Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Believe it or not, it’s Jan. 28, and this is the first appearance by the Boston Bruins in Buffalo to take on the Sabres.
The two teams played back on Dec. 21 in Boston in a low chance, low scoring game. In the end, though, Morgan Geekie scored the game-winning goal with 1:45 left, just as a penalty to Sam Lafferty was expiring and just after Mattias Samuelsson pushed Justin Brazeau into his goaltender, James Reimer, giving Geekie an easy shot.
Reimer had a great game, making 16 saves on 18 shots. Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said it was a shame to lose that game, considering how well they played.
"We got in real late that night (after a game in Toronto), we got in at 3 a.m. It was a back-to-back game, and we probably played one of our better back-to-back games," said Ruff on Tuesday following the morning skate.
"We managed the puck really well. Don’t like the penalty we took, and then we hit our own guy into our goaltender, which allowed the goal, but we get rewarded if we play a similar game. But we didn’t give up much. I think after 50 minutes we only had given up 13 or 14 shots, so it was a game that gave us a chance to win in a difficult back-to-back situation."
In the last two games in Western Canada against the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, Buffalo had 151 shot attempts and just four goals. Ruff knows when that happens, you should win both games. However, Buffalo didn’t even get those games to overtime.
"We had the stick on the right people, and for whatever reason, didn’t hit our mark," Ruff said. "If you go back, Edmonton’s a good team, even without McDavid. To get by that first period and end up with the number of attempts we did, I thought we skated well where most of our group is playing three games in less than five days.
"But when you get a couple of breakaways you don’t finish on, 2-on-1, you don’t finish some of the high quality stuff, good teams turn that into that third goal, which makes it really tough for the other team to come back."
After getting the day off Saturday in Edmonton, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will be back in net on Tuesday. He’s 15-15-4 this season with a 2.99 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage.
Buffalo has lost 4-of-5 games, scoring 13 goals, four of which came in a loss to the Seattle Kraken.
Ruff says they waived winger Nic Aube-Kubel on Monday because of the way Jiri Kulich and Tyson Kozak have played. After Aube-Kubel cleared waivers on Tuesday, the team loaned him back to the Rochester Americans and recalled Kozak.
The Sabres have gone three-straight games without a power play goal, going 0-for-11 in that span.
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It’s funny that the Bruins beat the Sabres with a power play goal last month, because they have the second-worst power play in the NHL.
With five wins in seven games, the Bruins sit in the No. 1 Wild Card position in the Eastern Conference. Before that, Boston had lost six in-a-row.
Jeremy Swayman will be in net for the Bruins He’s played in 11-of-14 games. After signing a big contract to stay in Boston, Swayman has struggled. He’s 16-16-4 this season with a 2.95 goals-against average and an .898 save percentage.
David Pastrnak leads them with 24 goals and 35 assists for 59 points in 51 games.
Tune in during "Schopp and the Bulldog" for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m., when you’ll hear from Ruff, Luukkonen and Rasmus Dahlin.