Sabres-Bruins Outlook
By Judd Hall
No. 3 Buffalo Sabres vs. No. 6 Boston Bruins
Series Price: Buffalo -166, Boston +150
Series Format: Buffalo, 2-2-1-1-1
Skinny: The Sabres fell one win shy of taking the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference after losing 2-1 to New Jersey in the season finale. Still, Buffalo has reached the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. They’ll be going up against the Bruins, who had one of the more disappointing campaigns of any club this year.
Buffalo has seen some big time scoring this year, ranking in the Top 10 in the NHL with 2.82 goals per game. They have four skaters that finished off the year with at least 20 goals in Thomas Vanek (28 goals, 25 assists, 53 points), Derek Roy (26-43-69), Jason Pominville (24-38-62) and Jochen Hecht (21-21-42). Vanek came back from a lower body injury that kept him out for six games by scoring five goals in the final two contests of the season.
If the offensive numbers weren’t enough to help the Sabres here, they also have killer goaltending at their disposal. Olympic darling Ryan Miller has gone 41-18-8 with the second-best goals against average in the league at 2.22.
The Bruins knew that goal scoring would be at a premium after trading sniper Phil Kessel to Toronto for a draft pick (No. 2 overall, good job out of them). What nobody predicted is Boston would wind up dead last in the league with 196 goals. They are just the third team in the 16-team playoff era to make the tournament while scoring the fewest goals in the NHL. Marco Sturm is the only Bruin that cracked the 20-goal plateau with 22 lamp lighters this season. Patrice Bergeron is the team’s leading scorer, but that isn’t an impressive feat when you realize he has just 52 points.
Boston does have the luxury of having the defending Vezina Trophy winner as a backup goaltender in Tim Thomas. Rookie netminder Tuukka Rask had 22 wins in 39 starts this season, but has the league’s best GAA at 1.97.
As bad as things might look for Boston, they did get the luck of the draw for this series since they won four of its six meetings with the Sabres. Even better news for the B’s is that they won twice at HSBC Arena. They’ve met three times since February and the Bruins won two of those tests.
Gambling Notes: Buffalo has enjoyed success this season as a home favorite, going 20-14 in the 34 times they were tabbed as such. Against the puck line, the Sabres were lacking with a 11-23 mark. But Lindy Ruff’s club did win by at least two goals in their last three games as home faves.
The Bruins have been so-so when coming in as road ‘dogs this year at 13-13. But they were definitely keeping it close in those contests, evidenced by a 23-3 puck line record in those games. Boston is also 5-2 in its last seven games as a road pup.
Outlook: I won’t lie to you; this is going to be the ugliest series out of any in the first round. The Bruins can’t score goals if you put a gun to their collective heads. And Buffalo won’t have a great time getting past Rask and/or Thomas. So we should expect a lot of each game being played in the neutral zone. Oh joy!
With the lack of offense being obvious, that means we’ll get some low-scoring affairs that can go either way. This series will go the full compliment of seven games with Buffalo edging it out to make it to the Eastern Conference Semifinal.
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