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B's suffer most damning loss yet with 7-2 loss to Buffalo |
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Ty Anderson
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The life of sleeping in hotels is not a life that the Bruins appear to be about.
The latest example of that came Tuesday night in Buffalo, as the Black and Gold’s road struggles continued (and in ugly fashion once again), as the Bruins found themselves on the wrong end of a 7-2 beatdown from the East-worst Sabres at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center.
The game featured dueling hat tricks from Buffalo stars Tage Thompson and JJ Peterka, marking it the first time that the Bruins surrendered multiple hat tricks in the same game in almost 22 years.
This one followed a familiar script for the Bruins, too, as the Bruins found themselves in a close game through 20 minutes of play, though the cracks on a night that wasn’t Boston’s could’ve first been noticed by Thompson’s tally matching a strike by the Bruins’ Mason Lohrei that came just 55 seconds earlier.
That aforementioned similar script from last week’s road loss to the Devils extended into the middle period, too, as the Bruins surrendered a pair of goals and found themselves unable to match the Sabres’ push. It was hardly a push for that matter, as the Bruins mustered 13 shots on Buffalo netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen but didn’t exactly make him sweat with what you’d consider high-quality looks.
And then came the third-period deluge, with Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins hammered for another four goals (one of which came on an empty-net tally from Peterka) in one of the ugliest periods of the year. It was so bad for the Black and Gold that the Bruins found themselves unable to capitalize (even in what was a lost game at that point) on a clean 2-on-0 opportunity for Johnny Beecher and Vinni Lettieri.
In the Boston goal, Swayman took the loss behind a 26-of-32 performance. It marked the fourth time this season that Swayman allowed at least six goals in a game, which is officially the most in a single season by a Bruins netminder since Tim Thomas ‘accomplished’ that four times during the 2006-07 season.
Overall, this was Boston’s sixth contest this season with a goaltender allowing at least six goals, which is the most by a Bruins goaltending room since the 1996-97 Bruins did it eight times.
Still without Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, the Bruins were dealt another loss on the backend before this contest, with Brandon Carlo held out of action due to an illness. The Carlo absence proved to be a gigantic one for Boston, too, as the Bruins struggled in their own zone and saw the Nikita Zadorov-Andrew Peeke pairing on the ice for three of the first four Buffalo goals scored.
It will not get any easier for the Bruins, either, as they will return to Boston to host the West-best Jets on Thursday night. The Jets crushed the Bruins by an 8-1 final back on Dec. 10.
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