Smith's Late Winner Lifts Bruins Over Sabres

BOSTON - The Bruins knew the situation their opponent was in on Saturday afternoon.
Entering the matinee matchup, the Buffalo Sabres had lost 16 consecutive games - just two short of the NHL's all-time record. Still, Boston knew it would be a grind.
The Bruins remain without a bevy of key players due to injury and COVID protocols, and just before game time found out that leading scorer Brad Marchand would be sidelined after finding himself on the COVID list.

A victory - even against the sinking Sabres - would not be guaranteed. And it wasn't.
Boston found itself trailing twice, before rallying with a strong third period on the backs of the second line as Nick Ritchie (tying) and Craig Smith (winning) both scored in the final frame to lift the Bruins to a 3-2 victory at TD Garden.
"Happy for the guys, it was a battle out there," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "No easy games in this league, and a credit to us. We played winning hockey in the third period, on both ends of the ice. You talk about the offensive part, but the other end, we didn't give up anything in the third period either. We allowed ourselves to stay in the game."

The Bruins carried much of the play over the final 20 minutes, outshooting the Sabres, 15-3, in the third. Smith struck for the winner with 3:50 remaining in regulation when he ripped home a loose puck from the doorstep after an odd-man rush with Ritchie and David Krejci led to a scramble in front of the Sabres' net.
"I thought we were opportunistic, some of the focus was put on getting to the front of the net and being a little bit more hungry around the net," said Smith. "You could see Ritch bang one in there in the third…those guys just creating a little havoc in front, a lucky puck bouncing out."
Ritchie tied the game earlier in the period on a similar net-front goal that followed a stellar individual effort from Charlie McAvoy, who circled the zone and, in the midst of his second turn around the net, sent a feed toward the crease. The puck bounced around in front before Ritchie whacked it home to knot the game, 2-2, at 5:22 of the third.
"I was coming off the bench, so kind of skating into the play," said McAvoy. "Had some speed and was calling for it from [Jakub Zboril]. He threw it over to me and then I was just trying to use my momentum to just get skating and know that they're a man-on-man team, so just trying to kind of get a step.
"I was actually looking for Smitty through a seam there and we were fortunate enough to get a bounce. But when guys are going to that all game and working hard to get to those dirty areas, it's nice to see them get rewarded."
Boston's first goal was also the result of a strong net-front presence, as Charlie Coyle - for the third time in two games - delivered a monster screen at the top of the crease on a delayed penalty. With the Weymouth native planted in front of Buffalo goalie Linus Ullmark, Matt Grzelcyk fired a wrister from the top of the slot that sailed into the top left corner to tie it, 1-1, with 8:29 to go in the second.
For a club that has struggled to generate offense at times - particularly at even strength - Cassidy was quite pleased with the way the Bruins produced their goals on Saturday afternoon.
"I'm happy they got rewarded," said Cassidy. "When you're trying to preach something or - sell's probably not the right word because every coach in the league probably talks about a net presence - but when it happens for you, then it's a lot easier to back it up now with your own eyes and video that, 'Hey, this is the ways goals are scored.'
"Obviously, we'd like to be a better rush team, we want to get back to being better-functioning or more efficient on the power play. But in the meantime, 5-on-5, you've got to get some traffic.
"Charlie Coyle, again, right in front of the goaltender. And then the other goals, it's just a matter of people getting there and the puck arriving on time."

McAvoy-Grzelcyk Pairing Shines

In addition to their offensive contributions on Saturday, McAvoy and Grzelcyk continued to be an all-around force as the Bruins' top pair. McAvoy played a game-high 26:32 with Grzelcyk clocking in at 21:28, as the duo shut it down in their own end and got the Bruins going the other way with an elite transition game.
"They're real clean," said Cassidy. "Two schools of thought, one is you have offensive guys playing together sometimes, you lose something on the other pairs. And we've discussed that internally, that's why we started them apart. We've just thought that since we had the rash of injuries that we'll have the one strong pair and split them up periodically, see if we can get some easy transition out of our end against good offensive lines, that can get frustrated.
"Obviously if you look at the first goal, [Grzelcyk] walks the blue line, lateral movement - stuff we're trying to get all our younger guys to do better and find a shooting lane…Charlie McAvoy, just kind of making plays with his feet, going down the wall. So, it's both ways, offensively, down the wall and across the blue line, and then obviously your skill has to take over.
"That's what I like about them, they give the forwards some pucks in good spots. Try to match them up as much as possible with a good offensive line and see where it takes us. And it's usually to good places."
McAvoy, who also had Grzelcyk as his partner at Boston University, said the duo's main goal is spend as little time as possible in the defensive zone.
"One of the biggest things is we both are offensive minded guys, so we're trying to make quick plays, we're trying to have transition plays where we can go and play offense," said McAvoy. "The more time we spend in the O-zone, the less time we spend in our D-zone having to defend. That's kind of our mindset is try and be quick with the puck in transition, get up there and play the fun part of the game which is the offensive side.
"We have a lot of trust and we have great chemistry on and off the ice, so it's fun and he's playing great right now and he makes my life easy and his's movement today and his goal was."

Vladar Stands Tall Again

Despite a rocky start, Daniel Vladar looked strong, once again, between the pipes. The netminder delivered an errant pass from behind the cage in the first period that led directly to Buffalo's first goal, but settled in after that, making 25 saves for his second victory in as many starts this season.
Among goaltenders to debut with the Bruins, the 23-year-old is the ninth to win each of his first two appearances, according to NHL Stats. He joins Tuukka Rask, Tim Thomas, Blaine Lacher, Bill Ranford, Mike Moffat, John Adams, Andre Gill, and Frank Brimsek.
"I thought he responded well from [the turnover]," said Cassidy. "You don't know from a young guy if he'll sort of get in his head or park it. I thought he did a good job of parking it, made some good saves for us. I don't think he had to make a ton of stops for us in there, but he made the ones he's supposed to…all in all, I thought he had a really strong game."