The Sabres (and the refs) beat Boston in Buffalo 5-4.

Feb 26, 2014; Buffalo, NY, USA; Buffalo Sabres right wing Matt D

The Bruins lost in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres 5-4.  I believe I argued earlier on Twitter that the Bruins should have been able to handle the Sabres quite handily. It seems I was in error. There were factors in tonight’s OT loss in Buffalo. Chad Johnson had a bad night, the Bruins played half the game shaking the rust off (and the other half shaking the incompetent refs off), and the Buffalo Sabres came out to play.

To be outright honest with everyone, I’m a little surprised the third star of the game didn’t go to one of the linesmen. That was some of the worst officiating I’ve seen all season and it proves that the players weren’t the only ones rusty on the ice. Tyler Myers should have received a double minor for roughing on Marchand. Milan Lucic should have not been called for that board. The NHL should be utterly ashamed of the quality of the refereeing that went one tonight at the First Niagra Center. (That being said, they also missed the high-stick on Steve Ott that should have sent Carl Soderberg to the box for four minutes.)

The Bruins had to come down from a 3-1 deficit (due to the aforementioned refs) to tie it up going into the third period thanks to solid goals by the captain Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand (who was on the receiving end of one of the many bad calls delivered by the linesmen (this particular blunder delivered by referee Francois St. Laurent).  Marchand is the first Bruin to hit the twenty goal plateau this year. The Bruins even pulled ahead in the third with a power play goal delivered by Milan Lucic.

The Sabres came back swinging, getting the tie with fifty three seconds left in regulation, and getting the game winner twenty two seconds in overtime. The Bruins still got a point out of that mess, and a slight amount of shame from that loss.