What a way to end 15 years of waiting. Game one of the Sabres-Bruins series was a dramatic reintroduction of playoff hockey to the Sabres fanbase. It’s hard to say last night was the ideal way for game one to go, since a victory in any form would have been an exalting experience, but an eight-minute, four-goal third period barrage was a hell of a way for it to go.
After all, what’s an extra 50 minutes after 15 years off?
Buffalo’s surge probably should’ve come sooner given how the game went. The first period was the most balanced of the three and possession still favored Buffalo. The Sabres exerted an impressive level of control throughout the game and it felt like a game where it was a matter of when, not if, the breakthrough would come.
The lopsided possession battle wasn’t more apparent than in the second period as the Sabres carried a 20-8 advantage in shot attempts at five-on-five and outshot the Bruins 11-3. It didn’t look a whole lot like river hockey either. Particularly in the third, the Sabres worked off the cycle and made life difficult on Boston’s defense. They added 53 hits to their possession advantage for good measure.
It could have gone much differently had Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen not stopped David Pastrnak on a pair of second period breakaways (three of his four second period saves came on those two sequences). All the possession in the world wouldn’t have overcome a three or four-goal deficit. Luukkonen looked shaky as the start of the game, perhaps lacking a bit of confidence in his first postseason start, but he made a couple of solid stops as the first period went on that seemed to settle him into the game. Even without a significant volume of shots, his impact was equal parts steadying and a stay of execution. Luukkonen did what was necessary to allow the Sabres to get some return on the critical mass they had been building through the first 50 minutes of the contest.
Buffalo will find themselves in the driver’s seat in this series if they can maintain the level of play driving they did on Sunday night.
Power Play Woes Continue
The hot and cold power play has been particularly cold lately. The Sabres are 0-26 going back to their last regular season power play goal. None of the issues affecting them are new. Poor entires, a lack of creativity and poor decision making continue to be an issue, especially for the top unit. Josh Norris had a poor night overall, but his spot on the top unit ought to be under investigation. He offers next to no shooting threat (which is bizarre because he’s a generally good shooter) and he’s even less effective as a playmaker. He effectively closes off half of their structure even if they win a faceoff and get set up immediately. Noah Ostlund immediately comes to mind as a potential replacement, as does Josh Doan. Although Doan would either slide to the bumper or goal line spot on that unit. Buffalo’s five-on-five play is strong enough to endure some struggles on the man advantage, but I don’t know many teams that would be able to survive going 0-fer for an entire playoff run.
The Dogs
You know what you’re getting with Josh Doan and Zach Benson and they didn’t disappoint last night. The Sabres were relentless on the forecheck for virtually the entire night and both Doan and Benson were disruptive on every shift. One, or both of them will get rewarded with a goal or two if they keep rolling like they did in game one.
Solving Swayman
Jeremy Swayman can be a difference maker and he almost did the job for the Bruins on Sunday. Getting to him early will be a key for making the remaining games of the series a little easier on the blood pressure for everyone in Buffalo. One thing I would point out that despite Buffalo’s possession imbalance, a lot of the shots they were taking came from the outside. A more concerted effort to create in high danger areas may be the missing piece from the opening 40 minutes of game one.
Pasta
Pastrnak has had an excellent career against the Sabres. There is no team he has produce more against than Buffalo and he continued the trend on Sunday. It was a fairly quiet three-point night, but he still played a role in creating all three Boston goals. This may come down to merely slowing Pastrnak down as opposed to completely taking him out of the series. Either way, I don’t like the idea of trying to survive more than one multi-point game from Pastrnak.
Two in the Box 