Bruins suffer most damning loss yet with Buffalo beatdown
Even if you consider yourself the most critical Bruins observer out there, you can stomach getting your doors blown off by the Hurricanes like the Bruins did back on Halloween night. Same for blowout losses to the Stars and Jets. All three are elite teams, and have been especially strong on home ice. You don’t love it, but when you recognize the flaws of this year’s Bruins team, you can shiver at the taste like it’s that blood-red cherry cough syrup hanging in the cupboard since ‘03 but ultimately stomach it.
But a blowout loss to the East-worst Sabres? There’s no way that’s going down without projectile vomit coming up a few moments later. And, boy oh boy, was Tuesday night in Buffalo a trip to Puke City for the Bruins.
“The way we managed the game tonight, I didn’t like the way we managed it,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said following his club’s 7-2 loss. “You’re gonna make mistakes in hockey. They happen over the course of a game. But it’s how we respond after those mistakes.”
Sacco not only had issues with how the Bruins responded to their mistakes (mistakes could also be measured on the scoreboard, with seven strikes in the Boston cage by the night’s end), but he didn’t like the defensive coverage of his forwards, he didn’t like the gaps of his defensemen, and he did not like his team’s compete or physicality to win battles and remain in the fight with a Buffalo team that made it look entirely too easy. In other words, absolutely nothing passed Sacco’s own smell test on Tuesday night.
“You have to respect your opponent, especially offensively,” Sacco acknowledged. “We just weren’t good enough.”
This is just another example of what’s ultimately made the Bruins a downright unpredictable — and, much to the chagrin of Bruins management, unreliable — outfit approaching the 4 Nations Face-Off break. And that’s not what you want to acknowledge right now if you’re Don Sweeney.
The Bruins have acknowledged the possibility of two distinctly different paths taken this deadline season, and nights like Tuesday in Buffalo are just absolute uppercuts to the jaw. For as effective as the Bruins have been (Boston came into this contest with a 5-1-1 record in their last seven games, six of which played without Charlie McAvoy), losses like the one the Bruins experienced in Buffalo almost mean more.
It might sound stupid, but when you’re looking for reasons to think that this is a team that can and will compete in the postseason, nothing can drain confidence and believability quite like an ass-kicking in Buffalo. For a team that has more reasons to sell (or, in their words, ‘retool’) to buy, the latter almost becomes laughable when you look at how straight-up uncompetitive the Bruins looked in what was their final ‘gimme’ of the pre-break slate and with countless teams breathing down their neck for a playoff spot. (The B’s will close out their first-half schedule with head-to-heads against the Jets, Rangers, Wild, Rangers, and Golden Knights beginning Thursday night at TD Garden, by the way.)
Every game is a playoff game for the Bruins, and there’s no reason not to get up for a game in Buffalo, especially when the Bruins find themselves in the spot they’re currently in.
Perhaps what’s most frustrating about this loss is that you can’t simply look at the absence of McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Brandon Carlo and blame it all on that. The Nikita Zadorov-Andrew Peeke pairing, which has been one of Boston’s best of late, was on the ice for three of the first four Buffalo goals scored in this contest, while Boston’s only non-garbage-time goal came from defenseman Mason Lohrei. And two of Boston’s three-most dependable two-way forwards (Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle) were on the ice for multiple goals, including Coyle on the ice for a game-high four goals against.
This was a letdown ‘led’ by some of Boston’s best.
Of course, the Bruins could bury the tape of this game by rattling off another mini-run against quality competition, which this team has done as recently as last week. But with the predictability of the Bruins’ unpredictability comes more questions. Questions that the B’s front office must answer between now and the Mar. 7 trade deadline, and with a lot of stomach-churning uneasiness on the line there.
Here are some other thoughts, notes, and takeaways from an absolutely brutal loss to the Sabres…
Another clunker on the goals against front
![Jan 28, 2025; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) gets a ring before the start of the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images](https://985thesportshub.com/uploads/2025/01/USATSI_25287380_168399896_lowres_1738125746_.jpg)
Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman was not at his best on Tuesday night, with six goals surrendered on 32 shots faced. For Swayman, it was fourth outing of at least six goals against, matching single-season struggles not seen since Tim Thomas ‘accomplished’ that in 2006-07. Another six-goal outing for Swayman and he’ll have the most six-goal games by a B’s netminder since Bill Ranford in 1996-97.
As fun as it is to crucify the goalie, this felt like another one of those games where you’re looking at what’s happening in the B’s defensive zone and asking what the hell is going on and what any goaltender is supposed to do? Let’s start with the goal that got things going for Buffalo. Nobody was even within striking distance of the Sabres’ Tage Thompson. Between the circles. The result? A 102 mph shot from Thompson just straight-up smoked through Swayman. It was Thompson’s fifth shot of over 100+ mph this season, and with that in mind and with no defensive coverage, it was an expected result.
Buffalo’s second goal was a tic-tac-toe that had the Bruins and Swayman swimming, and if there’s any goal you’d have a legitimate problem, it’s that third Buffalo goal.
But even when they weren’t scoring, the Sabres were snapping the puck around the B’s defensive zone and through multiple Boston sticks with little to no resistance, to the point where it almost looked like it was some post-practice fun for a Buffalo squad that hasn’t experienced fun all season long.
I’m all for holding players accountable, but this has become a nightly thing for both Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo, where they simply can’t afford to relax for even a moment or have a slight blip within their performance because of the defensive and offensive limitations with the club in front of them.
Boston’s offense has maxed out at just one five-on-five goal (sometimes even fewer) over 20 times this season, and that is not a recipe for success in the 2025 NHL.
Responses remain an issue for the club
![Jan 28, 2025; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins center Trent Frederic (11) and Buffalo Sabres center Peyton Krebs (19) go after a loose puck along the boards during the first period at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images](https://985thesportshub.com/uploads/2025/01/USATSI_25286999_168399896_lowres_1738125750_.jpg)
Another game, and another loss where the Black and Gold simply could not build any sort of positive momentum for themselves. Mason Lohrei opened things up for Boston, but the B’s surrendered a goal at the other end just 55 seconds later, and even when the Bruins made it more of a game with a power-play goal from Brad Marchand in the third period, Buffalo came with a response just 30 seconds later.
It’s a developing trend of sorts for the club, too, now having happened five times in the month of January.
Beyond the goals against, another thing that kind of rubbed me the wrong way in this game was the Bruins not responding to the Sabres clearly targeting the white-hot David Pastrnak with some heavy finishes. Pastrnak is Boston’s offense, and you can’t let teams try to take him out of the game.
Yet somehow, it wasn’t all bad…
How’s about this for luck: Despite losing (and losing in what can only be described as the ugliest fashion of the season), the Bruins finished Tuesday night relatively safe.
Still in the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference by the night’s end, the 56-point Bruins were helped out by the Blackhawks beating the 55-point Lightning, the Jets handling the 53-point Canadiens, and the Hurricanes shutting out the 52-point Rangers.
Scoreboard watching in late January? Welcome to the 2024-25 Eastern Conference.