Bruins vs Sabres Recap; Smith Stays Hot; Debuts for Hall, Reilly, Lazar

THE BREAKDOWN:

The Boston Bruins bounced back from a blowout loss to the Washington Capitals by beating the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout 3-2.

The game marked the debuts of three Bruins deadline acquisitions Taylor Hall, Mike Reilly and Curtis Lazar. None factored in the scoresheet. Reilly looked the most comfortable and made an immediate impact on the Bruins banged up blue line. Hall skated mostly on the 2nd line alongside David Krejci and Craig Smith. Smith continued his scorching-hot scoring streak with another two-point night.

Rookie netminder Jeremy Swayman stopped 21 of the 23 for the win including both shots he faced in the shootout.

The Bruins will try play the next two games against the New York Islanders at the Garden. Tuukka Rask could return by Thursday.

3 STARS:

Kevan Miller: Miller returned to the ice after taking a maintenance day when the Bruins got blowout by the Capitals and boy did he prove his worth on the ice tonight. Miller laid out some bone crushing hits and was dynamite on the PK. He also had a couple of great plays along the boards which generated prime scoring chances for the Bruins. The highlight of the night for Kevan Miller though was this knock out punch on Buffalo forward Tase Thompson.

Craig Smith: Smith was flying all over the ice tonight, going hard on the forecheck and contributing on the stat sheet as well. Smith had a goal and an assist to make it 15 points in his last 13 games.

Jake DeBrusk: Debrusk showed off his blazing north to south speed and was all over the ice in this one. DeBrusk not only buried the shootout winner to secure the extra point for Boston, but he played with purpose tonight. Tenacious on the puck and made little plays throughout the game that did not show up on the stat sheet.

 

TURNING POINT:

The Bruins came out in the first period and looked flat footed. Buffalo has long been out of the playoff picture but they were playing freely and had more energy early on. It wasn’t until the newly formed fourth line of Lazar-Kuraly-Wagner stepped in and played the body and had one minute of consecutive offensive zone time that finally gave the Bruins life.

ICE TO SEE YOU:

With the trade deadline passing the Boston Bruins went all in. This was the first game post deadline and we got to see the new guys in action. Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar, and Mike Reilly all made their Bruins debuts tonight and all made an impact.

 

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Bruins stats earns the tweet of the night with this mind-blowing PK statistic. When Bergeron and Marchand are on the PK together good things happen…

HOW TWEET IT IS:

It was a very special night for one hockey fights cancer fan, the mighty Quinn got a puck from homegrown player Charlie Coyle…One of the many reasons why we love sports.

 

THAT’S WHAT HE SAID:

The quote of the night comes from the winning net minder in tonight’s Bruins game, Jeremy Swayman. The hockey community is mourning the loss of UMaine hockey head coach Red Gendron who Swayman played for at UMaine. He had this to say about playing coach Gendron’s honor…

“We all know how impactful Red was to the hockey community, especially my life. I love Red so much. The things he taught me, I’ll have for the rest of my life.”