BSJ Game Report: Bruins 3, Sabres 2 - B's rally back against lowly Sabres

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 3-2 win over the Sabres in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

HEADLINES

Smith caps B's third-period rally

Yep, Boston needed to orchestrate a third-period rally against the cellar-dwelling Sabres on Saturday afternoon — but a win's a win, right?

Trailing 2-1 coming out of the second intermission, Boston managed to avoid the infamous honor of being the club that finally ended Buffalo's 16-game losing streak — with both Nick Ritchie and Craig Smith lighting the lamp in the final period of play to give Boston a much-needed 3-2 win at TD Garden.

Dan Vladar, pressed back into service after Tuukka Rask suffered another injury flare-up on Thursday, stopped 25 of the 27 shots that came his way in the victory. Among goalies to debut with Boston, Vladar is now the eighth to win each of his first two career appearances with the Original Six franchise.

It was a less than ideal start for the B's, with Boston relinquishing the first goal of the contest just 2:01 into regulation, with Vladar gift-wrapping a power-play tally to Sam Reinhart with a costly turnover while handling the puck.

Boston answered back in the middle frame during a delayed penalty, with Matt Grzelcyk beating Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark with a sharp shot from the blue line to knot the score at 1-1. But Buffalo answered back less than three minutes later. What seemed like a harmless puck fired in by Henri Jokiharju bounced off Vladar and sailed back out to the left circle, where Kyle Okposo outraced Chris Wagner and pounced on the biscuit, firing it home to give the visitors the lead once again.

But faced with a potentially embarrassing outcome, Boston firmly tilted the ice back in its favor in the third — with the club holding a 15-3 edge in shots on goal over the final 20 minutes of play. A fantastic shift from Charlie McAvoy led to the equalizer from Ritchie, with McAvoy taking laps in Buffalo's zone before finding a passing lane and hitting the power forward down at the doorstep for the tally.

With just 3:50 left on the clock, Smith gave Boston its first lead of the afternoon, snapping a loose puck home from the low slot to put the B's ahead for good.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375891358750228483

B's lose Marchand to COVID protocols 

It was far from an excuse when you factor in who they were playing against on Saturday, but the B's were seriously shorthanded just ahead of puck drop — with Brad Marchand joining both Sean Kuraly and Jake DeBrusk on the COVID-19 Protocol list.

Of course, being placed on the list doesn't mean that said player has definitely tested positive for the virus, as both Charlie Coyle and DeBrusk only missed one game each earlier this year after false positives. But for now, Boston is in a holding pattern both with Marchand and Kuraly/DeBrusk — who clearly are dealing with a more severe quarantine.

"What happens with the short ones — there's a lot of false positives. .... Some of them like Coyle and DeBrusk have come right off," Bruce Cassidy said. "Others have stayed, because they obviously tested positive. Throughout the league, I can't speculate why certain teams, guys could be close contacts. I think there was a protocol sheet that came out ... that there's four or five different reasons you can end up there including obviously a positive test but there's other reasons that that come up as well."

Postgame, Cassidy added that assistant coach Kevin Dean was also not on the bench Saturday — nor will he be at the Garden on Sunday — due to a close contact tracing situation with COVID.

THREE UP

Krejci Line: The Ritchie-Krejci-Smith line put together arguably its best performance of the season on Saturday — with both Ritchie and Smith providing the offense that fueled the B's third-period rally. In total, during the 11:12 of 5v5 ice time that the Krejci line logged on Saturday, Boston held a 13-1 edge in shots on goal.

Charlie McAvoy: Man, where would this Bruins team be at this point of the season without McAvoy? The franchise blueliner jumpstarted Boston's third-period surge with a dominant shift — taking multiple laps around the Sabres' net before orchestrating Ritchie's game-tying goal. Along with logging a team-high 26:32 of ice time, the Bruins also held a 19-8 edge in shot attempts during McAvoy's 5v5 ice time. Dominant.

Matt Grzelcyk: Not to be outdone, McAvoy's D partner in Grzelcyk also impressed on Saturday, opening the scoring for Boston with a snipe past a screened Ullmark. Since returning from injury, Grzelcyk now has seven points (two goals, five assists) in 11 games.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375876314071248902

THREE DOWN

Power play: Boston could have made things much easier on themselves if they cashed in on one of its five power plays on Saturday. Losing Marchand hurts, no doubt, but still not enough quality looks for that top unit.

Fourth line: It was a rough night for the B's fourth line, with Wagner beat to a loose puck that led to Okposo's tally in the second period of play. In total, that checking unit of Jack Studnicka, Wagner and Greg McKegg logged just 7:08, 7:04 and 4:04 of ice time in the win.

Dan Vladar: He bounced back as the game went on, but Vladar had a bit of a shaky start, with a miscue with the puck (of which Jakub Zboril also deserves some heat) leading to Reinhart's power-play tally.

PLAY OF THE GAME

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375886212427362310

PARTING THOUGHTS

Craig Smith taking a few points from Cam Newton with his cellys?

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375891916622069762

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Just playing hockey.” - Charlie McAvoy on what was going through his head while skating around Buffalo's zone leading up to the Ritchie goal.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will be right back at it on Sunday, with Boston set to battle the Devils at 5 p.m. Jaroslav Halak will get the start in net for the Bruins.