Boston Bruins: Rome wasn’t built in a day folks

The Boston Bruins made some big moves on Sunday. With fans riding high they came out flat and got blown out by the Buffalo Sabres 4-1.

The Boston Bruins just finished up their longest road trip of the season. They played five games on the road traveling to Western Canada and are now returning home with 4 points and sit in 3rd place of the Eastern Conference. The Bruins could have leapfrogged the Toronto Maple Leafs and head home in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, but the B’s fell victim to one of their greatest faults.

The dreaded rough start

Even though it was the end of a long road trip for the Bruins you can’t have a first-period effort like the B’s had on Sunday night. The Bruins allowed two goals late in the period and it was all downhill from there. The Bruins have given up these early leads a lot as of late. They have been able to come back from poor starts before, but you can’t expect that to happen every night.

Torey Krug was on the ice for the first goal of the game and ended up having a rough night. He ended the night with a rating of-2 and struggled both offensively and defensively. When he added a slashing penalty late in the third it was just putting salt in the wound.

McAvoy scores lone goal

One of the few bright spots for the Boston Bruins on Sunday night was Charlie McAvoy. McAvoy tallied his 6th goal of the season and scored the only goal for the Bruins.

After a failed one-timer attempt by David Pastrnak, “Pasta” was able to regain control of the puck and made a beautiful pass to McAvoy who went five-hole on Buffalo Sabres goalie Chad Johnson. It has taken McAvoy some time to adjust after having heart surgery so it was a pleasant sight to see him put the puck in the net.

Also, Pastrnak has been performing really well as of late. In his last four games “Pasta” has a goal and 3 assists.

A good opening night from Rick Nash

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On Sunday morning the Boston Bruins landed Rick Nash and on Sunday night Nash was on the ice with the spoked B on his chest. Even though Nash wasn’t able to put a puck in the net he had a nice start to his Bruins career.

Now I bet he would rather have the win, but you can’t always get what you want. Nash finished with a rating of -1 but that doesn’t tell the complete story. Nash was on the ice for 17:27 including 3:00 on the powerplay and some time on the penalty kill. He had five shots on net that included some great chances including a blast off the post. It appears that Nash already has some chemistry with David Krejci as Krejci made a nice drop pass to tee up the shot for Nash.

With all the great news Bruins fans received on Sunday night we were all expecting a win. Especially against the measly Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres have had the Bruins number this season. Buffalo has defeated the Bruins 3 times this season.

If the Bruins want to have a chance to catch the Tampa Bay Lightning and secure home ice throughout the playoffs they need to take advantage when they play poor teams.

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Now with all the moves the Bruins made you can’t expect everyone to fit in right away. Nash had a solid start to his Boston Bruins career and he will look to continue to improve when the B’s play the Carolina Hurricanes.