After suffering a frustrating 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night in South Florida, the Boston Bruins looked to pick up some valuable points on Saturday afternoon against the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning. Easier said than done, as the Bolts were 7-1-2 entering the game.
Anyway, before the game, a 3-1 Bolts win, head coach Marco Sturm said Mason Lohrei would take warmups and see if he could return to the lineup after missing the last handful of games with an upper-body injury.
"We'll decide after warmup if Lohrei can play or not," said Sturm.
As it turns out, unsurprisingly, he couldn't go. In his absence, Jordan Harris drew into the lineup with Henri Jokiharju coming out after playing the last couple of games. He scored his first goal as a Bruin in a win over the Dallas Stars last week, but he had a costly turnover against Florida that led to an early first-period goal.
Bruins face tough back-to-back in Philadelphia
The NHL isn't doing the Bruins any favors coming down the stretch of the regular season in terms of th schedule. After the loss in Tampa Bay, the Bruins chartered to Philadelphia for a 3:30 showdown with the Flyers. Philly was off on Saturday after beating the New York Islanders on Friday night.
Philadelphia is six points behind the Bruins in the standings, and another regulation loss on Sunday, then things can get dicey for the Black and Gold, who will be off until Thursday with a game in Carolina against the Hurricanes. Even though they are in a good position to make the playoffs, securing points to stay in their current spot will not be easy.
Sabres clinch playoff berth for first time in 14 years
The Buffalo Sabres entered the season with the longest playoff drought in the NHL at 14 years. When the season started, and through the first couple of months, it was looking like the drought was going to extend to a 15th year. Not so fast.
Buffalo has been one of the best teams in the NHL over the last couple of months, and on Saturday afternoon, while they were in their hotel in Washington, they officially ended their playoff drought when the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings lost in regulation. Coach Lindy Ruff said there was no celebration.
"There's no celebration,'' said Ruff. "We're in the playoffs, but that isn't good enough."