BUFFALO, N.Y. — Game 1 may have ended in nightmare fashion for the Boston Bruins, but that shouldn’t completely bury the fact that, for over 50 minutes, the B’s did a masterful job of dampening the jovial mood in Buffalo.
In fact, it was the Bruins who were feeling like a million bucks, holding a 2-0 advantage deep into the third period.
“Probably one of the most fun nights of my life for the first 55 minutes,” said Bruins forward Fraser Minten on Tuesday morning ahead of Game 2 in Buffalo (7:30 p.m. ET on SN360 and Sportsnet+).
While the Sabres had the last laugh by scoring three times in a span of 4:34, Boston induced groans — and even some boo’s — from the crowd before the Buffalo explosion thanks to the way it tangled up the home team through the neutral zone and thwarted the Sabres’ struggling power play.
“There are always areas to improve, but overall, we were really detailed, I liked our structure,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said on Monday between Games 1 and 2 in Buffalo. “So there were a lot of good things. We lost the game, so that means we did something wrong and that’s something touched on today and we’ll try to improve [in Game 2].
“As long as we stick with the gameplan we have and the game we’re supposed to play, I do like our chances, and our chances were pretty damn good after 50 minutes [in Game 1]. We still feel really good. It’s one game, we have to win one game at one point here in Buffalo.”
One of the aspects of the Bruins performance Sturm liked the most was the play of Minten’s line. While much of the pre-game focus was on the fact that Buffalo had 11 players competing in their first playoff game, Boston’s third unit of Minten between Marat Khusnutdinov and James Hagens also had a combined zero career playoff games between the three of them.
“They were our best defensive line [in Game 1], I thought,” Sturm said. “They never really got in trouble, played really solid. Can we get some offence [from them] down the stretch? Hopefully. But defensively, they were our best line out there.”
Creating more was definitely on the mind of Minten, who played the most of anybody on his line with 16:07 in Game 1. Being responsible is, no question, the first priority for Minten and, really, an entire Bruins squad trying to limit chances versus a high-power Sabres squad. But the 21-year-old also knows a goal or two from his trio would go a long way toward helping Boston pull off the upset.
“[We’ve got to] try our best to keep trying to build that offence,” he said. “I think the defensive stuff for me and [Khusnutdinov] — [Hagens] is pretty good at it, too — comes pretty naturally. We’re trying to work on looking at little spots where we can take advantage of creating a little more, for sure.”
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If Minten is breaking new ground by getting his first taste of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after 107 career regular-season games, Hagens — who only joined the Bruins from Boston College with two games to go in the season — is really in uncharted territory. From what Minten has seen, though, there’s reason to believe the seventh-overall pick from 2025 is well equipped to adjust to hockey at the highest level.
“Very talented kid, love having him around,” Minten said. “He’s fun to play with. We’ve only played [about] three games together to this point, so every game you kind of learn a little more. He’s got a good stick, he’s smart, he competes hard, he wants the puck, wants to make plays. All those things are great signs he’s going to be a really good player in this league.”
If the third line was a positive story for the Bruins, that certainly wasn’t the case for the trio of Pavel Zacha between Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt. The unit that was so good for the Bruins down the stretch struggled in Game 1, with all three players finishing minus-3 in the contest. Sturm commented publicly about the fact the line needed to be better and nothing about that message caught Zacha off guard.
“We knew we had to be better,” Zacha said.” When you’re minus-3 in the game, the next game you have to show you’re back at it. Create chances, even if you don’t score, you’ve got to be a difference-maker.”
While the Bruins are definitely employing a conservative, muck-it-up approach against Buffalo, Zacha thought his line got into trouble by not showing its teeth enough.
“We weren’t as aggressive on the forecheck,” he said. “I think that’s something we talked about as a line, we’ve got to be a little more aggressive, win some puck battles there. I think we tried to defend a little bit too much.”
On the other side of the coin, the Sabres know they’ve got to be better about defending Boston's premier weapon, David Pastrnak. The deadly winger was sent in alone twice in the second period by home run passes that originated in the Boston zone and the game could certainly have ended differently had Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen not come up with monster saves 1-on-1 versus “Pasta.”
“You always have to have an awareness of when he’s on the ice,” Sabres winger Josh Doan said of Pastrnak. “He’s been the best at doing that [bolting the defensive zone] for a long time now and he’s someone who, if 88 is out there, you’ve got to find him. At the same time, you’ve got to be able to find ways to use that to your advantage as well. If he’s leaving the zone early, then put some pressure on their D, but have a little awareness of where he is at all times.”
Expect the Sabres to be looking over their shoulder a bit more in the offensive zone as they try to claim a 2-0 series lead on home ice Tuesday night.
