Only Jeremy Swayman was safe from Marco Sturm’s blunt statement after the Boston Bruins lost 6-1 against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Spoked B is now down 3-1 in the series and facing elimination from the 2025-26 NHL season.
Nothing could’ve gone worse for Boston in Game 4 of the first-round series against Buffalo. It was as if the Bruins never made it out of the locker room in the first period, and the Sabres ran circles around them. Swayman was left out to dry by his teammates, and the 4–0 lead at the first intermission meant it was over just one period into the game. There was nothing Swayman could do as he was under siege all afternoon.
Sturm decided to end his goalie’s night after the Sabres scored their sixth of the day. As he left the ice and headed down the tunnel, Swayman had words for his bench, and they weren’t the nicest ones. Sturm didn’t beat around the bush after the game as his team is now on the brink of elimination in the 2025-26 NHL campaign.
“At least one guy [had some fire today],” Sturm stated during his postgame media availability, per reporter Bridgette Proulx. “It was not his fault today, I can tell you that. I felt bad for him. That’s why we kept him in there for a while, because he’s a battler, he wants to be in.”
Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins
Bruins take the fall for pathetic effort in Game 4
The Sabres barely had any opposition all game long. They blew the Bruins out of the water en route to their biggest postseason victory since the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. As the Bruins were embarrassed to look themselves in the eye after the game, the leaders in the locker room bit the bullet.
“If we’re not (expletive) embarrassed with what just happened, then I don’t know what to say,” Charlie McAvoy admitted. “Wasted opportunity. Unacceptable. To show up like that in the first period is unacceptable,” David Pastrnak noted. “It starts with me. It starts with the leaders on the ice,” Sturm concluded.
Bruins’ playoff ghosts are back
If it hadn’t been for Sean Kuraly’s late goal to spoil Alex Lyon’s shutout and make it 6–1, the Bruins would have gone almost 100 minutes (97:34) without scoring a goal against the Sabres. Sturm’s comments about how Boston was stronger and bigger than Buffalo are aging poorly, and there have been no signs of such superiority as the first-round series has been played in Beantown.
Boston is 3–10 in its last 13 playoff games (since the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs). Far from a fortress, TD Garden has become a haunted house for the Spoked B. However, it hasn’t been that way for the Boston Celtics, who are 17–11 at home in the playoffs since 2023, and they call TD Garden home as well. Clearly, it has nothing to do with the venue itself, and everything lies in the hands of the Bruins organization.
Boston faces elimination
The margin for error is now razor thin for Sturm and the Bruins. Making it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the 2025–26 NHL season was quite an accomplishment not many saw coming, and Sturm proved he can lead this team.
However, such a deflating series against the Sabres could actually set the Spoked B back. Boston has its back against the wall, and if the Bruins don’t show their claws now, it will be too late. Perhaps it already is.
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