Boston Bruins
“I do know plenty of groups — they’re afraid of us. I can inform. You may see it, you may hear it, and that’s what we now have to do in Buffalo.”
Marco Sturm isn’t fretting over matchups or the scary “final change” that the Sabres will wield at KeyBank Heart in 4 out of a doable seven video games on this first-round playoff sequence.
Boston’s bench boss is properly conscious of Buffalo’s rush-heavy method, the velocity of dynamic blueliners led by Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson, and the hostile environment that awaits his membership when the puck drops in Buffalo on Sunday night.
For Sturm, all it’d take is a number of bone-rattling checks towards the glass for the Bruins to empty the life out of Buffalo’s barn.
“We don’t actually care,” a candid Sturm mentioned Friday at Warrior Ice Area of bracing for final change towards Buffalo. “We all know how we now have to play. We’re going to be able to go. We’re excited.
“We’re larger, stronger. We’re extra bodily. We simply must be sensible. We’re going to go after them and whoever is available in — first line, second — I don’t actually care. We attempt to play our recreation and never their recreation.”
Past the steadying presence of Jeremy Swayman between the pipes, the Bruins — on paper not less than — could not maintain many benefits towards their Atlantic Division rivals on this opening-round sequence.
Buffalo’s ahead corps — anchored down the center by three expert pivots in Tage Thompson, Josh Norris, and Ryan McLeod — can choose aside matchups and land punches at 5-on-5 play.
The Sabres’ D corps is shot-ready, with Buffalo rating third within the NHL in objectives by defensemen with 55 through the common season.
However for all that’s seemingly working in Buffalo’s favor forward of its first trek to the playoffs since 2011, the Bruins imagine they’ve the blueprint in place that may tilt postseason bouts of their favor — whatever the opponent.
It’s rooted in a relentless forecheck and a punishing method that the Bruins have adopted all season lengthy — an id that might put on down even probably the most expert rosters over the course of a seven-game slugfest.
“I believe that may very well be a recreation changer, that may very well be a sequence changer, that may very well be plenty of issues,” Sturm added of Boston’s smash-mouth mindset. “We simply must be sensible about it. I do know plenty of groups — they’re afraid of us. I can inform. You may see it, you may hear it, and that’s what we now have to do in Buffalo.”
Sturm’s feedback echo a swagger felt in a Bruins dressing room that has seemingly embraced Cam Neely’s preseason decree of more “piss and vinegar” out on the frozen sheet.
The Bruins have doled out loads of injury within the offensive zone behind the likes of David Pastrnak (100 factors), Morgan Geekie (39 objectives), and lots of others.
However Boston has additionally relished the chance to tenderize puck carriers when given the chance.
Boston closed out the common season with seven completely different gamers who logged not less than 100 hits, with Tanner Jeannot (239 hits), Mark Kastelic (215), and Nikita Zadorov (196) all rating within the high 25 of NHL gamers in recorded smacks out on the ice.
Solely the Lightning recorded extra fights than the Bruins’ 33 through the common season, with Kastelic and Jeannot accountable for 18 of these scraps.
Kastelic and Jeannot’s precedence over the following two weeks isn’t going to revolve round pummeling Buffalo’s skaters through a gradual weight loss plan of proper hooks.
However as evidenced by different groups just like the Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues, who solid surprising playoff runs over the previous few years — stapling skaters into the glass, forcing turnovers, and touchdown welts stands as a tried-and-true avenue towards postseason success.
Past the heft that Boston boasts in its lineup, fleet-footed forecheckers like Marat Khusnutdinov and even 19-year-old James Hagens might additionally create some chaos when Buffalo D-men like Owen Energy, Logan Stanley, and others are tasked with puck retrievals in high-danger ice.
The Sabres aren’t precisely an undersized squad, with 12 gamers on Buffalo’s roster measuring out at 6-foot-3 or taller.
However as Sturm echoed a number of occasions on Friday, a pugnacious Bruins squad isn’t shifting its method — irrespective of who strains up towards them over the following few weeks.
“I believe if you happen to don’t get pleasure from it, you’re within the improper sport or improper place,” Zadorov mentioned of going into Buffalo to begin off this postseason. “That’s playoff hockey. That’s stress, that’s environment, depth, physicality, blood, sweat — you identify it.”
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