The PuckUps Podcast with Brian DeFelice, Ep. 31: Bruins COLLAPSE in Game 1 against the Sabres

Brian reacts to the Bruins' Game 1 collapse in Buffalo and looks ahead to Game 2. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

You're listening to the Puckups Podcast. It's time to hit the ice with Brian D Felice. Welcome to episode 31 of the Puckups Podcast. I am Brian D Felice and thank you all for joining me. On today's show, we'll be recapping game one between the Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres, as well as looking ahead to game two and beyond. But first things first, if you haven't done so already, please go ahead and subscribe to the Puck Ups on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else that you get your podcast. To get in touch with me or be a part of the show, you can email me at infothepuckups.com. You can tweet at me on X at Brian D Felice underscore. You can tweet at the show at the puck ups, or leave a comment on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, anywhere the show has a social media account and post content. Playoff hockey returned to the Streets of Buffalo, New York Sunday night for the first time in 15 years. For Sabres fans, an instant classic, well worth the wait. For Bruins fans, just the latest springtime collapse. Now, despite Boston's collapse, at the end of the day, the better team did win this hockey game. For much of regulation, Buffalo outskated, they outgenerated, they outworked, and ultimately they out-executed the Bruins, and they deserve the win. But from the Bruins' perspective, despite all of that, you have a 2-0 lead with under 10 minutes to go on regulation. That is a game you have to win. You have to find a way to close it out. If you don't, it's the type of loss that can cost you a series. The Bruins have to win at least one game in Buffalo if they want to win this series. That could have and should have been the game right there. Sabres fans have been salivating, foaming at the mouth for playoff hockey for a decade and a half. And for 50 minutes, you kept them quiet. To Sabres fans' credit, they were looking for any and all reasons to keep loud and to keep cheering, despite the home team not finding the back of the net for 50 minutes of the hockey game. Buffalo, they that home crowd, they were ready to go. They were jumping. The atmosphere was unbelievable. A tip of the cap to Sabres fans for showing up. But Boston did their best to keep them quiet. And they were this close, they were this close from stealing game one. And instead, they sat back. You can't play that way. You cannot play that way. That's when bad things happen. You have to keep playing on your toes. You have to keep taking it to the opposition. Now I will say, even in the first 50 minutes of action, it's not as if the Bruins were actually taking it to Buffalo. They were more so just kind of mitigating Buffalo's scoring chances and their rush opportunities. They were hanging on by a thread, even with a 2-0 lead. They were bending all game and they finally broke. You were just hoping that it would just be bend, bend, bend, bend, bend, end of regulation. But instead, they did break. And the end result from where I sit is that the Bruins didn't only lose game one with this collapse. One of the few advantages that they had on Buffalo potentially coming into the series, and they did not capitalize on it with this loss. Had this game finished 2-0, I think you're talking about a Bruins team that A stole a game on the road, which they had to do, but B you stifled what Buffalo was hoping for. The Sabres and their fans were hoping for the first home game in Buffalo in 15 years to deliver. Sabres fans and players alike, they wanted this game to be a classic. They wanted this game to be remembered forever. Yeah, it's our first home game in 15 years. It's gotta be a classic. And for 50 minutes, you stifled that. You spit on that possibility. And in a matter of three to five minutes, it all went away. And you gave them everything that they hoped that night would be. That game last night, regardless of what happens in the rest of this series, that game will be glorified in Sabres lore as one of the greatest playoff games, probably uh in Buffalo. Like, I mean, you're down to nothing. I believe I saw somewhere online that the Sabres were the first team in NHL history to be to be down multiple goal multiple goals to nothing with under 10 minutes remaining in regulation to win that game in regulation. So Buffalo made history last night. They went from being silent to the roof exploding. The Bruins gave them that. And they were eight minutes away from taking it from them. Imagine how much tighter the Sabres players would be gripping their sticks in game two. If after 15 years of a playoff absence with a city starving for playoff success and something to cheer for, and you weren't even able to give them a goal in game one. Imagine if the Bruins came out in game two and and got a quick one. Imagine how restless and how anxious that crowd would be and how furious they would be if after 15 years of a playoff absence, they finally get back into the dance and the team has not given the crowd anything to cheer for through a game plus. That's the advantage that the Bruins squandered not closing that game out last night. And I'm not trying to be over-dramatic because it's one game in a seven-game series. But think about that. Think about what happens to the Sabres players. They start to play more tight in game two, they start to grip their sticks tighter, and the fan base gets that much more restless had the Bruins closed out game one the way that they should have. Instead, you took your foot off the gas, you played not to lose instead of playing to win. You made mental mistakes, and you got overwhelmed by the moment. And you let that Sabres team back into the game, you let that crowd explode the way they were hoping to do from the drop of the puck. And now you gave them an instant classic. That was everything that the Sabres fans and the Sabres players hoped it would be. Now, instead of playing with anxiety and nerves in game two, I think the pressure's off these Sabres players. I think that they go out there and they play even freer in game two. Now, maybe the Bruins still find a way to win and square up the series and go back to Boston 1-1. But I'm telling you right now, it's going to be a hell of a lot tougher to do so now than had the Bruins found a way to win game one. I think all the pressure would have mounted on a Sabres organization that has not made the postseason in a decade and a half, and as the favorites in this series would not want to go back to Boston down 0-2. So that was a tough loss for the Bruins. It wasn't just you can sit there and say to me, Oh, Brian, it's just game one. Don't overthink it. You're down 1-0, go out there in game two and tie the series. And you're not wrong. I don't disagree with that. Playoff hockey, you're only as good as your next game, right? You have to put yesterday behind you, win or lose. If the Sabres go out there in game two and think it's going to be easy because they won game one in the way that the way that they did, then you know, don't be surprised if they get slapped in the face and lose game two. You can't get too high or too low in the postseason. I understand that. But I do think that the game within the game, the Bruins had a chance to mount pressure to those Sabres players with a game one win, especially if they got shut out. And to build anxiety and restlessness and a little bit of hostility. I mean, that's Sabres fan base. They're passionate. And they were outside the doors hours before they could be let in. They were partying in the streets, and they were ready to rock and roll. And midway through the second period, Buffalo couldn't gain zone entry on their own power plays. They weren't generating a ton. The home crowd got restless. They started to boo a little bit to get their team going. Imagine if that carried it to game two. It wouldn't have been fun. So that to me is what the Bruins also lost with this collapse. They didn't just go down a game in a series. I think they lost one of their advantages. Let's start off with some of the positives here for the Bruins. Entering the series, I mentioned that the line of Elias Lindholm, David Pashnak, and Morgan Geeky was a big question mark. Throughout the course of the regular season, in all their minutes spent together, oppositions scored more goals against the Bruins with that line on the ice for Boston than Boston scored against the opposition. Beyond that, that line also just got heavily outgenerated and outpossessed in their time together. And this game against Buffalo was kind of a microcosm of that in a way, where this line actually produced, and they were responsible for both of Boston's first goals. Morgan Geeky scored off a broken play in transition to give Boston a one-on-thing lead in the first period, which was a big goal at the time. That's a positive. To go into that environment, that that rabid environment in Buffalo and to get that first goal, to weather that storm, get that first goal, and get the fans and the sabres and the home team feeling uncomfortable. That was a positive by Boston. And then another positive was that in the third period, you go out in the first shift of the period, and you add to your lead. You give yourself an insurance marker. You go up 2-0. Now Buffalo's really feeling tight. Now those fans are really feeling a little bit nervous. You went out there, you got that next goal. So that's on the Bruins top line for doing so. Good on them.

unknown 11:40

Right?

SPEAKER_01 11:41

It was a good cycle shift. That second goal. First goal's in transition. The second goal was off of the cycle, right? They were tied to low, low to high. And Andrew Peake rims the puck down beneath the goal. Paschnack gets it. Fends off the Sabres defenseman, gets it in front. Morgan Geeky hits the post. Elias Linholm bangs in the rebound. 2-0 Boston. So good for that top line. But oddly enough, they got out chanced and outpossessed outside of their two goals. There wasn't a whole lot going for that line. They spent a lot of time in their D-zone and a lot of one and duns in the O zone outside of those two goals. However, they did get those two goals. So it's tough to sit here and criticize them for doing something that the other lines weren't able to do, and that was score. Now I want to talk about the Bruins second line real quick. Because the Zaka, Middlesead, and Arvidsson line did not have their best stuff. And it's okay, it's only one game, right? But I am here to say that Pavel Zaka has been such an important player to this Bruins team over the last three, four seasons, especially in the regular season. But he has had his doubters that have pointed out to me that he goes away in the postseason. Now he did get an assist in game one, but it was a secondary assist in garbage time. Boston was down 4-2 with you know 10 seconds to go in the game, and you know, he got a secondary assist, so he gets a point in this one. But Pavel Zaka has one goal, including last night. He has one goal in 26 postseason games. He has 12 assists and 13 points. So he's a half a point per game guy in his postseason career with one goal. I'm not saying that right now to shit on him for game one. But what I am saying is keep an eye on him. If the Bruins lose this series in four or five games, or if they lose this series at all, and we're going into the summer, and Zaka still only has one goal in the postseason in his career, it's, you know, they need more from him. You can't be a regular season darling for this team, but then go away in the postseason. I'm not saying he's gone away this year. We're only one game in. Okay, but I'm just raising it to flag it down so that you, the viewers, can pay attention to him going forward in this series, knowing that postseason production has kind of avoided him. Okay, he had 60 plus points this year, 30 plus goals in, I want to say 79 games or 80 games. Okay, so he's more than a half a point per game guy in the NHL in the regular season, and he has been throughout his time in Boston. If you look at his total games played in total points four, okay, he's more than a half a point per game guy at the NHL level. He's probably a you know 0.75 point per game guy. So if you're gonna be one of the big boys in the regular season, you have to be one of the big boys in the postseason. And obviously, we're only one game in here, so I'm not I'm not surmising his postseason with one game where he actually had an assist. I'm just saying keep an eye on him going forward. And I really do think that when teams hone in on Pasternak, you have to have that secondary scoring. Okay, the Bruins in the game one, Pasternak had three points. Geeky had three points and they still lost, right? So that Bruins second line has been their best line all year long, and if they want to have success in the series, they have to continue to be their best line, or you know, at least on par with the Pasternak line. Okay. So wasn't their best outing against Buffalo in game one. As I mentioned, Boston got off to a 2-0 lead thanks to Morgan Geeky and Elias Lindholm. And it all went to shit with about eight minutes remaining in regulation, a little bit less, want to say 758 remaining in regulation, is when Tage Thompson got his first goal of the game. Now, Tage Thompson is incredible. He is a unicorn in the league. When you talk about his size and his reach and his skating and his skill, there truly is nobody else in the NHL like Tage Thompson. He's one of one. That doesn't mean he's the best player in the league. That's Connor McDavid, right? It doesn't mean he's a top five player in the league, but he really is one of one. There's nobody else like him. There's nobody else with his combination of size, speed, and skill at the forward position. There just isn't. And if there is somebody else like him, they're not better than him. He he's he's the best power forward in the NHL, in my opinion. Best power slash finesse forward, which is kind of to the contrary because a power forward and a finesse forward isn't usually the same style of play, but he has a little bit of everything, is my point. So Tage Thompson gets Buffalo to cut the lead within half, and it kind of starts with Charlie McAvoy not getting the puck out of his own zone. And when you're Boston's top D-man and you have the puck with time and space, a 2-0 lead, late in regulation, pucks in your stick, it has to get out. He fumbles the puck, goes back beneath the goal line, loses a loses a one-on-one battle, and Tage Thompson has an all-world play to kind of wrap that puck around on Swayman and get Buffalo back in the game. Now the crowd's feeling it. And that's where things started to go south for Boston. Not too long later, another mental mistake. This time it's Nikita Zodoroff. So Zodoroff has the puck. It's kind of a deep neutral zone, defensive zone regroup, and he has time and space. And the right play was to go to his partner and up the other side of the ice. Instead, he holds on to it, holds on to it. A four checker comes at him, and then he goes high off the glass up the strong side, head high at David Paschnack. He can't collect the puck, and now it's an ice. So you have possession, you have time and space, and then you ice the puck in an unforced manner. Now it's an offensive zone face-off for Buffalo. And while they didn't score right off the face-off, they scored on that shift. And it starts because Zadorov just ices the puck. Mental mistake, mental lapse. Okay, and then you know, later on in the shift, Andrew Peake, he gets the puck behind the goal. And all he had to do, he took a peek to his left, no pun intended. He he looked to his left and he saw that there were three Buffalo shirts and a fourth one being the defenseman on the strong side. So he knew he couldn't go up the strong side boards with the puck on his backhand. What he should have done was just right away on the forehand, bank pass off the boards behind the net, and Zadorov would have gotten it and got off the weak side. Instead, he eats it. He tries to eat the puck. The problem is now you're just a sitting duck for Buffalo's forwards to come and forecheck you. And Andrew Peake is not the best puck mover. Add to that, it wasn't just any Buffalo forward on the ice. It was Alex Tuck. It was Tage Thompson. Two big boys who can forecheck and steal pucks and finish. So Andrew Peak coughs up the puck. Tage Thompson gets the puck, gets a second goal in a couple of minutes. Adoroff is late, getting to him in front of the net. And it's just mistake after mistake, and now it's 2-2. Now the place is going crazy, and you know that Buffalo is finding a way to win this game. I kind of thought it may have been an overtime, but nope. All they needed was one more minute in regulation to get the 3-2 lead. And this again, a bit of an unfortunate play. Puck goes behind Boston's net. Hampus Lindholm goes to rimming around the boards, his stick snaps. I mean, of course it does. Because that's something that would happen to Hampus Lindholm. He's the most unlucky player on the Bruins. He's going to have to start using a wooden Sherwood stick going forward, I think. But obviously, not his fault the stick snap, but it's just a misfortunate play. And he can't get the puck out. Next thing you know, Jack Quinn gives it to Mateus Samuelson. 3-2 Buffalo. And I honestly think the roof came off the arena. Truly. Alex Tuck would add the empty netter, make it 4-2. Pass snack got the garbage goal with 10 seconds left. Too little too late. And Buffalo gets a huge game one win to go up 1-0 in the series. A disappointing loss for Boston. An unacceptable loss for Boston. And we'll get to what Marco Sturm had to say after the game. I truly don't agree with everything that he said. I'm not sure if he's trying to play politician with the media and not be too brutally honest about his team's effort in this one. But I'll explain what I disagree with in just a second. Let's get to Marco Sturm after the game talking about Boston's loss to Buffalo.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Marco, did you feel like your team lost their composure in the second half of the third period? Or was it a product of spending too much time all night in your own cell?

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Um Yeah, I don't know. I really don't know yet. I I gotta look at I I thought we were in the perfect spot exactly where we wanted to play. Having you know been in that position, five, six minutes left in a game. I mean, um they got you could tell they got a little bit frustrated. And um Yeah, we made pretty much two mistakes to let them tie up the game and then obviously with the crowd behind all of a sudden they got some got some life and uh and all of a sudden the game is done. So um very unfortunate because my guys played really well. Very well. Um but that's playoffs. That's something we have to learn again the hard way, and uh we gotta just gotta stick about the first 60 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Alright. A few things I don't agree with there. First of all, it was more than just a couple of mistakes. It was more than two mistakes. There was there were there was at least five, six, seven mistakes on those three goals alone that led to those goals, directly or indirectly. Okay, let's go back to the first one. Charlie McAvoy has a puck on his stick, can't get it out. That's mistake number one. Puck goes beneath the goal line. McAvoy gets up muscled, can't identify who has the puck in Tage Thompson. That's mistake number two. Okay, I'm not gonna, you know, Swayman gets beat to the near side post in this one, but again, it was an all-world play by Tage Thompson, and there were multiple plays before that that led to that opportunity. So of the goals that Swayman let in, I mean, don't love it, but it's a tricky play. Thompson has such a long stick, and whatever. But multiple mistakes by McAvoy on that play alone. The second goal, as I said, Nikita Zodoroff has the puck on his stick on Forest Ice, mistake number one. Okay. Now you have a face-off in your own in your own zone. Andrew Peak collects the puck behind his go, doesn't go up the weak side, tries to eat the puck, gets out muscled, loses the puck battle. Mistake number two. Jeremy Swayman lifts his pad, soft goal on the second uh Tage Thompson goal. Mistake number three. So now we're at five mistakes. And now Swayman played great in the first couple of periods. Cannot take that away from him. And I do see some people bashing him online, and I do think that he wasn't great in the clutch when it needed him to make some some key saves when uh the team started hemorrhaging. But still, anytime you get outshot two to one, it you can go ahead and blame the goalie first and foremost if you want. You can do that on your own time. I think he's part of the problem in the third period, but you got outshot two to one in regulation. And if it wasn't for him, you're probably down a couple goals heading into the third period. So, you know, uh I'm not absolving him from responsibilities in the third period, but Jeremy Swayman's not the biggest reason that you lost that game at all. He was one of the guys that made some mistakes towards the end, but the whole team just got outplayed most of regulation. And then the third goal, again, the Hampus Lindholm, he breaks his stick. I mean, I guess it's not really a mistake. Um, that's more of a an unfortunate mishap. But, you know, then he exchanges his stick with uh, or Pavel Zaka gives Hampus Lindholm his stick to to you know, obviously to help try to play defense, but then Zaka has no stick and he overcommits to the play. He's kind of useless on that play without his stick. And it just it was mistake after mistake after mistake. But also strategically, the Bruins playing on their heels and sitting back too much was a mistake. Okay, and that's that's the second part of Marco Sturm's comment that I disagree with, where he says, I thought my guys played great. Really? Like, why do you think they played great? Because they because they limited Buffalo's transition play? Okay, that's great. I'm glad the Bruins for the first 45 minutes of the game, I'm glad they clogged the neutral zone. I'm glad that they they kept Buffalo to the outside for the most part. But there's more to playing great than just limiting your opponent's strengths. Like you have to get to your strength too. You can't you can't be so uh fixated on uh eliminating your opponent's strengths that you never get to yours. You have to do both. And it just felt like the Bruins were defending way too much in this game, and because of that, their four-checking game for the most part was non-existent. It was a lot of one and duns because they didn't have the energy to forecheck after being in your own zone for 45 seconds. You know, they were lucky to get the puck to the red line and then dump it in, and then they're changing, right? And when they did dump pucks in and get after it, you know, they didn't, they didn't they didn't regain possession of the pucks nearly enough. They didn't have any sustained ozone time. You know, there was no they had no real cycle game going, they had no low to high game going consistently enough, and it's because they didn't have the energy because they were too busy defending. Why were they too busy defending? Well, that's another reason that I think there should be possibly some lineup changes for game two, and specifically on the back end. I think Andrew Peak has to come out of the game, out of the lineup. I think that Buffalo's defense is always gonna be, especially their top four, they're gonna they're they're they're more mobile than Boston's. They're they they they transition better than the Boston Bruins top four D. Um you know, I would I I it's it's I mean Samuelson, Dallen, Power, and Byron, those four guys, they can all skate like the wind to move the puck. Charlie McAvoy can Mason Laura can when he is assertive enough. Sometimes he plays a little too shy. Um Hampus Lindholm can, but he gives me a heart attack in doing so. Uh and Jonathan Aspro, you know, he's not really uh a wizard with the puck, but he he can move if you give him time and space. He can certainly gain the red line and get it in. And then on the on the on the third pair, you have Zodorov, who's capable uh of moving the puck when he when he wants to, but sometimes he's just way too conservative. Oftentimes he's too conservative. And I think with his size and mobility when he gets going, he's not he's a tough guy to stop. But I just feel like he plays on his heels too much because probably Sturm's telling him not to take chances. Andrew Peak cannot move the puck. He he, you know, if he has time and space, I'm not saying he can't make a tape-to-tape pass here and there. He's he's in the NHL for a reason, but compared to you know the guys around him and the competition around the Bruins, Peak is not a puck mover. And I just think that in the Bruins' own zone, they need to make decisions quicker with the puck. If Buffalo has two or three guys committed to one side of the offensive zone and they're taking the boards away, and their strong side D is you know anticipating the puck going to the Bruins winger or center, and he's gonna pinch. I just feel like the Bruins are too slow to reverse the puck and go up the weak side. And when you reverse the puck and go up the weak side, you can either go to the weak side wing or have the weak side defenseman just move his feet and take it himself and take the ice that's given to him. I think the Bruins need to be more they have to have more of a skate first mentality when the time is right. You can't always just force the puck up the boards with a rim or try to go to the winger because you're flat-footed too much as a winger and you're gonna get caved in on. So I think that a guy like Jordan Harris, for example, can break the puck up with his feet. The Bruins need defenseman that when the time is right, can break the puck up with their feet. When your opposition is for checking hard and they're taking away the strong side, you have to have the ability to quickly go up the weak side or just move your feet and go around a net and take it yourself. And that might mean just skating it to the top of the circle and then getting it off the glass. But the Bruins need to get out of their own end quicker. So I'm, you know, obviously I'm not breaking down the Sabres film like the Bruins coaches are, and I don't know the Bruins system as intimately as the Bruins coaches do, but the Bruins as a team, they have to find a way strategically to get pucks out of their own end quicker. And I ultimately I just think things happen so quick. You can drop the X's and O's all you want. At the end of the day, it comes down to being able to skate the puck out of trouble when you have the opportunity to. And the Bruins need to start doing that more. Charlie McAvoy can do it. Hampus Lindholm can do it, Mason Laura can do it, Zadorov can do it. I think Jordan Harris can do it too. He his strength is skating, and I know he hasn't played a lot of games this year, but if you're asking me if I want Peak, Yoki Haryu, or or Jordan Harris's mobility in game two, I think I would much rather have Jordan Harris's mobility because you have to be able to transition. You have to be able to get out of your zone cleanly and you know obviously Buffalo is a better rush team than Boston, but that doesn't mean you can't be a rush team yourself. Like you have to try to create offense. You can't just be in your own zone all the time and trying to win like you're the 2000 New Jersey Devils because you don't have uh the talent that the New Jersey Devils did in 2000. So I just think the Bruins need to get out of their own zone quicker, uh more efficiently, and when they do that, they'll be defending less in their own zone, they'll have more energy to forcheck and to have extended ozone time. And you can get after the Sabres team. You know, I'm I mentioned I mentioned in the uh series preview that Buffalo Buffalo gives up chances. The Bruins, the Bruins give up 29.4 shots per game in the regular season. They give up the fifth most shots in the NHL. Buffalo gives up the 10th most shots in the NHL. Okay, so they're not exactly the Carolina Hurricanes that give up the 32nd fewest shots in the league, which is which was possibly Boston's first round opponent. Had Ottawa, uh, had had Boston lost New Jersey in game 82, and Ottawa won against Toronto, which they did. Okay, Buffalo does give up chances. So for the Bruins, they have to make some adjustments going forward. Okay. Now, one of their big adjustments going forward, too, has to do with somebody who was an absolute game breaker for the Buffalo Sabres, and that is Tage Thompson. Let's get to Tage Thompson after game one about the Sabres comeback against the Bruins and his part in it.

SPEAKER_04 32:33

You talk about uh the team mentality after 40 minutes, but for you personally, if you look at the two goals that you scored, it felt like you were really imposing your will, like they were real individual efforts. So, what was going through your mind in terms of just what you wanted to do in that period and just trying to impose your will?

SPEAKER_00 32:52

I don't think by any means it was individual effort. I think if you look at both those plays, it's from both of my linemates for checking and disrupting and causing a turnover, and um, you know, I'm in a race spot where a puck finds me um off their off their pressure. And I think those two goals are exactly what uh we wanted to do all night. Um put pucks behind them, pound their D, uh make it tough night on them, and um just hit the repeat button on the head, you know, and you go back for enough pucks, uh, it's pretty exhausting and um create loose pucks and get chances from there. And fortunately they went in for us.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Now, Tage Thompson to me, he is, as I said earlier, he's a unicorn, he's a game changer, a game breaker, and the Boston Bruins, they have they have to make life harder on Tage Thompson. They just have to. You have to make him feel uncomfortable. So I don't know if it's a combination of you know Nikita Zodoroff getting in his face and playing him hard. Tage Thompson, by the way, is he's a gamer. He's not afraid of contact. He's he's not gonna be an easy guy to get off of his game. But you have to make life uncomfortable for him. I did think he had a relatively quiet game in game one until he didn't. I was actually thinking to myself when it was still 2-0 in the third period, about a shift or two before he got his first goal. Thinking to myself, I haven't seen much of Thompson yet tonight. And then a player like that, he doesn't need much time. He doesn't need much time to make his presence known and impact felt in the score sheet. And he was he he as he goes, the Sabres go. I think he's the engine that runs that team. And I think that if you allow him to be the best player in the series, which I think he was the best player in game one, then it's it's not gonna be a good series for Boston. I think you know they'll lose pretty quickly. You have you have to get Tage Thompson off of his game somehow, somehow. You have to be more physical with them, and you have to make life harder for him. So I'm not exactly sure what matchup that would be for the Bruins. Um, you know, I I I I I think his with his reach, he's just kind of unfair. So you almost want him matched up against you know Zodoroff physically and and from a size perspective, but then you know, I think whoever Zodoroff's D partner is could be exposed in a matchup like that. So obviously the Bruins, I feel like will try to match up McAvoy and Aspro against Thompson, but I don't know. He he's just he's too good to allow him to do what he wants. So if the Bruins can't get to Tage Thompson, just like the Sabres try to get to David Pasternak, every team in the playoffs, they try to get at Pasternak. Like you have to go at your opposition's best player over the course of seven games, you just have to. So that's gonna be a key point of emphasis. And Thompson mentioned getting behind Boston's D and making them uncomfortable and grinding them down over the course of a game. Buffalo did that perfectly. Boston didn't. I mean, based on the comments that Marco Stern made before game one, we're bigger, we're heavier, we're stronger, we're more physical. Not in game one, you weren't. Most of the time when a team has more hits than their opposition, it's because they don't have the puck as much, and so they're chasing, and then they're they're they're checking because they're chasing. Buffalo was not chasing in game one, they were dictating play, and they still outhit Boston because they were playing on their toes. Now part of that's because they are the faster team, but a lot of time, you know, speed is mental too. You have to you you can you have quickness with your feet, but you have quickness with your mind. As a team, you can play quicker than your foot speed if your decision making is there. So the Bruins need to be far more decisive in game two and going forward, because if they go down in the series two games to none, it's not looking good. Obviously, there's an old adage, uh, you know, it's not a playoff series until you've lost one game at home. Okay, so the Bruins obviously would have a chance to get back into the series in game three, but if they lost game two, but realistically, you're gonna want to split here with Buffalo heading into games one and two. Okay, you you were this close to getting that at least in game one, and you squandered it. So, can the Bruins learn their lessons heading into game two? Can they flip the script on Buffalo? We'll find out. Okay. Game two between the Bruins and the Sabres will be on Tuesday night. And just a personal note from me, I will be traveling for the next week and a half. Um do have a vacation that's been on the books for about a year. So you can imagine my surprise when the Bruins made the playoffs this year. But that said, despite me not being in my normal location or setting, I will be covering the series um to the best of my ability. I will still be recording, I just won't be in my current surroundings. So I will try to do at least episodes on Mondays and Fridays, and we'll see what happens with the series. We'll play it by year, but I'll still be uploading here, and you can hear me here. I'll still be doing my content for um WEI's Escape Podcast. I'll just be uh on location. Okay, so that'll do it for this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. Enjoy Bruins and Sabres game two on Tuesday, and I'll talk to you soon.