Boston Bruins
Bruins Stay Hot To Start Season With Win Over Sabres
BOSTON — The Boston Bruins are playing a solid brand of hockey these days.
It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s been a long time since that’s been the case.
Three games into the 2025-26 campaign, and Marco Sturm’s boys in Black and Gold have collected three victories. A 3-1 result over the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden Saturday night was just the latest.
Off to a perfect start, the Bruins are by no means a perfect team. But after the miserable season they endured a year ago, no one is asking them to be.
“I go game by game, pretty much,” said the head coach. “I didn’t know what really to expect, to be honest. We had a decent preseason, but I knew we still have work to do. These guys have come out on fire, that’s kind of carried over right away.”
The first period against Buffalo was easily the best the Bruins have played so far.
Hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov introduced himself to the Sabres as only he can early on by dumping Buffalo’s Owen Power over the boards and into the Bruins’ bench with a ferocious hit.
Zadorov sends Power into the bench pic.twitter.com/NZG5HKKrE0
— Marina Maher (@marinakmaher) October 11, 2025
By the time the lopsided frame to a close, the Bruins led 17-2 in shots on goal and 1-0 on the scoreboard.
Pavel Zacha tallied his first goal of the season at 15:48 of the opening frame, blasting a one-timer from the left face-off circle. Filling in for the injured Hampus Lindholm, Haverhill, MA native Jordan Harris had the primary assist on the play for his first point as a member of the B’s.
Such a smart play by Zacha finding the soft spot in the zone. Jordan Harris gets his first point as a Bruin with the primary assist.pic.twitter.com/l3Sujfkgtv
— Andrew Fantucchio (@A_Fantucchio) October 11, 2025
“That was really cool,” Harris said. “I felt good about my game overall. I honestly thought we played great as a team. We didn’t give them that much. It definitely feels better with a win, but I was happy overall with everything.”
Everything was in fact going the Bruins way, and it was glaringly obvious when Mark Kastelic added onto the lead midway through the second period.
Simply trying to maintain possession in the attacking zone, Kastelic flicked the puck on net from the blue line. Somehow, whether it be basic physics or some miraculous force, the shot pin balled through a maze of sticks and skates before rolling through the legs of Sabres goalie Alex Lyon.
"F— it, the net is down there somewhere."pic.twitter.com/qDacOMtJKH
— Andrew Fantucchio (@A_Fantucchio) October 12, 2025
“When you get it through to the net, good things happen, honestly,” said Kastelic. “That’s what I tried to do. The whole message to the team has been just to fire a million pucks.”
Lyon was the only reason the final score was as close as it was. The netminder fended off 28 of the 30 shots he faced while under constant duress, with the Bruins generating 25 scoring chances, 11 of the high-danger variety, according to Natural Stat Trick.
He was spared having to try and stop Boston’s final goal of the night, an empty-netter from Sean Kuraly with 2.2 seconds left to play.
But in the time between the start of the third period and Kuraly’s dagger, the Bruins’ once slim and comfortable lead had become just slim.
Perhaps it was Buffalo’s desperation or more so indecision on behalf of Boston. Either way, the Sabres firmly controlled the game’s final 20 minutes and had the Bruins playing on their heels.
“It’s a dangerous game when you’re only up one 1-0 and had a lot of opportunities,” Sturm said. “They’re going to push back. We know that. That’s just the way it is. We want to have more shots and be more direct.”
With the action taking place 200-feet away from him most of the night, it was suddenly on Jeremy Swayman to get the Bruins over the finish line.
What felt like a sure victory two periods ago suddenly wasn’t so certain when a shot from Jason Zucker bounced off Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke and sailed underneath Swayman’s glove at 9:46 of the third, cutting the score to 2-1.
Still, Buffalo never managed to challenge Swayman all too much. Very few of his 21 saves sent the Sabres looking toward the sky in disbelief.
It also helped that Boston’s shorthanded unit was again rock steady, pitching a shutout by killing off four Buffalo power plays.
Solid goaltending, strong penalty killing, and depth scoring. All will be required if the Bruins are going to stretch their perfect start any further.
How far depends on how quickly they can clean up everything else.
“We need to be a little bit more calm with the puck,” said Sturm. “There were times we were just rushing it and just throwing it somewhere, but not actually trying to make plays, starting with our breakouts. I think structure wise, we’ve been patient enough. They know when to go, when not. Those are the little things, the little details.”
The Bruins will host the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday afternoon at TD Garden
