Bruins collapse en route to loss to Sabres

Through the opening 20 minutes of Sunday's showdown in Buffalo, and with a two-goal edge over the Sabres, it appeared that the Bruins had forgotten that they were eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday night and that they had some interest in a late-season run. But with a finish that saw the Bruins outscored 6-1 over the final 40 minutes of play, the Bruins got back into their tank and rolled their way back to the bottom of the Eastern Conference behind a 6-3 final. With the loss, the Bruins moved back into having the fourth-best odds at the No. 1 overall pick this year's NHL Draft, and with just four games remaining on the Black and Gold's slate. As noted though, the Bruins started this one hot, with a pair of first-period markers, the first off the stick of Elias Lindholm while the second came courtesy of Morgan Geekie. For Lindholm, the tally was good for his third in as many games, and was his 16th goal of the season after scoring 15 goals between Calgary and Vancouver a season ago. Geekie's goal was good for his 29th of the season, putting him just one goal away from becoming a 30-goal scorer for the first time in his NHL career. https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1909011727435665587 If Geekie, a pending restricted free agent, can find the back of the one more time before the end of the season, he will become the first Bruins free-agent addition to score 30 goals in a season since Jarome Iginla in 2013-14. He would also become the Bruins' first 30-goal scorer who isn't named Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, or David Pastrnak since Loui Eriksson in 2015-16. But Buffalo's push came — and was downright unstoppable — when the teams returned to the ice after the first intermission, with five goals blasted through the Bruins' Joonas Korpisalo on 25 shots over the final two periods before Tage Thompson's empty-net dagger. https://twitter.com/TheSabreReport/status/1909036098472312842 Thompson's hat trick was his second against the Bruins this season alone, making him the first player to record multiple hat tricks against the Bruins in the same season since Buffalo's Drew Stafford did it against Boston during the 2010-11 season. Sunday's loss also marked the 14th time that the Bruins surrendered at least six goals in a game. That's the most by any team in the NHL this season, and it's the most by any Bruins team since the Bruins had 15 such games during the 1985-86 season. The Bruins will get back in action Tuesday night against the Devils in New Jersey.