Bruins Notes: Jim Montgomery Takes Positives From Loss To Sabres

The Boston Bruins suffered their first preseason loss in the hands of the Buffalo Sabres, falling 4-1, at KeyBank Center on Tuesday night.

A polar opposite from Boston’s 3-0 shutout victory in the preseason opener, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery still saw plenty of reason to highlight the areas that went well in Buffalo.

“I thought (Jesper) Boqvist did a lot of good things, offensively and defensively. You could tell he’s an intelligent, responsible player,” Montgomery said postgame, as seen on NESN. “I thought that (Ian) Mitchell and (Matt) Grzelcyk did a lot of good things in the offensive zone as defensemen, keeping pucks alive. I thought as a whole our D-core did a good job there. I thought both goalies had to make a lot of good saves. You could tell that we need to work a little on our D-zone coverage.”

Buffalo scored in each period, including twice in the second, tagging both Boston goalies throughout the night — Michael DiPietro and Kyle Keyser.

The B’s offense only struck the back end of the net once, but the opportunities were created. Boston attempted 38 shots to Buffalo’s 35, coming up 0-for-3 on power-play chances. That alone was enough to get a pat on the back from Montgomery who didn’t shy away from noting where the Bruins can improve moving forward and into the regular season.

“I thought we were better offensively than we were defensively,” Montgomery added.

Here are more notes from Tuesday night’s Bruins-Sabres game:

— Oskar Steen kept the Bruins from getting shut out, finding the net off a ricochet from Mason Lohrei’s shot in the final period.

— Montgomery noted the “sleepy” second period, despite Buffalo scoring, was when Boston’s defenseman picked up the momentum and came together.

“I thought they really started to pick up their intensity in the second period, holding pucks in the offensive zone which allowed us to gain zone time which allowed us to get to their net front,” Montgomery explained.

— Boston has four games left to play before the start of the regular season.

— The Bruins will return to the ice for more preseason action on Friday when Boston takes on the Philadelphia Flyers. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you watch the game live on NESN+.