Boston Bruins Go From ‘Awful to Poor’ in 3-1 Loss Against Buffalo Sabres

The Bruins dropped to a 17-5-3 record following a lackluster showing against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night at TD Garden.

The Boston Bruins looked like a shell of themselves Thursday night at TD Garden, where they fell 3-1 to the Buffalo Sabres and failed to find a spark through 60 minutes.

“I expected us to get better every period. I think we went from awful to poor. Didn’t really ever get to average for our game,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “We just didn’t have any energy or life to us. I gotta take responsibility for the lack of us having that. The preparation clearly wasn’t correct.”

Matt Poitras was a healthy scratch for the Bruins for the first time this season. As a result, Morgan Geekie moved up to center the third line with James van Riemsdyk and Trent Frederic, and Oskar Steen slotted in on the fourth line wing with Johnny Beecher and Jakub Lauko.

“Something we’ve been discussing is trying to put him in situations to have a lot of success. So this was planned, he’ll be back in the lineup on Saturday,” Montgomery said of Poitras. “This is an opportunity for him to build some strength and rest into his program.”

Mason Lohrei was back in the lineup with Derek Forbort placed on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury Thursday morning. Lohrei skated on the third pair with Kevin Shattenkirk and, per usual, was not afraid to jump into the offensive game – but it didn’t make any tangible difference in the B’s team game.

“I tried to keep it simple. Stick to the rules on the breakout and just make plays, play fast. I thought I did a pretty good job, but would’ve been nice to get the win,” Lohrei said. “I think a lot of it’s on us. We’ve got to come out and play to our identity.”

In a first period where the Sabres outshot the Bruins 19-5, Buffalo was unable to get anything on the scoreboard. While Eric Robinson knocked the puck past Linus Ullmark following a net-front scrum at 14:42, it was soon overturned for goaltender interference and the game remained 0-0 heading into the middle stanza.

Ullmark stood tall for Boston through the first 20 minutes, making some key stops against his former team and buying the Bruins time to some amount of rhythm after an underwhelming first.

“I think we just need to have a little onus upon ourselves to have a better start,” Brandon Carlo said.

The Sabres opened scoring in the second period thanks to an early goal from forward JJ Peterka. Buffalo center Dylan Cozens won the face-off against Pavel Zacha and knocked the puck back to Peterka above the left circle, who wristed home at 1:18 for the 1-0 lead.

Despite some sustained O-zone time from the Bruins in the latter half of the second period, the Sabres struck back with a Tage Thompson one-timer at 16:57 to make it 2-0. Connor Clifton got the assist on the play in his first game back at TD Garden after five years in Boston.

Brad Marchand got his team within one before the third period, lofting the puck from below the right face-off dot at 17:35 for a 2-1 score and his fifth goal in three games.

The Bruins looked a bit more like themselves in the final frame and hemmed the Sabres into their own end while launching high-danger looks on Buffalo goaltender Devon Levi. However, a 2-on-1 break for the Sabres after a strong shift from Boston’s third line delivered the backbreaker. Forward Victor Olofsson wired one in on the rush at 11:16 for the 3-1 advantage.

“This game will humble you pretty quick. We saw that tonight,” Marchand said. “It’s about making sure we’re prepared to play hard and make it difficult on other teams every single night. Just didn’t do that today.”

Charlie McAvoy went down during his first shift of the third period after taking an elbow to the head from Peterka on a reverse hit by the boards. McAvoy left the game thereafter and didn’t return for the remainder of the night. Montgomery said he has an upper-body injury and the team will have more information on the extent of the injury Friday.

“That’s a gap that’s hard to fill – obviously our best defenseman. In those situations when you’re down by a goal or two, he’s a guy you want on the ice,” Carlo said. “Just like anything, injuries happen, bad games happen and we continue to move forward.”

Ullmark was pulled with about three minutes remaining in regulation, and while the Bruins put on the 6-on-5 pressure, the Sabres ultimately hung on and secured the 3-1 win. With the loss, Boston fell to a 17-5-3 record.

The Bruins will have a chance to correct Thursday’s sluggish performance on Saturday afternoon when the Arizona Coyotes come to town for a 1 p.m. puck drop at TD Garden.