They too often could not establish an effective forecheck — credit to a slick Buffalo backline — and, when they did put pucks on net, rarely brought the moxie, presence, and will to the crease as a means of scoring the dirty goals needed for postseason pay dirt.
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“Going to the tough areas all year has been a little bit of an issue,” coach Marco Sturm noted in the immediate aftermath of the six-game series loss. “But we always found ways to score goals . . . five-on-five or else on the power play . . . but what I really noticed, if you look around at the playoffs now, how goals get scored. Everything is in the paint, and for some reason, we didn’t get there.”
What his team failed to produce, noted Sturm, was “garbage goals.”
“Just not enough,” mused the coach, “and if you look at Buffalo, that’s where they scored a lot of goals. That was a big difference.”
It’s not a Bruins team built to score off the rush — it needs to develop those skilled pass-and-shoot players — and teams not able to score when wheeling into the zone have to find ways to manufacture goals. The Bruins were without those factory workers.
Marco Sturm succeeded in getting the Bruins back to the playoffs in his first season, but the visit lasted just six games.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
David Pastrnak, their No. 1 offensive weapon, scored their lone goal. The Sabres moved to the lead only 3:25 into the first, and the Sons of the French Connection finished the series with a substantial advantage in lead time (157:28 to 87:30), an indication of the stranglehold they gained on their old Adams Division rivals.
“We didn’t make it hard enough,” said Pastrnak, acknowledging the poor performance at the offensive net. “You have to create and get the bounces somehow to the net. We didn’t do enough of that.”
Responding to a question about whether the Bruins are far away from being a Cup contender again, Pastrnak first focused on the high-compete standard in the Atlantic Division.
“Yeah, we made the playoffs, but we’re still a wild-card team,” he added. “So, yeah, we have much, much more to do.”
Jeremy Swayman had a resurgent season, but his team was left to watch the Sabres celebrate on its ice.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
The Bruins now have lost six of nine playoff series since getting KO’d by the Blues in Game 7 of the 2019 Cup Final. They’ll need to find a true No. 1 center, a void since Patrice Bergeron retired three years ago, and add to their blue-line depth to become a serious contender.
Training camp begins in mid-September. The circle of NHL life, in perpetuity.
In what was a significant growth season, the six games against Buffalo should give the franchise a true sense of the growth that stil needs to be done.
“I think that might be part of the reflection in a couple of days. We might look at it a little bit different,” said franchise blue liner Charlie McAvoy. “I don’t know. I think that you could say, you know, we squeezed every drop out of this group, surprised a lot of people. We made it here. It’s not what we wanted. We thought once we got here we could make some noise. We just didn’t play like it.”
That was especially true on home ice, their season-long stronghold. They lost all three games here to the Sabres, and were soundly outscored, 13-3.
Sturm, though understandably not happy with how it ended, said he was pleased by the buy-in he saw across the roster.
“To feel that every day,” he said. “It’s frickin’ amazing, right?”
Prior to meeting postgame with the media, Sturm met with his disappointed charges. What did he tell them?
“It sucks, right?” he said. “It hurts, it absolutely hurts . . . but I also reminded them what kind of season they played. No one thought we would be in the playoff mix. Forget about playoffs, right? Look at us, 100-point season . . . and battled real hard to the end.”
The next growth ring, what’s needed? More talent or more compete?
“Can’t compete harder than that, I can tell you this,” he said. “We are gonna sit down and talk about, analyze the season, see where it goes, and what we need.”
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.