Game 50: The one in which the Sabres and Bruins pulled a "Freaky Friday"
Tage Thompson and J-J Peterka each had hat tricks to help Buffalo run Boston off the ice in a 7-2 win
BUFFALO — When you think about how things have gone for the Buffalo Sabres any time the Boston Bruins came to town, it’s almost always been a bad scene, but when things take a turn, it can really swing hard the other way.
Going into Tuesday night’s game, the Bruins had won six in a row at KeyBank Center and nine of the last 10. That time coincided with the Sabres being a not-great team and the Bruins being a pretty damn good one. That’s what made Buffalo’s 7-2 laugher victory so much more startling.
Tage Thompson and J-J Peterka each had a hat trick and four points to lead the way as they opened up a four-game homestand with an emphatic win. The Sabres getting a win in such a way against a team that’s owned them on their own ice for so long is gratifying.
It should also be a staggering sensation for the Bruins who, for a lack of a more concise description, looked very much like the Sabres have for most of the season in this particular game. The roles were reversed in their own way and while the Sabres are down in the depths well outside of the wild card race, the Bruins are right in the thick of it and missed out on a chance to leap into third place alone in the Atlantic Division.
It was a “Freaky Friday” situation that, if you were a fan of the Bruins, would terrify you. For the Sabres, it was a potential sign of long overdue growth.
“The goals are great, the response is great,” Thompson said. “I think right after a team scores, that’s the most important shift of the game. That can dictate the outcome of the game. We’ve been on the other side of it where they score and they turn it into another one and it deflates you. So we know how important those shifts are. Whether or not you score, you’ve just got to get the momentum.”
Some next-day thoughts and analysis ahead.
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