By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter/X @RyanJBosworth
It was once again do-or-die for the Bruins tonight, as they were back on home ice to take on the Buffalo Sabres in Game Six of their first-round matchup. They come into tonight off an electric Game Five overtime win, thanks to David Pastrnak, who secured the win with a breakaway goal on Alex Lyon.
Boston was looking to rebound in front of TD Garden faithful, as their Game Four performance was beyond disappointing. Ahead of the game, fans at TD Garden understood the mission: be as loud as possible. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the air to be sucked from the building.
Underwhelming Start
For whatever reason, there seems to be a curse for the Bruins playing playoff games at TD Garden. They came into tonight having won just three of their last 13 home playoff games, and it’s especially shocking considering they had the second-best home record of the 2025-26 regular season, with a record of 29-11-1.
Buffalo opened the scoring early, as Alex Tuch would break the ice just 3:25 into the game, left wide open on Jeremy Swayman’s back door. It would prove to be a consistent issue throughout the first 20, as two major issues plaguing the Bruins, among other things, was their inability to win races to a loose puck, and their inability to effectively clear out the Buffalo skater in the crease.
That issue would prove to cause another goal, albeit not quiet the same manner, but that same issue of being unable to clear the front of the net would allow Buffalo to go up 2-0, thanks to a point shot from Mattias Samuelsson that was somehow able to get through three Buffalo skaters and two Boston defenders. The Bruins found themselves in a hole early, with work to do.
Momentum Builder
Let it be noted — the second frame was far from the Bruins’ best period. However, considering the recent performances at home, it was certainly one of their strongest period this series at home. They were able to limit the Sabres to just eight shots and no goals. The Bruins, on the contrary, were able to break the ice, thanks to David Pastrnak.
In two-on-one with Pavel Zacha, who fed a pass to Pastrnak through the slot for his signature one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle. He beats Lyon to the nearside where he essentially had a wide-open net. It would prove to be the only goal of the period, and they’d head into the second intermission with a score of 2-1.
The big issue from that period? The forecheck. Marat Khusnutdinov was Boston’s best forechecker through the frame, throwing his whole 184 pounds at Buffalo’s defenders. They weren’t able to generate anything from it, and they were allowing Buffalo to exit the zone completely unpressured. With such a tight score and back-and-forth play to consume most of the second frame, there was certainly a dramatic finish to be had.
Momentum Killer
The Bruins came out into the third period holding all the momentum. Strong cycling, creating scoring chances, and having the TD Garden crowd involved was fueling what felt like a sure-fire game tying goal to make a push to extend their season. Instead, it was quite the opposite.
A mismanaged puck by Hampus Lindholm on the offensive blue line led to a 2-on-1 where Josh Doan drew in both Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak, leaving the trailing Zach Benson all alone in the slot to put the Sabres up 3-1.
As described, this was the momentum killer. From this point on, the Bruins didn’t have their bearings. They were fumbling pucks, making poor passes, and they were unable to generate the momentum they once had. It wasn’t long before Buffalo scored an empty net goal to really seal this one and put them up by a score of 4-1.
Time wound down in the game as did the Bruins’ season, and Buffalo would win to advance to the second round. Though, not before some flaring tempers from Charlie McAvoy, who was slew footed by Buffalo’s Zach Benson and slid into the boards. A fuming McAvoy got up, skated over to Benson and give him a two-hand whack to the chest before being ejected and given a five-minute major and game misconduct.
A team fueled by doubt around the league proved everyone wrong through their 82-game regular season. Putting together a 100-point record, proving all of their doubters wrong, and securing a postseason berth just one year after a depressing 33-39-10 record in the 2024-25 season.
Despite the accolades, it wouldn’t prove to be enough to make the noise they sought after in the hunt for the Cup. As Charlie McAvoy put it postgame, “We squeezed every drop out of this group. We surprised a lot of people. We thought once we got (to the playoffs) we could make some noise, but we just didn’t play like it.”
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