By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter/X @RyanJBosworth
The Boston Bruins are back in the quest for the Stanley Cup. They officially clinched their 2026 postseason berth last weekend thanks to some help from the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders.
Tuesday night, with their 4-0 win over the New Jersey Devils, they officially clinched the first wild card, setting up a first-round matchup with the Buffalo Sabres. It’s a matchup that certainly favors the Bruins. However, that doesn’t mean things will be easy for the Bruins.
The Bruins and Sabres faced off four times this season, with Boston winning three of the four matchups. Boston won two of them at home and lost one on the road. The widest scoring margin between the two teams was when Buffalo won, as they defeated Boston 4-1. Most recently, Boston defeated Buffalo in their fourth and final regular season matchup by a score of 4-3.
Buffalo has a lot of talented players. Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, and Alex Tuch among them. Their highest-scoring player, Thompson, led the team with 81 points (40-41-81) through 81 games played. The biggest thing they lack, though? Playoff experience.
There were 14 years in between Buffalo’s two most recent postseason appearances. The last time they made it before clinching this season was the 2011 season. The most playoff experience from a single player on the Sabres is Jason Zucker, who has 52 playoff games played, and they have a total of 12 players with experience.
The Bruins, however, have 16 players with playoff experience, and six of their 16 have more experience than Buffalo’s most-experienced player. Charlie McAvoy leads both teams with 91 playoff games played, followed by David Pastrnak with 90.
The X-factor in this series, alongside the lack of experience on Buffalo’s part, is going to be goaltending. Boston has the clear number one goaltender in Jeremy Swayman. The last time Swayman saw the postseason, he made a name for himself.
Swayman had quite the turnaround year this year, playing in 55 games and recording a 2.71 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. While his numbers at surface value may not look supreme, it’s his underlying numbers, especially against high-danger chances that show the truth about Swayman’s dominance this season.
His goaltending counter-part, Joonas Korpisalo, isn’t have quite as great a season, but he’s come up with some big saves nonetheless. The question will be: can Buffalo get the same caliber of goaltending out of their guys?
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon have pretty much split the crease evenly, with Colton Ellis picking up a few games himself. Though Luukkonen is definitely their top guy right now. He has put up solid numbers, but he’s played 20 fewer games than Swayman.
Lyon is essentially a copy-and-paste of Luukkonen, and 19 fewer games than Swayman. Ellis has only played 16 games this season, so it’s unlikely he sees much of the postseason. Regardless, if Buffalo is going to compete, it’s going to have to start from their backend.
Another factor in all of this? Toughness and physicality, as directly commented on by Bruins head coach Marco Sturm. “We are bigger, stronger, we are more physical. We just have to be smart. But, we’re going to go after them,” Marco said after one of the Bruins’ practices this week ahead of game one.
Size-wise, the Bruins and Sabres are neck-and-neck, basically averaging the same height and weight. When taking a deeper look, however, looking specifically at things like hits given on the season and an average of hits per game, Boston outweighs Buffalo significantly.
Boston is sixth in the league in hits given across all 82 games, with 1,861. Buffalo, on the contrary, is 23rd, with 1,576. Boston also averages the sixth-most hits per game with 22.70 hits per game, while Buffalo averages the 18th most in the league, with 19.22.
This won’t be an easy series for either team. It will be a physical, grueling series for both sides, but the opportunity is there, and it should an even series. Things officially kick off tonight at the KeyBank Center, with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m. EST.
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