After the three-day Holiday break, the Boston Bruins returned to action against the Buffalo Sabres. It has been a long last couple of weeks for Jim Montgomery’s team, losing four straight before the break. It was a long day ahead for the Black and Gold as per rules, they flew to Western New York Wednesday morning (Dec. 27), went right to the KeyBank Center for the morning skate then played the game at 7 o’clock.
During the losing streak, Montgomery was waiting and looking for a good response from his team, and aside from a strong first period on Dec. 23 against the Minnesota Wild, the second-year head coach has not got one that he likes. That changed against the Sabres as the Bruins looked like the Bruins from earlier in the season in a 4-1 win. Here are three takeaways after the Black and Gold collected their 20th victory of the 2023-24 season.
Charlie Coyle, Have a Night
There have been some Bruins who have struggled in December and recently during the four-game losing streak. One of those players is center Charlie Coyle who has not registered a point in a game since Dec. 9 against the Arizona Coyotes. He went six straight games since that afternoon without a point, but he bounced back against Buffalo.
Coyle scored two goals, one in the first and one in the second and both were scored on the power play. With the Bruins leading 1-0 in the opening period, Coyle was alone in front of the Buffalo net and quickly placed a perfect shot over Devon Levi’s shoulder and under the crossbar off a pass from Jake DeBrusk. In the second period, he took a pass from DeBrusk and banked a shot off of a Buffalo defenseman and into the net. He won 58% of his faceoffs and logged some key minutes in all situations.
Bruins Dominated Special Teams
The Bruins not only won the special teams battle, but they dominated them. Once again, their penalty-killing was perfect, killing all six Buffalo chances and the biggest stretch came late in the second period with them leading 4-0. Three minors were called on the Black and Gold in a minute and 18 seconds and with a Sabres penalty mixed in, the home team had a 5-on-4, 4-on-3, and a 5-on-3 in less than three minutes. Boston was able to kill each opportunity and maintain a four-goal advantage.
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On the other side, the Bruins went 3-for-4 on the power play, and that turned out to be the difference. Coyle connected on the Bruins’ first two chances, then in the second period, Morgan Geekie scored another man-advantage goal. A shot that missed the net quickly came back toward the Buffalo net and Geekie was able to bank the puck in the net off of Levi for a 4-0 lead. It was the second power-play unit that connected on each goal and that’s what Boston has been missing lately.
Bruins Close Out Buffalo in Third Period
Third periods have been an issue of late for the Bruins, blowing one-goal leads in three games and losing in overtime. Taking a 4-0 lead into the third period should be insurmountable, but with Boston’s recent third-period play, nothing is a given.
Buffalo was outplayed for 40 minutes, but they came to play in the third period and took the play to the Black and Gold. The Sabres had nine shots on the net and finally broke through against Jeremy Swayman when Erik Johnson scored his third goal of the season at 5:11 of the period, but that was all they could muster. They had an opportunity early in the period when Danton Heinen was called for a penalty, but the Bruins successfully killed it. It was a good response in the final 20 minutes from Montgomery’s team.
Bruins Quick Takeaways
- Jeremy Swayman turned back 26 of the 27 shots he faced and he even got help from some of his defensemen, including Kevin Shattenkirk who deflected a shot in the second period over the net on Buffalo’s 5-on-3. In the third period, he stopped eight of the nine shots he faced and looked very confident moving around the crease after allowing five goals on Dec. 22 against the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-1 loss.
- In the second period, Charlie McAvoy made what was the biggest save of the game, not Swayman. A shot flipped up in the air and fluttered to the empty Boston goal, but McAvoy was able to bat the puck out of the air and away from the goal line, saving a goal. It’s the little things that don’t show up in the box score that sometimes make the difference.
- DeBrusk had one of his better games in a while. He picked up two assists on Coyle’s power-play goals, finished with three shots on the net, and was much more active than in previous games. Boston is going to need more of that from him going forward.
- Mason Lohrei logged just under 20 minutes in time on ice and opened the scoring in the first period when he crashed the net and beat Levi off a rebound. He also finished with four blocked shots in front of Swayman.
It was the effort and result that Montgomery was looking for coming out of the three-day break. Boston snapped their four-game losing streak and they did it with one of their better 60-minute efforts this month. It was only their fourth regulation win of December, but it was badly needed with a tough back-to-back coming up against the New Jersey Devils at home on Dec. 30 and a road game against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 31.
