( Photo Credit: Joe Hrycych / Getty Images )

By: Declan Flavin | Follow me on Twitter / X @FlavinDeclan

Fans of the Boston Bruins are going buckwild after last night’s collapse. It makes sense because of the impending doom and instantaneous finality to the loss, but understandings of how the team approaches their attack strategy seemed to have been lost in the wash.

Since the start of the season, general manager Don Sweeney and head coach Marco Sturm have realized that the roster needed to win off of stout goaltending and defending. In their 100-point regular season and in their first game of the playoffs, the Bruins executed this discrepancy of an approach to a T.

“I thought we were in the perfect spot, exactly where we wanted to play, being in that position with 5 or 6 minutes left in a game.” -Sturm on Game 1, via WEEI’s Bridgette Proulx

Although the team was outshot by the Buffalo Sabres 38-20, they never fell out of the flow of the structure they needed to align with for most of the game. Forwards were being responsible along the wall and defensemen were chipping pucks out when they needed to.

Sturm is correct in validating the performance of the game plan, and there should be somewhat of a level of respect for a head coach that’s clearly moving along with his approach for the team regardless of results. The elation and chaos of an opponent long waiting for this opportunity cannot interfere with the rhythm that the road team wants to play with.

Was the loss potentially a fatal blow, considering the up-and-down confidence of the less experienced Sabres? For sure it could be; the jitters the home team initially had seemed inescapable and reminiscent of a classic “few opportunities but more capitalizations” situation that the Bruins themselves have been victim to before.

However, the Sabres were always going to be the more skilled and up-tempo team, and the Bruins were always going to have to play out a stout and perhaps “boring” style to check off victories in this series. Just because the Bruins don’t have a win in Buffalo yet, that doesn’t mean the focus of the game-to-game identity should get lost in the weeds.