Boston, MA (WGR 550) - If the Buffalo Sabres want to take themselves seriously as playoff contenders, they can’t lose two games to the Boston Bruins in the first 11. On Oct. 11 the Sabres played their worst period of the season to open the game and still were only down 2-1 until Sean Kuraly scored the empty net goal with three seconds left in the game.
The Sabres have not had many good first periods this season and Lindy Ruff said on Thursday in Boston, that’s going to be a big emphasis in the game plan,
“That first period looked a lot like the Columbus first period and we’re going to spend a lot of time where our first period is at because probably in the 10 games, I might stretch it where I say two games where I liked the first period and that’s a tough place to put your team in, so we definitely, definitely have to be a better team there.”
The Sabres are 0-2-1 on the road and have been outscored 11-6. Ruff said they need goals away from home,
“We’ve got to score more, we’ve got to get our offense going and the focus yesterday and the focus this morning is talking about generating more and playing more in the offensive zone on the road.”
Buffalo is 1-for-9 on the power play away from home and 8-for-8 on the penalty kill.
The Sabres are coming off two games where they had late third period leads against Eastern Conference opponents and instead of winning in regulation and picking up two points on both clubs, they lost in overtime and gave them two points while getting only one for themselves.
Overall the Sabres are on a good streak going 4-1-2. That’s points in six out of seven games. At 91.2%, the Sabres still lead the NHL in penalty killing. Their power play is 13th at 21.9%.
Alex Lyon has seen 30 or more shots in every game he’s played in so far. He’s 3-4-1 with a 2.77 goals against and .919 save percentage.
Bo Byram is on a quiet four game points streak picking up a goal and three assists for four points. Conor Timmins has assists in three out of four games. Mattias Samuelsson is also on a four-game points streak. He has two goals and three assists for five points.
Ryan McLeod has a four-game points streak with one goal and four assists for five points. In eight games Alex Tuch has three goals and six assists for nine points.
Jordan Greenway will make his season debut after having surgery over the summer. To make room, Noah Ostlund will be sent back to Rochester.
After the Bruins beat the Sabres for their third consecutive win to open the season they went on a six-game losing streak. Since then they have won 2-of-3.
Goaltending has been a sore spot for the Bruins. After giving up six goals to the Anaheim Ducks, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 33-of-35 shots in beating the New York Islanders. He’ll get the call against the Sabres with a 2-3-0 record and 3.62 goals against and .870 save percentage. On the season the Bruins are 27th in the league with a goals against of 3.67.
If the Bruins are looking for a bright spot it’s Morgan Geekie. He leads Boston with eight goals and has goals in five straight games. Geekie had never scored more than nine goals in a season with the Seattle Kraken and Carolina Hurricanes, but Boston saw potential and inked him to a free agent deal in July of 2023. In his first season with Boston the center had 17 goals. Last year he put 33 in the net. This year he's on a 55 goal pace.
As expected David Pastrnak is Boston's leading scorer with six goals and nine assists for 15 points in 12 games.
Join “Schopp and the Bulldog” starting at 6:00 when you’ll hear from Ruff, Greenway and Josh Dunne.