BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 The Buffalo Sabres pushed hard for home-ice advantage at the end of the regular season. They wanted the franchise\u2019s first playoff game in 15 years to be in front of the fans who had waited so long. They wanted to play in front of one of the rowdiest crowds in the league and feed off that energy.<\/p>\n
As the Sabres\u2019 first-round series against the Boston Bruins turns to Game 6, though, Buffalo has looked more comfortable away from home. The Sabres\u2019 two best games of the series were Games 3 and 4 in Boston. The Sabres\u2019 two worst games of the series were Games 2 and 5 in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s just happenstance, but Sabres coach Lindy Ruff thinks there could be something to it. Buffalo\u2019s home environment has come with certain distractions and added pressure. It\u2019s easy to feel how much all of this means to this fanbase and community. It\u2019s possible that it causes a bit of tightness.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy only thought is there\u2019s a lot of distractions at home,\u201d Ruff said this week. \u201cIt\u2019s hard. In case you have a lot of family, you\u2019ve got friends, there\u2019s a lot more going on at home for you as a player, I believe, than there is on the road. You\u2019re kind of in quarantine and you\u2019re at the hotel, we have team meals. You\u2019re in a little bit more isolation, you\u2019re away from family and friends and kids, but that\u2019s all things you have to deal with. I think sometimes the road team can play a little bit different game, and you can frustrate the other team, too, at times.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s been the case in this series. The road team is 4-1 through five games. The Bruins have had their own struggles at home. Despite tying for the league lead in home wins during the regular season, the Bruins are 0-5 in their last five home playoff games, and dating to 2023, the Bruins are 3-10 in home playoff games. After David Pastrnak scored the overtime winner for the Bruins in Game 5, he was interviewed on the NESN broadcast and was asked for his message to the fans in Boston.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust be loud, please, and be patient,\u201d Pastrnak said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna shoot the puck, don\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly the demanding home crowd was on his mind. In Game 4, the Bruins were booed off home ice after falling behind 4-0 in the first period. A healthy number of Sabres fans made themselves heard in TD Garden throughout the afternoon.<\/p>\n
It seems almost counterintuitive, but the Sabres have played more loosely on the road. The team had two days between Games 3 and 4, and Friday was a day completely off the ice. They had a nice setup at the team hotel with recovery rooms. They had a couple of team dinners and spent time playing ping-pong, poker, video games and darts.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a lot of spending time together, hanging out, watching other hockey games, team dinners,\u201d Sabres alternate captain Alex Tuch said. \u201cYou just want to limit those distractions and be together. It forces your team to be closer. We had two good games in Boston now and just hoping for another one.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou lock it down. You mostly spend a lot of time in the hotel or the rink. You\u2019re not really doing much else besides that, just being together and hanging out and enjoying it. That\u2019s some of my fondest memories of my earlier playoff runs is just hanging out at the hotel and being with the guys. Even the bubble was pretty cool. There wasn\u2019t that much to do, but you\u2019re around the guys all the time, playing video games with them, playing cards, just hanging out. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after a 2-1 overtime loss at home Tuesday, the Sabres were loose at practice Thursday. The 3-2 series lead helps with that. But maybe the way they\u2019ve played on the road is contributing to it, too. Even the twists and turns of the series have been a refreshing change of pace for players who have been working toward these games for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Tuch said. \u201cThis is what I think of when I think of hockey. There\u2019s nothing better, honestly. I think the whole world knows it, too. Everyone is giving everything they have, sacrificing their bodies, minds, everything. You\u2019re just going out there and givin\u2019 \u2019er.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres were fresh off their worst loss of this series when they went to Boston the first time. Ruff said then he was confident the Sabres would win games in Boston. Before departing for the airport to return to Boston for Game 6, Ruff urged his team to embrace the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody for us is going to be a big-time player,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you who that is, but somebody will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes<\/p>\n
\u2022 Logan Stanley missed Sabres practice Thursday with an illness. Ruff said the illness was worse Wednesday than it was Thursday but the Sabres would still monitor Stanley\u2019s energy levels going into the game Friday. Even if he\u2019s feeling better, he hasn\u2019t been eating a lot the last couple of days. So at this point, his status for Game 6 is uncertain.<\/p>\n
During practice, Michael Kesselring skated on a pair with Conor Timmins. Kesselring, a native of Nashua, N.H., who went to Northeastern and spends time training in Boston in the summer, could get a chance to make his playoff debut close to home. He was a healthy scratch toward the end of the season but got to play two games in the final few weeks of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of depends how Stan is feeling, but Game 6 in my hometown, I couldn\u2019t be more excited if I get the opportunity,\u201d Kesselring said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how things shake out. But I\u2019m really excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just prepare like I\u2019m going to play, and we\u2019ll find out what happens. But I think it will be good for me to get in that mindset of playing just in case he doesn\u2019t or in the future someone gets banged up or whatever. I feel good. I feel like I\u2019m skating really well again. And I really strongly believe I can help the team. If I get the chance, hopefully I can show you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ruff decided against a significant shakeup of the lines. With Noah \u00d6stlund out for a bit, Ruff put Josh Norris back on a line with Zach Benson and Josh Doan. The other three lines were the same as they\u2019ve been since Game 3. Ruff said he liked how that Norris line looked early in the series and didn\u2019t feel the need to overhaul the lines. He also liked how Norris looked in practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think he could be a difference maker for us,\u201d Ruff said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Sabres added seven American Hockey League players to their NHL roster after the Rochester Americans were eliminated from the playoffs. Forwards Konsta Helenius, Anton Wahlberg and Riley Fiddler-Schultz, defensemen Radim Mrtka, Ryan Johnson and Vsevolod Komarov and goalie Devon Levi are all practicing separately from the NHL group in case they are needed. It\u2019s valuable experience for them to be around the team, but Ruff noted that it\u2019s more than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to be training, they\u2019re going to be watching, and we know at any time, one of those guys could be a guy that may need to be called on,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s more than just coming here and watching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of that group, Helenius could be closest to the lineup. If the Sabres lose another top-nine forward to injury, he feels like their next best option. It\u2019s just a matter of how comfortable Ruff is putting a 19-year-old into the playoff lineup.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tage Thompson hasn\u2019t scored in this series since his two-goal outburst in the third period of Game 1. But he did have four blocked shots in Game 5. The Sabres are outscoring the Bruins 5-1 during Thompson\u2019s five-on-five minutes in this series and have a 40-27 advantage in scoring chances. So he\u2019s making an impact. After winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics, Thompson is eager to be in the middle of these big moments in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get that taste of winning, it\u2019s a drug,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cIt\u2019s all you want. Being out of it for so long and finally being here really makes you hungry to see how far you can go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 The Buffalo Sabres pushed hard for home-ice advantage at the end of the regular season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1809,385,99],"class_list":["post-617471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}