Jim Montgomery Felt This Player Was Bruins’ Best Forward’ Vs. Sabres

The Bruins broke their four-game losing skid Wednesday night, and they got a key contribution from a player who also needed a bounce-back performance.

Boston beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1, at KeyBank Center. Charlie Coyle led the team with two goals on the night, and the B’s were efficient on special teams with three power-play goals.

The win was much-needed with the Bruins entering Wednesday’s matchup having lost six of their last eight games. It was also an essential performance from Jake DeBrusk, who had two assists and logged his first multi-point game of the season.

“I thought Jake was our best forward (Wednesday),” Montgomery told reporters, per The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont. “His habits … his speed was noticeable in checking … hanging on to pucks, making real good decisions. It makes a big difference when he’s the player we know he can be.”

DeBrusk went through a scoring slump last month, and he missed an important opportunity in overtime of last Tuesday’s loss to the Minnesota Wild. Boston knew there still was a higher gear for the team to reach, and DeBrusk should be part of that.

“Any time you win, it helps,” DeBrusk told reporters, per Dupont. “I think that means there’s a lot of things we were doing right. As a group, obviously, we didn’t like how it ended going into the break. We had a couple days to reset. Good effort (Wednesday), with good goaltending from (Jeremy Swayman), and just rolled with it.”

The Bruins traveled back to Boston to prepare for a weekend back-to-back set to close out the calendar year.