5 storylines to watch in Round 1 between Sabres, Bruins

The Buffalo Sabres are getting set to face the Boston Bruins in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Game 1 is Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at KeyBank Center. Full schedule and broadcast info.

Before the best-of-seven series gets underway, here are some key storylines for the matchup of Atlantic Division rivals.

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• How Buffalo’s turnaround began at dinner table in Calgary
• Mattias Samuelsson’s letter to Buffalo

Home-ice advantages

The division-champion Sabres earned the right to host Games 1 and 2 (and 5 and 7 if necessary), which could be a big deal against the Bruins.

Boston finished .500 (16-16-9) on the road, 20th best in the NHL, while Buffalo played .695 hockey (26-10-5) at home, fourth best. The streak of 18 consecutive KeyBank Center sellouts will continue into Round 1, and the first playoff games in town since 2011 are sure to be hostile environments for the visitors.

“Our fans have done just such an amazing job of the atmosphere they’ve brought,” Beck Malenstyn said. “I really have no idea how much more they can bring, and I’m sure they’re gonna find a way, so we’re really looking forward to playing in front of them.”

“I feel that they’ve gone through some training; it’s been playoff atmosphere and the fans have been electric inside this building,” added coach Lindy Ruff. “It will probably get to a little higher level, but it’ll be part of what we learn to grow with.” 

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At TD Garden, meanwhile, the Bruins were the NHL’s second-best home team in the regular season at .720 (29-11-1). The Sabres haven’t been fazed by road hockey, though, going 22-4-2 (.821) since their Dec. 9 turnaround in Edmonton.

Buffalo went 0-1-1 in two October visits to Boston, but so much has changed over the last six months that the Sabres aren’t putting too much stock into those performances.

“Not really using those games at all,” Ruff said. “I mean, there’s parts of those games we looked at to see what it looked like compared to the end of the year. I can give you one: Our puck management is so much better now than it was at the start of the year.”

Buffalo’s PP

The Sabres enter the playoffs in an 0-for-22 drought on the power play. After some recent tinkering with the top unit, they appear to be going back to Jason Zucker down low, Jack Quinn and Josh Norris on the flanks, Tage Thompson in the bumper and Rasmus Dahlin up top. At its best, though, the unit has five guys cycling around the zone.

Luck is a factor, with the power play coming up empty on 29 shots on goal and 17 high-danger scoring chances in April (Natural Stat Trick).

Maybe Buffalo’s man advantage, which has been streaky all season, will catch fire again versus Boston’s 24th-ranked penalty kill (77.0 percent). The Sabres went 3-for-15 against the Bruins this season, including two net-front goals from Zucker in the most recent matchup on March 25.

Bad blood, potentially

The Bruins built their roster with toughness in mind, and that’s been evident this season. Defenseman Nikita Zadorov and fourth liners Marc Kastelic and Tanner Jeannot combined for 24 major penalties and 358 total penalty minutes, with Zadorov and Kastelic finishing first and second leaguewide in PIMs.

Zadorov loves to agitate; in the last 13 months, he’s delivered a late hit on Thompson, fought Jordan Greenway and had a between-the-benches spat with Bowen Byram.

As Bruins coach Marco Sturm opined Friday, “We are bigger, stronger. We are more physical. We just have to be smart, but we’re gonna go after them.”

Responded Ruff on Saturday: “That’s his take on his team. I have a lot of respect for what our team has done and how we play and the speed we play the game. They’ve got a good team. They know who they are, and we know who we are.” 

While Buffalo doesn’t mind when things get nasty – the March 8 slugfest versus Tampa Bay made that clear – it’ll be important to stay disciplined and not get caught taking the extra penalty. And in Ruff’s experience, the playoffs can bring out the worst (or best?) in anyone.

“It might take just one play inside the game to develop bad blood,” the Sabres’ coach said. “… This is always the time of the year where everything gets elevated. Some of the guys that maybe aren’t quite as tenacious become tenacious.”

Injury questions

Goalie Alex Lyon returned to practice Saturday and will be available to back up starting goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The same goes for Colten Ellis, who’s missed the past couple skates for maintenance.

Noah Ostlund, the rookie forward with 27 points (11+16) in 60 games, hasn’t played since sustaining an upper-body injury in the last matchup against Boston. He, too, practiced Saturday and is “knocking on the doorstep” of returning to game action, Ruff said – but maybe not for Game 1.

It’d be interesting to see where Ostlund slots back into the lineup, because Zach Benson has taken his place alongside Norris and Josh Doan with great results.

4th-line options

Without Ostlund, the Sabres appear to have two lineup spots for Josh Dunne, Tyson Kozak, Greenway and Tanner Pearson.

The speedy Kozak and the big, physical Greenway are some of Ruff’s most trusted penalty killers. Dunne is great at holding onto pucks down low and won 54 percent of his faceoffs this season, a point of emphasis with Sam Carrick (left arm) unavailable. Pearson has shown some offensive touch in four games with the Sabres, and the 33-year-old owns 59 games of playoff experience.

Dunne and Greenway took line rushes with Malenstyn at Saturday’s practice – that trio would be well equipped for a tough, physical series – but it wouldn’t be surprising to see all four guys get an opportunity as things progress.