Comforts of home not so comforting for Bruins throughout first-round playoff series

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Comforts of home not so comforting for Bruins throughout first-round playoff series

Lauren Campbell · MassLive

Sat, May 2, 2026 ·

3 min read

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BOSTON — The 2025-26 season saw the Bruins be a strong team at TD Garden. The Stanley Cup playoffs, though, told a much different story.

Boston lost all three home games it played in its first-round series against the Buffalo Sabres before being eliminated in Game 6 on Friday night in front of the Bruins ' home crowd.

"It's just not acceptable. I don't know exactly what it is. We can talk a big game about how excited we are, for whatever reason we were awesome at home this season, we just didn't do it when it mattered the most," Charlie McAvoy said after Boston's 4-1 loss . "I don't know if it's a maturity thing, we just weren't ready to go, or details. I'm not exactly sure, but they got the jump on us."

The Bruins were 29-11-1 at home and 16-16-9 on the road in the regular season. They earned a Game 2 win in Buffalo, but couldn't find the comforts of home the way they did on a consistent basis.

"I think the margin of mistake is so high in the playoffs, and our system is created for us to play the same way in the unit of five all the time. And I think at home we got away from that a little bit," Nikita Zadorov , who revealed he tore his MCL in Game 3, said Friday night. "But I feel like on the road, we were the team we wanted to be.

"We should have won the first game. Obviously, they came back at the end, but we played really well, I thought, for 55 minutes," he continued. "Then the second game, and the game with overtime, we played really well. So we definitely did our game plan. … At home, we just got away from it. And it cost us three games at home."

Marco Sturm believed the Bruins felt a pressure at TD Garden that they didn't feel at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

"Because we care," the coach said. "I think guys care. They wanted to prove everyone wrong, and sometimes it doesn't go your way. And I think that's what happened a little bit. We never really got the flow.

"But again, it's not lack of effort, it's not lack of attitude," Sturm continued. "These guys care. I can tell you that. We're here for a reason. We played a hell of a season because of the character we have in that room. And unfortunately came up short."

After having so much success at home in the regular season, the Bruins couldn't replicate it when it mattered the most. They were unable to capitalize on offensive chances, had too many defensive breakdowns and just made too many mistakes in the their own zone.

The offseason now begins for the Bruins. While Friday's loss is still fresh, they'll have their eyes on the NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday to see whether they'll get the Toronto Maple Leafs' first-round pick should it fall out of the top-five.

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