Bruins-Sabers NHL Playoffs Predictions

Zak Drapeau
Apr 17
2 min read

by Zak Drapeau

Sportz Nation - 4/17/2026

Photo by Chris O'Meara/ Associated Press

The Boston Bruins are back in the Playoffs as the 1st Wild Card team in Eastern Conference. In the first round, the Bruins will face off with the Buffalo Sabres in a Best-of-7 series, a team in which they won the season series by a 3-1 record in the 2025/26 season.

The Sabres finished the season with the 2nd best record in the conference at 50-23-9 for 109 points and the Bruins finished in 5th with a 45-27-10 for 100 points. The Sabres finished the season with 283 goals, the 5th most across the league and 15 more than the 10th-spot Bruins. The Sabres have been one of the most unselfish teams in the league this season with 10 players with over 40 points this season and 13 players with double digit goals. The Bruins on the other hand have been led by Pastrnak and Geekie, Pasta hitting 100 points on the season and Geekie leading the team with 39 goals.

On defense, the Sabres were 10th in Goals Against and the Bruins in 14th with 240 and 247 respectively. The Sabres Goalie Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen was one of the 10 best between the sticks this season with Jeremy Swayman for the Bruins starting out well but ending the season on a sour note with his GAA falling to 11th of all Goalies with 40 or more games played.

The key for the Bruins will be to stop Tage Thompson, the Sabres leading scorer, and that may come down to what version of Jeremy Swayman we see. Geekie and Pasta should give the Bruins around 2 goals a game but if the defense doesn't step up that won't be enough to outlast Buffalo for 7 games.

The B's will also need to rely on their previous matchups' success, scoring 12 goals in 4 games in their season series with Pastrnak grabbing 3 of those goals and 6 points in total.

Predictions

The Sabres may be -200 favorites in this series but I have the Bruins winning in 6 in front of their home crowd. In the last 10-15 games of the season their defense has really gotten better. That is their defensemen, Jeremy Swayman has still been shaky with 20 goals allowed in his last 8 games.

For the B's to advance, Pasta is going to have to go off and I have all the faith in him to do it. The top 2 lines are going to have to pull most of the weight and score about 3 goals a game. If Swayman can step up and play to the level he was around midseason, I don't see why the Bruins don't beat the Sabres as they have been all season.