Heading into Saturday's tilt, Chara had not lit the red light this season and Sturm was mired in a 12-game goalless streak, equaling the longest such drought of his career. But both broke out of their respective slumps in the B's 4-2 win over the Sabres and it was clear in their smiles and words that they were relieved.
"It feels really good," Sturm said of finally scoring a goal after the recent shortage. "I had a long one, I know that, and I don't want to do it again. It's tough, you know."
Sturm admitted that the frustration had been building and that maybe he had been holding his stick a bit too hard recently.
"I just tried to relax, but I couldn't do that for a long time," he acknowledged. "You just kind of squeeze the stick a lot. Recently, I had good chances, but [I was] still squeezing the stick kind of hard and obviously tonight to get that goal, I can relax and play my game now."
Prior to the win over Buffalo, injured forward Marc Savard predicted that Chara would get his first goal of the season Saturday night. And 16:31 into the first period, with his team on the power play, Big Z did precisely that. Chara took a perfect feed from Blake Wheeler and blasted home a one-timer.
"Obviously I'm happy to score," Chara said after the game, "but I'm really just happy with the way we played tonight, because finally everything is clicking."
As for Savard's prediction?
"Savard is pretty good at that, so we just go out and work for him," Chara said. "I'm obviously happy he was right."
Chara believes that with the offense finally finding some success, the team will be able to focus better and should be a bit more relaxed with their game.
"When you score goals, obviously it helps to build momentum and confidence in the locker room," he said. "It was a really important game for us and now we have to get ready for the next opponent."
