One year without playoff hockey felt like a drought in Boston, and that served as ‘a big motivation’ for the Bruins
“It’s a big motivation. You go through summer without it and you really don’t appreciate it until you don’t have it. And I think that was a big goal for our group coming into this year, the guys that were part of last year, just knowing how long the summer is without it,” said Jeremy Swayman, who will be between the pipes for Game 1 in Buffalo on Sunday night. “That’s why we play hockey is to play playoffs, especially for the city of Boston. It’s unmatched to any other city and we’re really excited.”
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Nikita Zadorov signed on prior to the 2024-25 season in part because of the team’s consistent playoff presence — the Bruins had made the postseason eight straight years.
“That was the goal coming in here, play those meaningful games,” the big defenseman said. “I mean, we’re not done yet. Obviously, it’s an exciting time right now for sure.”
Zadorov said it was “ironic” to be head back to Buffalo to face the Sabres, the franchise that selected him 16th overall in 2013.
“Thought I would spend my whole life there. Obviously when you get drafted first round, you kind of think about those things,” he said. “But then I got out of there pretty quick [traded to the Avalanche in June 2015], but now playing the first playoff series against them in Buffalo, I mean, I only had good things to say about the city and people who [gave] me a chance to play in this league. So, it’s going to be a pretty cool experience for sure.”
Zadorov predicted the KeyBank Center atmosphere will be off the charts.
“I think the place is going to be nuts. I mean, we can see how big the [NFL’s] Bills are there‚” he said. “And obviously I played in Vancouver when they hadn’t played playoff hockey at home for seven years and that was probably the loudest building I’ve ever been to. And these guys have been waiting for 14 years. So, I’m expecting a great atmosphere and then I’m going to enjoy it for sure.”
James Hagens is poised to make his playoff debut just a week after making his NHL debut. The slick rookie has left quite an impression on coach Marco Sturm.
The 19-year-old Hagens will play on the left side with fellow young’uns Fraser Minten (21) and Marat Khusnutdinov (23). Sturm felt the trio clicked immediately.
“It’s just the last games, he gave me a lot of excitement,” Sturm said. “I was not sure either where he’s at in this kind of level, but he did a pretty good job with the puck, managing the puck, playing without the puck, never got in trouble. As a line with Minton and Khus, I feel like there’s a chemistry. So, a lot of good happened at those two games and yeah, we’ll see how the next few days play out, but I’m really excited about that.”
Count Zadorov among those with early positive impressions of Hagens.
“He’s been great. This year we got three unbelievable kids and they’re all playing in the same line right now. And I mean, it’s fun to watch,” said Zadorov. “I was just watching his game against New Jersey, maybe in Columbus he was a little bit nervous and kind of like just getting into it. But against New Jersey, you can see how smart he is on the ice, how good his stick is.”
Zadorov is looking forward to seeing Hagens take in the atmosphere. He recalled his own playoff debut, when Colorado visited Nashville for Game 1 of the first round in 2018.
“Smashville was buzzing and we went for warm-up, it was like 20,000 people wearing orange and yellow and they [were] just screaming how [bad] we were. So, it was just a phenomenal place,” he said. “I remember that time when I stepped on for warm-up and took three laps and I still had like goosebumps.”
Jim McBride can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @globejimmcbride.
