The Bruins are not going to be the favorites in their first-round series against the Sabres. And Bruins head coach Marco Sturm knows as much.
But Sturm has identified one key area where the Bruins hold a sizable advantage over their Atlantic Division rivals, and fully plans on exposing it in his team’s favor when things get underway at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center on Sunday night.
“We know how we have to play [and] we are going to be ready to go,” Sturm said Friday. “We are bigger, stronger, we are more physical. We just have to be smart, but we’re going to go after them. Whoever comes in, first line, second line, I don’t really care. We’ll try to play our game and not their game.”
If you were looking for a ‘wartime general’ style of head coach for this time of year, Sturm is off to a fantastic start. Especially in comparison to the last head coach the Bruins had behind the bench in this spot. It’s also not the first time that Sturm has played this card when talking about an opponent, with Sturm previously mentioning his team’s toughness following their Stadium Series loss to the Lightning in Tampa.
Most importantly, though, it’s a comment and card that carries legitimate weight.
Only five teams doled out more hits than the Bruins did during the regular season (1,861). Among playoff teams, only the Flyers (1,882) and Senators (1,953) had more. And only the Lightning, with 45, had more major penalties than the Bruins’ 34. You also saw time and time again the B’s ability to flip a game in their favor with their physicality. It could’ve been a well-timed, board-rattling hit. It could’ve been dropping the gloves to wake up a sleepy team or arena. Sometimes, it was both.
In one of Boston’s most important wins of the season and down the stretch, Sturm’s club began their fight out of a three-goal deficit with back-to-back fights from Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic. And did so against two of the top heavyweights in the league, namely Mathieu Olivier. After the game, Sturm made sure both players were acknowledged for their ability to get the tide going in their favor.
But, again, it’s an impact and a quality about their team that hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“I know a lot of teams, they’re afraid of us,” Sturm said. “I can tell, you can see it, you can hear it. And that’s what we have to do in Buffalo.”
There’s a balance to this tactic, though, and Sturm would know that better than anybody. During the regular season, only the Panthers and Lightning took more minor penalties than the Bruins, and Boston’s minus-40 penalty differential was the worst in the NHL. It at times overtaxed the Bruins penalty kill, which finished the year as the ninth-worst unit in the NHL, at 77 percent. (For what it’s worth, the Bruins were a top-half of the league PK team after the Olympic break, and also took the 13th-fewest penalties per 60 in 25 games after the Olympics.)
“Having guys being very physical and nasty, without taking any penalties, that’s going to be huge,” Sturm admitted. “I think that could be a game changer, that could be a series changer, that could be a lot of things. We just have to be smart about it.”
For the Bruins, that begins with Jeannot and Kastelic up front, but also with Nikita Zadorov (and even Charlie McAvoy) on the backend. What the Bruins have there vastly outweighs the physicality of the Sabres. Now, the Sabres did try to address that at the deadline with the addition of Luke Schenn, Logan Stanley, and Sam Carrick. It still doesn’t compare to what the Bruins possess there, though, and the Sabres are expected to play this series without Carrick available to them.
To keep it simple? The Sabres don’t want to be dragged into the street fight that Sturm and the Bruins may seek to set the tone early in this series. That alone may be music to Sturm & Co.’s ears given the intensity that comes with this time of year.
“I know they want to out-skate us and a lot of different things,” a smirking Sturm said of the Sabres. “But it should be a fun experience and a fun series.”
