Bruins Parked The Bus Way Too Early In Game 1 Loss

It should have been impossible for the Boston Bruins to feel safe when they held a 1-0 lead through 20 and then 40 minutes of play in Sunday’s Game 1 against the Buffalo Sabres. Or even after Elias Lindholm doubled that lead just 68 seconds into the third period.

The KeyBank Center crowd may have been out of it and turning, but Lindy Ruff’s Sabres were showing no signs of quitting. And the Bruins were doing little to make them quit, instead trying to park the bus and bleed out the third period to a win. It led to what felt like a borderline predictable finish, as Tage Thompson and the Sabres finally broke through and rode that overwhelming momentum surge to three goals in a 4:34 span late in the third en route to a Game 1 comeback victory over the Bruins.

The lesson? Sitting back might be the worst thing to do against this Buffalo team.

Now, on the surface, you didn’t hate the Bruins’ approach to the start of this one. Surviving the first period in a raucous, bloodthirsty building would’ve been a win. And for the Bruins, it was. But at some point, a push had to come the other way. And it had to be more than a pair of breakaways for David Pastrnak and it ultimately had to be more than two goals against a team with this much firepower.

“We were exactly where we wanted to play, being in that position with five or six minutes left in the game,” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm offered following the Game 1 defeat. “You could tell [the Sabres] got a little bit frustrated, but we made pretty much two mistakes to let them tie up the game, and with the crowd behind them, they got some life and all of a sudden the game is done.” 

This is not the first time that the Bruins have encountered this issue, too. In fact, it was one of the club’s more glaring issues down the stretch. Heading into the Olympic break, the Bruins were a dominant 26-0-3 (an .897 point percentage, 12th-best in NHL) when leading after two periods. Post Olympics, they were 7-2-1 (.700 point percentage, 30th-best in NHL). Sunday made it 7-3-1, which… isn’t better.

That frustration is only fueled further by the fact that the Bruins did get to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (three goals on 20 shots) and that the middle of the ice was at times completely wide open for the Bruins to make something happen.

But there’s nothing the Bruins can do but adjust for Game 2.

“We will attack it again tomorrow,” said Sturm.

And hopefully he means ‘attack’ in every sense of the word.

Will Bruins make change on backend?

With this being Marco Sturm’s first postseason on the job, I do wonder how quick he’s going to be when it comes to making some lineup changes. Does he want to attack it right away or does he want to wait until the series shift back to Boston where he could have an easier landing spot for a potential sub?

One area I can’t help but look at it is Boston’s defense.

Watching this game, it felt like the Black and Gold’s third pairing of Nikita Zadorov and Andrew Peeke pairing just could not get on the same page in this contest. The D-to-D passes were choppy and disconnected, and the flubs kept the Bruins hemmed in their own zone for longer than they would have liked.

Now, at the same time, we have to acknowledge the role that Sturm is going to ask this pairing to play. It’s clear they’re going to be his go-to pairing in the defensive zone, and when that is the case, the mistakes are going to be magnified. It’s part of the gig with that deployment. And if that is indeed their role, Peeke is undoubtedly his preferred pick over scratches like Jordan Harris and Henri Jokiharju.

With that in mind, though, this might be a series where a player like a Harris or Jokiharju can play with the pace and poise that’ll get cleaner exits.

Everything else

– With seven playoff games in the books, no other goaltender has made more saves than Swayman (34). Overall, not a huge problem with his game here. But that might be a me thing more than anything else. If you’re asking your goaltender to stop 35+ shots while giving him just two goals of support (in non-garbage time, mind you) at the other end, you’re going to find yourself in a difficult spot more often than not in the 2026 NHL. Just severely limits your breathing room for inevitable mistakes.

– The Bruins threw down the ‘toughness’ gauntlet ahead of this series. But credit where credit is due: Buffalo was the more aggressive team in this one. The Bruins looked way too timid for anybody’s liking if they’re going to actually win this series on grit and imposing their will against an inexperienced Sabres club. The Bruins need more ‘P’ and a lot more ‘V’ in Game 2, if you ask me.