this season.

Tweet

Name a Better Boston University Product In the NHL These Days Than Jack Eichel, You Can't!

Massachusetts is not California, Texas or Florida when it comes to grooming professional athletes so while we have a noted advantage when it comes to hockey players (it's cold here for roughly 8 months out of every year), it is still pretty cool to see a hometown guy doing very well at the highest level. Enter Chelmsford MA native and BU one-and-done Jack Eichel who seems to always save his best for when he plays the Bruins. Tonight he had two goals and two assists as Buffalo (20-9-5) doubled up Boston (17-12-4) 4-2 at TD Garden. It's not just the fact that he had a hand in every goal for the Sabres but Eichel did it in a manner befitting a superstar such as himself: two incredible assists, a snipe of a goal and an empty-netter to clinch it. Are you not entertained, Massholes?

After winning three games in a row, the B's had a bummer of a weekend as they lost 5-3 at Pittsburgh (15-11-6) on Friday and followed it up with another zero-point performance. Boston had 67 shot attempts (37 on goal, 14 blocked, 16 missed net) to just 40 for Buffalo (27 on goal, 8 blocked, 5 missed net) so besides Eichel, the Sabres can thank Jeff Skinner (2 goals), Sam Reinhart (2 assists) and Peanuts star Linus Ullmark (35 saves, 7th win of the season) for the victory that split the season series at one game apiece with two more meetings to come.

The Bruins never led in the entire contest but you can't say that they didn't have a good chance as Ryan Donato drew an ultra-rare penalty shot late in the first period. He was hauled down on a breakaway but he slipped taking the penalty shot and Ullmark was able to stop his shot anyway. Things picked up in the second period as Skinner scored his team-leading 23rd goal of the season at 3:18 thanks to a sweet pass from Eichel behind the net. No. 1 pick and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (who is only 18-years-old) had the second assist. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better offseason pickup from last summer in the NHL than Jeff Skinner's trade from Carolina to Buffalo. Two minutes later, Steven Kampfer scored his first goal since his return to Black and Gold as he ripped a shot past Ullmark from Joakim Nordstrom and David Backes. Boston seemed to go up 2-1 late in the frame as Brad Marchand brushed in a loose puck but for some reason, the play was whistled dead before the puck had gone in the net. It was reviewed with the refs concluding after a lengthy delay that it was no goal since it couldn't be reviewed to begin with. Haha OK cool guys, thanks for completely wasting our time.

At the start of the third, Danton Heinen was absolutely robbed by Ullmark who did a full split to make the save. Torey Krug went to the dressing room after taking a puck to the face, something which later happened to Kampfer as well. Eichel's lucky 13th goal of the season came at 5:43, assisted by Reinhart and Dahlin. Krug answered with a goal of his own at 13:21. David Krejci (6-game point streak) did his best Eichel impression with a great feed that led to Krug's slightly mishit but still effective one-timer. His third goal of the season was also assisted by Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (anothe much lesser known BU guy). Buffalo's go-ahead goal came via an eerily similar play by Eichel and Skinner: this time Eichel used a backhander to Skinner for a one-timer that gave him the same amount of goals that he had last season in 48 more games with the lowly Hurricanes. Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy did all that he could do-calling a timeout and pulling Rask for an extra skater-but all that happened was Eichel clinched it with an empty-netter at 19:35.

The B's have no time to feel bad for themselves as they are in Montreal (17-11-5) tomorrow night (7:30, NESN) for a huge game with the Canadiens. The winner will be the top Wild Card team in the Eastern Conference while the loser will drop (or in Boston's case remain) in second-place. Jaroslav Halak (9-5-2) figures to get the start for the Bruins who are 1-1 vs. Montreal this season. It'll be Boston's third game in four nights and second half of a back-to-back but at least then their next game isn't until Thursday (7, NESN) vs. Anaheim (18-11-5) at the Garden. The B's haven't been great on the road (6-8-4) but they had perhaps their best road win of this campaign at the Bell Centre: a 3-2 triumph on November 24 thanks to John Moore's game-winner/the only goal of his Bruins career.

Tweet

Somewhere the Falcons Feel Their Pain as the Bruins Blew a 3-goal Lead & Lost in OT to Buffalo

With so many young players in the lineup every game not to mention numerous injuries that seem to befell them daily, the Bruins (3-3-1) are in no position to switch gears into cruise control at the moment. The Sabres (2-5-2) were coming off a 4-2 loss to Vancouver (3-3-1) on Friday so when they went down 4-1 in the second period at TD Garden on Saturday night, it appeared to be an easy victory lining up for the B's. Unfortunately that wasn't the case at all as Buffalo rattled off four straight goals including Ryan O'Reilly's game-winner in overtime to take a shocking 5-4 victory back to God's Country (Upstate NY).

Anton Khudobin (37 saves) will never be a starting goaltender on a good NHL team, that's just a fact. He is the classic backup goalie that can occasionally catch fire but more often than not, he won't be counted on for anything other than uneven results. Granted, Buffalo outshot Boston 42-31 in the contest, including 15-6 in the third period and 6-0 in overtime so it's tough to pin that loss all on him. Adam McQuaid is out for eight weeks with a broken leg (surgery on Monday) and Kevan Miller was a late scratch with a mangled hand. Who had six games being all that the most injury prone players in the NHL would last in 2017-18? Meanwhile, Colin Miller continues to develop in Vegas. (Huge sigh while throwing my arms in the air).

David Krejci took warmups with the B's tonight but also sat at the last-minute which didn't help the Black and Gold since he had six points (1 goal, 5 assists) in the first six games. Paul Postma and Rob O'Gara made their season debuts for the Bruins (in Postma's case his first ever game for Boston) while Matt Beleskey (0 points in 6 games) was re-inserted into the lineup. Boston opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period as David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand (power-play) continued their race for the team scoring lead as both guys notched their fifth goals of the season. Tim Schaller and Charlie McAvoy assisted on Pasta's fluky jam-shot by the immortal Robin Lehner (27 saves) while Marchand didn't need any help on his.

Marchand made it 3-0 B's 37 seconds into the second period with assists to Anders Bjork and McAvoy. At that point, Buffalo could have easily packed it in and got ready to watch the Bills game tomorrow but veteran Jason Pominville cut it to 3-1 at 8:01 with a snipe from Ryan O'Reilly, his fifth goal of the season. Pastrnak tallied another weird goal-off your boy Matt Tennyson's leg-for a 4-1 Bruins advantage at 11:22. Riley Nash and Torey Krug had the assists as it felt like either Marchand or Pastrnak would get a hat trick for the home crowd. Chelmsford's Jack Eichel deposited a rebound past Khudobin at 16:07 to give the Sabres a breath of life. Marco Scandella and Justin Bailey had the helpers on the former BU star's fourth goal of the season.

Still when you face a nothing team like Buffalo with a three-goal lead or up 4-2 after two periods, you have to put them away. No excuses. Boston couldn't do that though as former Bruins great Benoit Pouliot fired in a loose puck at 6:55 to draw Buffalo within one goal for the first time since the first period. Sam Reinhart and Jake McCabe were credited with assists on Pouliot's first goal of the season (how is he still in the NHL?). For whatever reason, the B's looked like the gassed team that played the night before as Buffalo outworked them for the tying goal at 17:52. Evander Kane potted his sixth goal of the season, off a goal-mouth scramble and the assists went to McCabe and Pominville.

Boston's power play scored for the fifth time in seven contests this campaign but they didn't draw any penalties after early in the second period. Buffalo wasn't ever on a power play in overtime, it just felt like it as the puck was seemingly in Boston's end the entire time. Khudobin was shaky all night, most of his saves weren't exactly masterpieces which in turn made you think that every shot was going in. Torey Krug pushed a Sabre into Khudobin on O'Reilly's goal so the referees reviewed it for awhile but it ultimately held up. O'Reilly made a brilliant play, going 360 degrees from behind the net to his backhand shot. His third goal of the season was unassisted.

The crappy taste from this OT loss will most likely linger for days since the Bruins won't be back in action until Thursday (7, NESN) when they host San Jose (3-4-0). In his press conference after the loss, Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy said that Krejci and Miller are each probable to return then but with the way that their players are dropping like flies, we'll have to hope that all the important guys are bound in bubble wrap this week lest they get hit by a meteor or a drone. The Bruins simply cannot afford anymore injuries to key players this early in the season.

Tweet

If Only the Bruins Could Play The Sabres Like Once Every Week, They'd Be in Good Shape

As the Bruins (20-15-4) have proven over and over again already this season, especially when they're at TD Garden, they can't underestimate anyone after they've lost to a bunch of bottom-feeder last-place teams. For whatever reason, the Sabres (13-15-8) are just what ails them since with today's 3-1 New Year's Eve matinee victory, the Black and Gold swept the season series with Buffalo for the first time in either team's franchise history. Of course, keep in mind that when there were fewer clubs in the NHL, the Atlantic Division rivals used to meet up to eight times a season which looking back on it now is pretty funny.

This was a feel-good moment for the B's as they captured back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly a month (Dec. 1, 3, 5), Patrice Bergeron continued to heat up offensively (3 goals in 5 games) while Ryan Spooner (3 goals, 4 assists) and Torey Krug (7 assists) each extended their point streaks to five games apiece. Tuukka Rask (26 saves, 19th win of the season) continued his mastery of the Sabres as he improved to 13-5-1 in 21 career games vs. Buffalo. Boston had won 4-2 in Buffalo on Thursday but they paid a price for those particular two points as David Backes is now out indefinitely with a concussion.

One of the guys that will counted on for more production with Backes out is Frank Vatrano who has been moved up to the second line. He gave Boston a 1-0 lead just 1:28 into the contest with one of his signature quick release shots. Zdeno Chara assisted on Vatrano's second goal of the season (2 goals, 2 assists in 5 games) that fooled Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner (25 saves). Seeking some payback from Thursday when he got bloodied by William Carrier's cheap shot punches while they were tied up by the refs, Adam McQuaid drilled Johan Larsson with a clean hit (that dislocated the left wing's wrist).

Bergy doubled the Bruins' lead in the second period with a one-timer from Spooner and Brad Marchand at 7:04 on the power play. Bergeron had been a ghost in terms of goal-scoring for much of the early going so it's been nice to see him find his game lately. Lehner had started his New Year's Eve drinking early or something as Tim Schaller's harmless backhander beat him at 9:29 of the second period for a commanding 3-0 Bruins advantage. Three goals scored by Boston can feel like double that with their struggles to find the back of the net and couple that with how well Rask has played. The Bruins are now 14-2-1 when they lead by 2+ goals in 2016-17. Krug and Austin Czarnik assisted on Schaller's fifth goal of the season that had to feel a little sweeter against his former team.

As you probably noticed lately, the NHL has done everything in its power to outlaw fighting so even though Kevan Miller and Evander Kane wanted to fight each other later in the second, not to mention many other chippy moments throughout the proceedings, the linesmen and referees weren't having any of it. I understand they want to eliminate needless injuries (most notably concussions) from fights but one of the things that makes hockey so great is the ability to settle things after a cheap play.

North Chelmsford, MA native and BU one-and-done star Jack Eichel always seems to do something when he's at the Garden so he didn't disappoint his friends and family with a one-timer at 19:38 of the second that he hammered past Rask. His seventh goal of the season was assisted by Rasmus Ristolainen and Sam Reinhart. This was the first time in this campaign that Bergeron has scored in consecutive games and Boston's sputtering power play is slowly figuring things out with goals in four of their last five.

Nearly halfway through the season, Boston still finds itself in third-place in the Atlantic Division. They have 44 points like Ottawa (20-12-4) but the Senators have played three less games. Also, the Bruins are four points ahead of Tampa Bay (18-15-4) going into their meeting with Carolina this evening (Lightning will have 1 game in hand after that). Boston is back at .500 at home and five games over .500 on the road (11-6-4) so I suppose it's good news that they head out of town for five of their next six games.

This week is another one that at least on paper isn't too scary: at reeling New Jersey (14-16-7) on Monday (7, NESN), they host Edmonton (19-12-6) on Thursday (7, NESN) in Milan Lucic's latest return, at Florida (15-14-8) on Saturday (7, NESN) and at Carolina (16-12-7) on Sunday (5, NESN). The Bruins should get points in all of those road games and even though the Oilers have been unexpectedly good this season, I still don't fear them.

Tweet

It Is Jack Eichel's World, We're All Just Living In It

In case you didn't know, blowing a two-goal lead in the third period of any type of hockey game is very bad. What about one of the worst teams in the NHL closing out said contest with five unanswered goals you say? The Bruins (19-11-4) were up 3-1 on the Sabres (15-16-4) tonight at TD Garden, with dreams of jumping into first-place in the Atlantic Division as Montreal lost 3-1 in Washington but then the home team completely fell apart in a stunning 6-3 loss. Buffalo's last two goals were empty-netters but you get the picture. North Chelmsford MA native and BU alum (can you say that after 1 year on campus?) Jack Eichel had a decent pro debut in Boston: two goals and two assists.

Coming back from the Christmas break, the Bruins were in control most of the way that is after Evander Kane put in a rebound at 5:13 of the second period to make it 1-0 Sabres. The enigmatic Kane's eighth goal of the season was assisted by Tyler Ennis and Eichel. Jonas Gustavsson (23 saves) got the start against former Bruin Chad Johnson (30 saves) and for a while, it looked like he'd pick up his seventh win of the season, no sweat. Matt Beleskey answered 36 seconds later, tipping in Kevan Miller's shot for his fifth goal of the season. Loui Eriksson had the second helper on Beleskey's tally. Patrice Bergeron gave Boston its first lead at 2-1 when he beat Johnson five-hole (more like 10-hole on that one) at 7:05 of the second. Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara assisted on Bergeron's 12th goal of the season.

David Krejci's beautiful individual effort-he batted his third shot in a row out of mid-air-extended the Bruins' lead to 3-1 at 6:59 of the third period and all seemed well in the Hub. Eriksson picked up his second assist of the night on Krejci's 10th goal of the season. Krejci became the fourth Bruin to reach double-figures in goals this campaign: Marchand (15), Eriksson (13) and Bergeron. Ryan Spooner is the next closest to that mark with eight goals.

All hell started to break loose in the final 10 minutes of regulation as Ryan O'Reilly cut it to 3-2 at 10:21. A rebound off the end-boards caromed right to him and he deposited the puck for his 13th goal of the season. Mike Weber and Cody Franson had the assists on the pricey free agent's innocuous goal. Fate was on Buffalo's side (has that ever been said before?) when Eichel's shot went in the net off of a Bruin skate just 39 seconds later. Jake McCabe had the lone assist on Eichel's 10th goal of the season.

Good old Jamie McGinn had what turned out to be the game-winner at 14:24, a backhander from O'Reilly and Zach Bogosian that was his eighth goal of the season. The No. 1 star of the night-Eichel-and No. 3-O'Reilly boosted their point totals with the empty-netters and the Sabres were on their merry way (sorry about that).

With the loss, Boston also dropped below .500 at the Garden (8-9-2). The good news for them is that they are right back at it tomorrow night (5, NESN) in Ottawa (17-12-6). The Bruins are 11-2-2 on the road and Tuukka Rask will be in net. Haha plus Max Talbot returns from his two-game suspension, game-changer! The Senators have been off since Wednesday and a win tomorrow against the B's would pull them into a tie. From the Things Can Always Be Worse Department: Montreal has lost six games in a row and they remain one point ahead of Boston (who has 3 games in hand).

Tweet