The Boston Bruins were supposed to play one of their biggest games of the season on Sunday afternoon when they hosted the Buffalo Sabres for Game 4 of their Eastern Conference first-round series. The game happened. There was hockey played on the ice. But there wasn’t much of it from the Bruins as they had one of the biggest no-show performances you could ever imagine from a playoff team.
They were on the losing end of a 6-1 decision that was, quite frankly, not even as close as the lopsided final score indicates.
This was bad. It was ugly.
Head coach Marco Sturm said he was embarrassed after the game and that they should all be embarrassed.
When starting goalie Jeremy Swayman was mercifully lifted from the game in favor of backup Joonas Korpisalo in the third period, he looked like he was ready to fight his entire bench and visibly had strong words for his teammates.
All of it was justified.
The Sabres now have a 3-1 series lead going back to Buffalo for Game 5 on Tuesday. A win will give them their first playoff series win in 19 years and send the Bruins to the golf course for the summer.
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman had every reason to be furious with teammates
It is not often that you can look at a goalie who allows six goals in a playoff game and feel sympathy for them, or absolve them of blame.
But it would be justified in this instance.