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Without Patrice Bergeron, Bruins fall to Sabres |
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The Bruins six-game win streak ended Friday night in Buffalo with a 6-4 loss to the Sabres. They suffered an even bigger loss before the puck was dropped.
Shortly before warmups captain Patrice Bergeron was ruled out with a lower-body injury.
“He’ll be day-to-day until we hear differently, obviously," said head coach Bruce Cassidy.
Bergeron blocked a shot with his left foot in Thursday’s win over the Sabres, likely the reason why he was a no go Friday.
The Bruins fell behind 5-1 before three late third period goals cut the deficit to one. But Sam Reinhart crushed the Bruins hopes with an empty-net goal.
"He's our No. 1 center, so we miss him in a lot of situations, but we're a pretty good team, we've got depth," said Cassidy. "In the past, we've won games without him in the lineup. Fortunately, this year we haven't had to play without him, he's been healthy. But I don't put that on him, I'm not going to say hey we lost the game because Bergy wasn't playing.”
With Bergeron out, Charlie Coyle moved up to center Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. Sean Kuraly slid up to center Nick Ritchie and Jake DeBrusk. Anton Blidh entered the lineup, replacing Bergeron.
"We didn't have our best early on," said Cassidy. "In the second period, we were in the game and we kind of took ourselves out of the game. Certainly, some of that is on us, give them credit, they're a hungry team. They went to the net well, they shot more tonight, I think.”
While the Bruins win streak had to come to an end eventually, Friday’s loss is a tough pill to swallow. With a win Friday, the Bruins would have entered Saturday two points behind the Capitals for first in the division, and a point behind the Penguins and Islanders for second.
The Bruins head to Pittsburgh on Sunday for the first of two against the Penguins.
With the Sabres fourth goal early in the third, Cassidy pulled Rask for Jaroslav Halak. Rask made 24 saves on 28 shots. The appearance was Halak’s first since being removed from the NHL’s COVID-19 list.
Halak hasn’t appeared in a game since Apr. 3.
"Jaro got a little bit of work tonight, he hadn't been in in a long time," said Cassidy. "Couple of reasons went into that. I didn't think we were particularly great in front of Tuukka, so try to spark the club a little bit, get him some live action."
Even with Halak back in the mix, he won’t make a start in either of the Bruins two games in Pittsburgh.
Jeremy Swayman gets the start Sunday, Rask back between the pipes Tuesday.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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