Sabres spoil Nash's debut with Bruins

BUFFALO -- Rick Nash did not have a point in his Boston Bruins debut, and Evan Rodrigues had a goal and an assist to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-1 win at KeyBank Center on Sunday.
Nash was acquired in a trade from the New York Rangers earlier Sunday and had five shots on goal, but the Bruins (37-15-8) remained one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division.

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"He was good. He did as advertised to me," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of Nash. "He wins pucks, he got to the net, he got his shot off, he was strong on it; he'll be a welcome addition for us. I don't think he saw the best Boston. I know he didn't see the best Boston Bruins team. I think he's aware of that, but he was good."
It was Nash's first game since Feb. 18 because the Rangers held him out in anticipation of a trade.
"I felt good on the ice," Nash said. "I felt strong, took a couple pucks to the net, had a post, I felt pretty good. I thought with my linemates (David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk) we kind of clicked and we spent a lot of time in their zone and hung on to pucks down low."
Anton Khudobin made 20 saves for Boston, which has lost its past two games and ended a five-game road (2-3-0).

"We're getting away from playing the way we're used to and we let teams take the lead or just take advantage of us being sloppy," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. "It's all about getting back to playing our game."
Rodrigues had an assist on Kyle Okposo's power-play goal at 16:31 of the first period that gave Buffalo (19-33-11) a 2-0 lead.
After Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy made it 2-1 at 3:35 of the second, Rodrigues made it 3-1 at 7:50 with his fifth goal.
Victor Antipin had two assists and Chad Johnson made 34 saves for the Sabres, who have won two of their past three games and won three out of four games against the Bruins this season.
"We come to rise against good teams," Sabres defenseman Nathan Beaulieu said. "We know what's at stake; we know they're a good team, they're going to bring their best. I think we got to try to mindset every night."
Benoit Pouliot gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 14:26 of the first period when he scored his 12th goal of the season on a rebound.

Marco Scandella made it 4-1 at 3:22 of the third period with a wrist shot for his fourth goal.

Goal of the game

Okposo's goal at 16:31 of the first period.

Save of the game

Johnson's save against David Pastrnak at 17:40 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Rodrigues' goal at 7:50 of the second period.

They said it

"We often said you can't get too high or too low. Obviously, we need to be better. We need to get back to playing our game. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and all that stuff, but we also have to realize it's in here. We just have to go out there and play the right way for 60 minutes. You look at the second period and the way that we played, that's how we want to play. If you do that for the whole game, that's a different story." -- Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron
"We were ready to play from the drop of the puck. We had a good first, carried it right over into the second. Even when they got that goal, I don't think they had much. They had that shift there at the end (of the second period) obviously where they had eight shots or whatever, but I thought we controlled the play for the most part. They're a good team, they're going to get their chances, but we did a good job of just bending." -- Sabres forward Kyle Okposo

Need to know

The Bruins have lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Nov. 15. … Reinhart has a four-game point streak (one goal, three assists) and 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in his past 19 games.

What's next

Bruins: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NESN, FS-CR, NHL.TV)
Sabres: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, SUN, MSG-B, NHL.TV)