Bruins Get Extra-Hot Buffalo Stings In Historic Game One Meltdown

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For 52 minutes last night in Buffalo, the Boston Bruins looked like they were going to Sway-and-Pray themselves to a huge Game One victory on the road. Clinging to a 2-0 lead, the Bs were clearly being outplayed yet were bailed out time and time again by goalie Jeremy Swayman. But then a horrific stretch of play saw a two-goal lead become a one-goal deficit in just 4:34 and dashed dreams of stealing the first one. It was rough.

Sabres superstar Tage Thompson, playing his first-ever playoffs game, was an absolute beast. He gave the KeyBank a KeyBump with 7:58 left in the third to get his team on the board after beating Swayman with a sweet wraparound. Things didn't get any better for the Bruins as their mental errors and shit plays started to snowball to the point that Thompson's game-knotter 3:42 later felt like an inevitability. 

I've been a Marco Sturm guy since day one but I don't understand not recognizing the need to utilize his lone time-out here to settle down his overwhelmed players and perhaps take a smidge of Buffalo's momentum away. Would it have mattered? We'll never know. But the place was going apeshit, the Sabres were clearly feeling it, and the Bruins sure as hell weren't. The coach was asked about it post-game…

Then just 52 seconds after the equalizer, Mattias Samuelsson gave the crowd an alligator tail when he also scored his first playoffs goal in his first post-season tilt.

The Bruins never threatened much over the next two-plus minutes before Alex Tuch's ENG put a bow on things. David Pastrnak added a too-little too-late power play goal with eight seconds left to deliver a miraculous over. 

The Bruins fuckin' blew this game in as ugly a fashion as possible and there's no sugarcoating it. The Arivdsson/Mittelstadt/Zacha trio combined for a ghastly -9 with an assist. Twenty shots on net is brutal. And playing not to lose in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is a great way to ensure to you will, in fact, lose.

Some hope for Bs fans to cling to? They still have a solid chance of coming home tied for Game Three. Swayman was lights out and the reason why the Bs were within eight minutes of a Game One win. He'll be lights-out again tomorrow night. Anybody who blames the goalie for the loss is a dipshit, plain and simple. Umm, let's see…they can't play much worse. Right?

They better step it up for Game Two because teams that go down 0-2 have a 12-13% chance of moving onto the next round.

Sway and Pray, baby. 

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