The Boston Bruins‘ bench couldn’t even look Jeremy Swayman in the eye.
Swayman’s teammates could only gaze blankly ahead as their goaltender — having just been pulled when the Buffalo Sabres took a 6-0 third-period lead in Game 4 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series Sunday — howled his displeasure over their dismal performances on his way to the dressing room.
Joonas Korpisalo took over for Swayman, and the Bruins managed one marker in the 6-1 loss that gave the Sabres a 3-1 series advantage and put Boston on the brink of elimination. Game 5 is Tuesday in Buffalo.
If the Bruins were initially silenced by Swayman’s understandable outburst — being booed and catcalled by the Boston faithful likely didn’t help matters, either — they were blunt in taking ownership for the bulk of Sunday’s debacle.
“Man to man in here, if we’re not f—ing embarrassed by what just happened, then I don’t know what to say,” Charlie McAvoy said. “We have everything to play for from here, and we know we’re such a better team than what we just did.”
Boston was abysmal from the outset of Game 4, as multiple turnovers and lazy defense allowed the Sabres to score three goals (from Peyton Krebs, Josh Doan and Zach Benson) in 4:58 to spot Buffalo an extensive lead before the first period was half over.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm called a timeout to try to settle his group down, and it did no good — Bowen Byram got another past Swayman less than five minutes later. Boston limped off after 20 minutes being outshot 19-5 and in a demoralizing 4-0 hole it had little chance of climbing out from.
“Wasted opportunity. Unacceptable,” said David Pastrnak, who was minus-2. “We expect better from ourselves. We are better than that, and we can’t show up like this. The first period is so f—ing important. You can’t win and lose games [like that] and show up like that in the first period, it’s unacceptable.”
Boston was marginally better in a goalless second period during which it held a 10-4 shot advantage. But not a single Bruin could come through with some goal support for Swayman. By the time Beck Malenstyn and Alex Tuch scored 1:24 apart in the third to end Swayman’s afternoon (with a .793 save percentage), no one could blame the goalie — who did not speak with the media postgame — for venting his frustrations.
“Absolutely [like to see that fire]. At least from one guy, right,” Sturm said of Swayman. “It was not his fault today. I felt bad for him. That’s why we kept him in there for a while. Because he’s a battler. He wants to be in it.”
The Bruins were inexplicably off kilter in every facet. Boston was outshot 35-24, went 0-for-1 on the power play, and was credited with 17 giveaways. It was such a head-scratching effort not even Sturm could find words to describe what he’d witnessed.
“I can’t, I really can’t. I don’t know,” Sturm said. “I really don’t know. If you’re a Boston Bruin and playing at home, you should be very excited going into a playoff game. We didn’t [play well]. … I’m embarrassed. We should all be embarrassed.”
If there wasn’t enough drama, Bruins defender Nikita Zadorov decided to stir the pot further late in the third period. In a stunning sequence, Zadorov approached Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin at center ice during a stoppage and leveled a vicious crosscheck that hit Dahlin hard across the right arm. Zadorov was given a five-minute penalty for cross-checking and game misconduct. He could face supplemental discipline, which would leave the Bruins shorthanded for what remains of the series.
On that, Sturm was similarly tongue tied.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t answer that. Sorry.”
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff was more verbose in expressing his feelings about attempted liberties on his team’s captain.
“I understand the emotion of that because of the way the game went,” Ruff said. “You see that in playoff games. That type of raw emotion, it’s because a player is so frustrated with the game. There’s lots of bantering back and forth inside the game. It’s not a play you want. I’m pretty sure if that’s the regular season that might even be a suspension. Could have easily broken Rasmus’ arm with the cross-check.”
For now, Buffalo has booked it out of Boston with everything going its way (aside from a still-putrid power play, which went 0-for-3 Sunday and is an astonishing 0-for-38 since April 2). The Bruins were left licking their wounds and searching for answers on how they’ll put back-to-back losses on home ice behind them and get back in this series.
“It starts with me and the leaders on the ice,” Sturm said. “I can’t expect the young guys to turn the ship and get us out of this. Those [veterans] are the guys, including me, who need to take charge.”
