Scorching Sabres pose plenty of problems for Bruins, but can they handle playoff pressure? - The Boston Globe
Buffalo is 40-12-4 since Dec. 1 and clinched the Atlantic Division title on Monday.
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Bruins vs. Sabres to start the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. Try to find that in your deep stack of October ‘25 preseason prognostications.
Six months ago, a vast majority of pundits figured both franchises would be sitting this one out, the Bruins because of their massive March ‘25 roster purge/overhaul, and the Sabres because . . . well, going home empty-handed in April has been a rite of spring for the Sabres since they last appeared in the playoffs in 2011.
Yet here they are, poised to face each other in Round 1 starting this weekend in Buffalo. Puck drop: TBD
The esteemable Sabres enter as champs of the Atlantic Division and by far the NHL’s hottest team since Dec. 1 (40-12-4 with one to go). The Bruins locked down the No. 1 wild-card berth with Tuesday night’s 4-0 mop job of the despondent Devils, finishing with 100 points — an impressive 24-point uptick off of last season’s DNQ.
“It’s going to be great,” said coach Marco Sturm, noting the strong TV ratings the two franchises typically post in national broadcasts. “I think it’s great for us. I think it’s great for the league, great for Buffalo, to have that matchup. It’s been a while for them. We’re hungry enough to beat them. We’re ready. It should be a good one.”
The Bruins have won six of the eight postseason series these two franchises have played, dating back to the first one in 1982, and most recently a Round 1 matchup in 2010 that the Bruins clinched in six games.
Quiz: Only one member of the current Bruins team played in that 2010 series.
The two most memorable moments through the decades: Brad Park’s series-clinching OT goal, Game 7 of their Round 2 series at the Garden, and 10 years later, Brad May’s “May Day” goal at the Aud that completed a four-game sweep of a Bruins team that finished that season with 109 points.
Not a single Sabre in this series has played a playoff game as one of coach Lindy Ruff’s charges. That’s no surprise after the historic, painful string of DNQs. As for the Bruins, only eight players now under Sturm’s direction suited up in the spring of ‘24 when the Bruins last appeared in the playoffs (Round 2 loss to the Panthers). Attrition is a high-speed game in today’s NHL.
The great unknown here for Sabres is in net, where franchise stopper Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, 27, never has suited up for a playoff game in North America (be it for the Sabres or AHL Americans). Luukkonen has won 20-plus games for a third consecutive season.
Luukkonen is big (6 feet 5 inches, 223 pounds). He’s solid. Yet he’s never worked under the intense spotlight of the playoffs. No telling how he responds, which Bruins fans of a certain age will remember thinking in ‘71 when a 23-year-old Ken Dryden took the net for the Canadiens only two years removed from the Cornell campus.
Dryden also had not played a single postseason minute in the pros. It sorta turned out better than expected.
Luukkonen and Bruins stopper Jeremey Swayman were both in the 2017 draft class. Jake Oettinger (26th overall/Dallas) was the first goalie selected. Luukkonen was next (No. 54) to Buffalo. The Bruins plucked Swayman at No. 111 as the 12th goalie in his class.
“I was at home, looking at my computer,” said Swayman, recalling the day he was drafted. “So I didn’t know too many of the goalies who were getting drafted. It’s a motivator. I was just so fortunate to get taken by the Bruins because we’re standing here right now — 2017 is a long time ago, but now we’ll be on the same ice and that’s exciting.”
Without a team identity for a decade-plus, other than being legendary punching bags, the Sabres now are built around arguably the league’s most talented backline foursome: Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, and Mattias Samuelsson. Dahlin (2018) and Power (2021) both topped their draft classes — such are the abundant rewards of perennial losing.
“I think now they are for real,” said Sturm, reflecting on Buffalo’s impressive turnaround. “They play better defensively. They are structured better. They have all the talent they collected in the past and they came to shine. Why did it happen at a certain time? I don’t know, but I think this team is for real now. And they know how to win now. So it’s going to be hard – it will be a good test. And a lot of players on their side have never been in this situation, so we have to take advantage of that.”
Which brings us to our quiz answer: Sturm is the lone member of the current roster to suit up for the Bruins in that 2010 series vs. Buffalo. He skated in all six games, and then a shift in the Round 2 opener vs. the Flyers, what proved to be his final game in a Bruins uniform.
