After taking a second straight home loss in “embarrassing” fashion, the Boston Bruins are on the brink of elimination as the scene of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series shifts back to Buffalo.
The Sabres will look to land the knockout punch against their Atlantic Division rivals and earn their first playoff series win since 2007 in Game 5 on Tuesday night.
Buffalo’s 6-1 win in Game 4 on Sunday quickly became a laugher. Four first-period goals were more than enough, and Alex Lyon was 39.9 seconds away from shutting out the Bruins in his second straight start in the series.
“We have an extremely high-competitive group. We all have a standard that we all carry ourselves to — and it wasn’t met,” said Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who appeared to yell at his teammates while exiting the bench after being relieved by Joonas Korpisalo in the third period.
The Bruins have never come back from a 3-1 series deficit (0-25) and the Sabres have never let such a lead slip away (7-0) in each franchise’s playoff history.
While history certainly does not favor Boston, the series is not over yet.
“As far as I know, you have to win four games to move on. So they’ve got three. That means we still have a chance,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm told reporters after Sunday’s game. “I can cry about it, but I also have to push my guys for the next game and make sure our intensity is gonna be there.”
“We have a one-game mission,” Sturm added on Monday.
Buffalo’s dominant start on Sunday made Lindy Ruff one happy coach, and not just because his team scored the opening goal for the first time in the series and built a commanding lead.
“That first period was the best period we played all year,” Ruff said. “Puck pressure, scoring opportunities. We moved the puck and got the puck up ice. We didn’t spend much time in our end.”
On Sunday, six different Sabres scored goals, with four of them adding an assist as well.
One shining star in the series has been defenseman Bowen Byram, whose tally at the end of the four-goal frame marked his third in the last three games. He finished the game plus-3.
“He’s obviously been awesome all year and has brought it to another level in the playoffs,” said Owen Power, Byram’s defense partner. “It’s nice having him and all the other guys in here that have some playoff experience to lean on and have them help lead us.”
Byram won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022.
Power, Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch have all notched points in all four games of the series, with Power and Krebs logging those streaks to begin their playoff careers. Krebs scored the first goal just 4:17 into Sunday’s game.
The rock-solid team effort has extended to the net, where Lyon took over for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in relief in Game 2 and has since posted a league-best .964 save percentage in the playoffs.
The vibes are good in Buffalo, but the message is clear: The Sabres still have to finish.
“We’ve done a good job in this series, but the fourth one is always the hardest,” Byram said of the challenge of closing.
The Bruins had to shuffle their Monday practice lines with forward Viktor Arvidsson and defenseman Nikita Zadorov both off for maintenance days. Arvidsson left Game 4 due to an upper-body injury and did not return.
“We still have to check with medical, but we have to wait until probably (Tuesday) on both of them,” Sturm said of both players’ status.
Ruff expects Buffalo forwards Jason Zucker and Tyson Kozak — who both missed time in Sunday’s third period — to be available going forward.
