What was a promising start for the Bruins turned out to be a crushing loss at the hands of the Sabres on Monday night from the TD Garden. With some great plays by Michael Ryder and Zdeno Chara, David Krejci was able to keep his strong play going with a goal that put our Bruins up 1-0. However that lead wouldnt last, as they Sabres answered with 3 unanswered goals. Buffalo behemoth Tyler Myers took a harmless shot from the point that looked liked it deflected off Dennis Wideman to tie the game at 1. The Sabres increased the lead with a backhander by Paul Gaustad that also deflected off Wideman to make it 2-1 Sabres. The onslaught of mistakes and bad bounces continued later in the 2nd period when Tim Kennedy put a shot on Tim Thomas that somehow trickled through to make it 3-1 Buffalo. That would ultimiately spell the end of the night for Tim Thomas.
Tuukka Rask came in to replace Thomas midway through the 2nd period and looked to close the door on the Sabres and get his team back in the game. The Bruins came out for the 3rd period with the tall task of getting 3 pucks behind Ryan Miller, who was solid all night. The Bruins applied the pressure and ultimately cut the lead down to 3-2. Dennis Seidenberg blasted a shot from the point that popped up in the air and fell behind Miller, barely crossing the goal line. Unfortunately for the Bruins it was too little too late as the Sabres escaped with a 3-2 win in front of a disappointed TD Garden faithful.
Game Notes-
- with the loss the Bruins fell to 16-16-6 on home ice. In this humble writers opinion if you are going to win in the playoffs you have to play your best hockey on home ice.
- to me this game felt a lot like the Bruins/Lightning game from last week. Tons of shots on net (Miller had 40 saves). And almost every mistake the Bruins made wound up in their net.
- David Krejci is definitely playing his best hockey of the season right now, reminds me of a few years ago when Marc Savard was out with a back injury and Krejci was on fire as well then.
- I think we may have seen Tim Thomas in his last start of the regular season.