Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) - The Buffalo Sabres played much better in Monday's game at the Sabres Prospects Showcase at Harborcenter than they did Sunday, but still lost in overtime to the Boston Bruins, 4-3.
The team skated much better, they got in shooting and passing lanes much better for starting goalie Sam Meloche (2025 fourth-round pick), and even got out to a 2-0 lead after losing on Sunday, 6-2.
The Sabres could've been out to an even larger lead, but they passed up numerous shots and lost great opportunities.
The Bruins scored 10 goals in the two games, and 2025 first-round pick James Hagens had six of them, including all four goals on Monday.
Trailing 2-0, Hagens used his superior wrist shot to score power play goals right under the crossbar at 18:12 and 19:55 of the second period. He netted his hat-trick goal at 2:41 of the third period, putting the puck in the same exact place on Meloche to make it 3-2.
Liam Valente looked good in both games for the Sabres. He's a smallish winger who played two years at Western Michigan University and two years at Providence College, before signing an AHL contract with the Rochester Americans. After the Mustangs lost in the NCAA Tournament Regionals to the University of Denver, he played two regular season games with Rochester and two playoff games, picking up one goal.
He tied the game on Monday with a really nice wrister of his own, forcing overtime, where Hagens won it.
I had my eye throughout the two games on Sabres' 2025 first-round pick Radim Mrtka.
Hagens went seventh overall in the 2025 draft, while Mrtka went ninth overall. However, Hagens was far superior to Mrtka in these two games.
The 19-year-old Hagens played two games with the Bruins in the regular season and three games against the Sabres in the playoffs, picking up one assist in the five games.
As for Mrtka, he played eight regular season games with the Amerks and three playoff games, picking up two assists. In between, the 19-year-old defenseman went back to the Western Hockey League to play 43 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
In both games in the showcase, Mrtka skated extremely well. It looked like he wanted to leave his mark, joining the play often, but did a very poor job Sunday of reading plays, and kept turning the puck over by forcing plays that weren't there.
Amerks head coach Mike Leone didn't like what he saw on Sunday, especially from Mrtka and 2022 fifth-round pick Vsevolod Komarov.
"The guys that have played in the AHL on the back end, I think, had a tough night, for sure," said Leone following Sunday's loss. "I thought we worked really hard, I just thought our execution and our puck play, our puck decisions weren't great."
Both defensemen Sunday were getting up ice, but not getting results.
"I think sometimes you try to push too much to get up into the play and play offense, when you just could make the play that's in front of you. I think they over complicated the game at times," Leone said.
Then on Monday, Mrtka was again skating well, and I could tell he was trying not to force plays quite as much. He's not at all afraid to go to battle along the wall, and he's pretty good at winning some battles. He will engage players to get them away from his net, and I think in time, he can add some offense to his game.
In two seasons with the Thunderbirds, he only had four goals and 65 assists for 69 points in 86 games.
Mrtka is a tall, lanky player that is going to get bigger, because of the work he'll put in with the director of performance, Brian Galivan. Leone says Mrtka worked hard over the summer to get bigger and stronger.
"I think that was a huge emphasis in the offseason to spend a lot of time. He looks really good," he said of the Czech defenseman. "As far as his physicality I think he got stronger. He went to Prague in the summer and was training with a really good group there (that included Jiri Kulich), and this summer he had a full summer to train."
Mrtka didn't want to give himself too much credit for doing the right things during the summer.
"I'm always working as hard as I can," said Mrtka ahead of the tournament this past Friday. "Just keep it the same way, and my conditioning coach (in Prague), he's the one doing the work. I'm just doing his work, and I feel like it's nothing that special, because most of the guys are probably doing the same thing as me."
He did admit to me that he feels stronger heading into his first full season of professional hockey in North America. Mrtka had to bounce around last year - first to Rochester, then to Seattle and back to Rochester again.
"It was amazing for me," Mrtka said. "I got to play in the AHL, which is one step away from the NHL. That was a good lesson for me, and then I went back to Seattle where I played a lot of minutes. That was great for me as well."
Mrtka adds he felt more comfortable at the prospects event this season than he did last year.
Clarence Center defenseman and last year's captain at Boston University, Gavin McCarthy, had a good two games. He had a goal and two assists.
He'll begin his pro career playing in Rochester this season.
The 21-year-old was taken in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
As for defenseman Maxim Strbak, he was selected by the Sabres in the second round of the same draft class. He will also start his professional career this year in Rochester.
Strbak is also 21, and spent three years at Michigan State University.
