Final, Bruins 4-1: That’s it, and that’s all. The Bruins get back on the winning track with a convincing win over the lowly Sabres, and the Bruins have won the Presidents’ Trophy.
Third period, 16:56, Bruins 4-1: Zdeno Chara and John Scott were just ejected. Not sure why, but probably just keeping the peace.
Third period, 15:00, Bruins 4-1: The power play just came to an unsuccessful end for Buffalo, and the teams are back to even strength.
Third period, 12:42, Bruins 4-1: The Sabres are getting a late power play. Shawn Thortnon was the guilty party for tripping.
Third period, 12:34, Bruins 4-1: Here’s a look at the Jake McCabe hit on Daniel Paille.
Third period, 10:35, Bruins 4-1: Welcome to the bigs, Connor Knapp.
The Buffalo goaltender just allowed a fluky goal after David Krejci’s’ shot went wide and bounced back into the crease where Knapp ended up kicking it in himself as he moved from side to side across the crease.
Third period, 8:25, Bruins 3-1: Sabres goalie Matt Hackett was just stretchered off the ice after suffering some sort of lower body injury. Hackett suffered the injury after Torey Krug fell into him at the end of a play.
Connor Knapp will take over in net for Buffalo.
Third period, 7:17, Bruins 3-1: This has become a dicey afternoon for the Bruins who probably want this to end as soon as possible.
Jake McCabe just hit Daniel Paille with a huge hit in the neutral zone. Paille went crashing to the ice and looked to have hit his head on the ice as well. Paille was woozy and needed to be helped off the ice.
Gregory Campbell jumped in and tried to fight McCabe but nothing came of it really. McCabe gets a five-minute major for interference and a 10-minute misconduct, so his day is done. Campbell gets two for roughing.
Third period, 5:20, Bruins 3-1: Not the sharpest of periods so far for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask just had to make a save on Matt Ellis as he took a wrist shot from about 25 feet on a 2-on-1 rush.
Third period, 1:30, Bruins 3-1: The Bruins just announced that Patrice Bergeron will not return to this game.
Third period, 0:01, Bruins 3-1: The third period is underway.
End second period, Bruins 3-1: The second period has come to a close, and the Bruins will take their 3-1 lead to recess.
The B’s are outshooting Buffalo 20-14 through the first two periods.
Second period, 18:41, Bruins 3-1: After a late icing, the Sabres are taking their timeout here.
Second period, 13:58, Bruins 3-1: The Sabres are on the board.
Cody Hodgson was fed a centering pass as he glided through the slot before burying a backhanded attempt for the Sabres’ first goal.
Second period, 11:44, Bruins 3-0: The Bruins now have a three-goal lead, and the 30-goal club has a new member.
Patrice Bergeron just scored on a filthy shot from the right faceoff circle after a pass from Brad Marchand. That’s Bergeron’s 30th of the season.
Second period, 9:58, Bruins 2-0: The chippyness continues, just as Milan Lucic got out of the penalty box, really.
John Scott went right after Lucic and challenged Lucic to a fight. Lucic was having none of it, but Lucic did give Scott a pop with the left hand. Zdeno Chara eventually jumped in to make sure Lucic didn’t try to throw down with the bigger Scott. It didn’t look like Chara had much of a desire to do much of anything other than tie up Scott.
When it was all said and done, the penalty minutes to Scott and Chara were even.
Second period, 9:45, Bruins 2-0: The Bruins have killed off the penalty to Milan Lucic.
Second period, 7:40, Bruins 2-0: Things are getting a little bit chippy here in the second period. David Krejci fed Jarome Iginla for a shot on the wing that was stopped by Matt Hackett.
Things got a little carried away after the whistle, though. There was some pushing and shoving going on in front of the Buffalo net, and the B’s are the ones who will end up down a man. Milan Lucic ended up shoving down Matt D’Agostini, and Lucic gets the roughing penalty.
Second period, 3:00, Bruins 2-0: The Bruins came within inches of adding to the lead. Brad Marchand and Reilly Smith worked a 2-on-1 into the Buffalo zone, but Smith put the shot up over the crossbar.
Second period, 0:01, Bruins 2-0: The second period is underway.
End first period, Bruins 2-0: The Bruins have waken up, and they’ll take the 2-0 lead into the dressing room after 20 minutes here at the Garden.
The B’s outshot Buffalo 2-0 in the first period.
First period, 18:23, Bruins 2-0: The Bruins have found their way late in the first period and now have a two-goal lead.
Zdeno Chara just fired wide with a slap shot from the point that ricocheted off the end boards right to David Krejci on the left wing in front of the net. Krejci backhanded the puck by Matt Hackett to give Boston a two-goal lead.
First period, 16:54, Bruins 1-0: The Bruins didn’t score on the power play, but they cashed in shortly after the man-advantage expired.
Gregory Campbell just scored the Bruins’ first goal when he tipped a Jordan Caron pass by Matt Hackett. That’s Campbell’s first goal in 19 games.
First period, 14:22, 0-0: The Bruins will be going on the power play after the current TV timeout. Brad Marchand carried the puck into the neutral zone where he was tripped up by Cory Conacher, and Conacher will go to the penalty box for two minutes.
First period, 13:00, 0-0: Give the Sabres credit: After being blitzed in the first few minutes of the game, they have rebounded pretty well and evened the ice a little bit. The Bruins outshot Buffalo 5-0 in the opening minutes, but since then, the Sabres have outshot the Bruins 6-1, and shots are tied at six apiece.
First period, 7:19, 0-0: The Sabres finally have a couple of shots on goal, and one of them was a pretty solid scoring chance.
Bruins winger Shawn Thornton missed the net on a wrist shot coming down the right wing, and the puck went ringing around the boards. The Sabres turned that into an odd-man rush, which ended up with a chance in front for Matt D’Agostini, but he was robbed by Tuukka Rask.
First period, 5:15, 0-0: This game has been all Bruins so far. The B’s own the game’s first five shots on goal, which includes a pair of legitimate scoring chances.
The first came off the stick of Jarome Iginla who got a wide-open look from the right wing, and shortly thereafter, Carl Soderberg had a scoring chance in the slot. Matt Hackett made the stop on both, though.
First period, 0:01, 0-0: The game is underway.
12:20 p.m.: Warmups are over, and we’re about 15 minutes from puck drop at the Garden. Corey Potter and Andrej Meszaros will be the healthy scratches for the Bruins, while Chris Kelly is out with the back injury. You can see all of the projected lines and defensive pairings for both teams by clicking here.
12 p.m.: Warmups are underway here at the Garden. Tuukka Rask, as expected is getting the start for the Bruins opposite Buffalo’s Matt Hackett.
11:55 a.m.: One more quick note on the Presidents’ Trophy race. Per NHL PR, the Bruins will clinch the NHL’s top spot with a win, but they can also clinch with an overtime/shootout loss plus a Ducks loss.
11:30 a.m.: The Bruins will be going with a full lineup against Buffalo, and that means Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron will be back in the fold for the home finale. Chris Kelly is still out with back spasms, and he’ll miss both this game and Sunday’s game in New Jersey. Bruins coach Claude Julien remained optimistic that Kelly will be ready for the playoffs, but the coach added there’s “no guarantees” of that, either.
11:10 a.m.: Bruins coach Claude Julien will speak to us lowly members of the media in about 10 minutes, which is when we might get a better idea of what the Bruins’ lineup will look like against Buffalo.
One thing to note: Boston can clinch the Presidents’ Trophy with a win on Saturday afternoon. That’s all it takes is a win over the Sabre to wrap up the NHL’s best record.
9:30 a.m.: The NHL has reached its final weekend, and the Boston Bruins will complete their regular-season home schedule on Saturday afternoon against a familiar opponent.
The B’s will take on the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday in front of the TD Garden crowd for the final time this regular season. The Bruins are hoping, of course, that they’e far from done on Causeway Street with the playoffs beginning in the middle of next week.
While the Bruins have clinched the Eastern Conference’s top spot and don’t have much to gain from the final weekend, they are looking to get back on the winning track. They gave a pretty subpar effort on Thursday night in Winnipeg, which led to the B’s second shootout loss in an as many games. That effort had Boston head coach Claude Julien ripping into his team after the game .
“Our top line was by far our worst of the night,” Julien said following the 2-1 shootout loss to the Jets. “As a team, we lost races and battles to a team that skated for over an our yesterday. To me, it just showed that there wasn’t much interest in the game tonight. Hopefully it’s just a bit of a phase that we’re going through and we can pick up our game. Because as I keep telling those guys, bad habits creep in quickly, and they’re hard to break. Hopefully we got that message tonight.”
Boston will certainly get a good chance to find its game on Saturday at the Garden. The Sabres clearly just want the season to be over, and as shown by their play lately. Buffalo is the NHL’s worst team (by 14 whole points), and Ted Nolan’s bunch comes into Boston having lost five in a row and nine of its last 10. The Sabres have played the Bruins tough this year and won the teams’ last meeting in overtime on Feb. 26.
Puck drop from the Garden is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
