The first two games of Marco Sturm’s head-coaching tenure have been quite telling of the type of team he wants his Boston Bruins to be.
Wednesday’s season-opening win at the Washington Capitals featured dominance from top-liners Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak, while depth scoring and grit helped rule Thursday en route to beating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime in the home opener.
The Bruins will look to continue showing off a well-rounded game when they face their first Atlantic Division opponent in the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
“We all wanted to do well, but it turns out it was not the flow we probably wanted. All of a sudden, we got into a little bit of a grinding game,” Sturm said after Thursday’s victory. “Those are the games you have to win. … Those grinding games will help bring us together as a team.”
Four different Bruins scored Thursday, including 21-year-old Fraser Minten with the game-winner and Boston newcomer Tanner Jeannot with a second-period equalizer. Boston piled up 33 shots on goal while showcasing physical play by out-hitting Chicago 25-15 and blocking 16 shots.
The first career game-winner as a Bruin could be a major confidence booster for Minten, who is centering Jeannot and Michael Eyssimont on the third line.
“It’s nice to come in and play (in the NHL environment) right away,” Minten said. “Obviously, (the top line) gets paid the big bucks to (score), but all of us want to help, too. … There’s no reason every line can’t contribute.”
However, the loss of defenseman Hampus Lindholm to a lower-body injury in the first period provides uncertainty. Lindholm missed all but 17 games last season with a broken kneecap, but this injury is unrelated.
“Just a minor injury,” Sturm said. “We just want to make sure he will be OK. He’s going to get tested and then we’ll see.”
The Sabres visit Boston after opening the season with a 4-0 loss Thursday to the New York Rangers, who debuted with a shutout loss of their own against the Pittsburgh Penguins two nights earlier.
The score does not tell the whole story as Buffalo piled up 26 of their 37 total shots on Igor Shesterkin over the final two periods. So, there was good in the effort for Jason Zucker and his teammates.
“Sometimes they go in and bounce your way, sometimes they don’t,” Zucker said. “There’s a lot of plays that happened, but I think if we focus on getting more net-front opportunities, more screens with our D-men shooting pucks, I think we’re going to be in a good spot.”
Outside of trading JJ Peterka to Utah in June, the Sabres’ lineup remains largely the same as a season ago with Tage Thompson and Josh Norris anchoring the forward group and the likes of Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power starring on defense.
One of the few newcomers is goaltender Alex Lyon, who signed a free-agent deal in July. Lyon stopped 29 of 32 shots in the opener.
“We have a game (Saturday), and then we have a game (Tuesday) after that,” Lyon said. “So we just need to continue to be level-headed, move forward rationally and try to improve a little bit at a time and try to get a W on Saturday.”
The Sabres believe the right pieces are in the room, though Norris left Thursday’s game due to an upper-body injury in the third period and fellow forward Zach Benson (facial laceration) and Power (illness) were out of the season-opening lineup.
“(Norris) didn’t finish the game, so I’m going to say that’s not a good sign,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.
Benson took a puck to the face in practice earlier this week and spent two nights in the hospital.
Of the three, only Power is available to play on Saturday.
