5 players to watch when Bruins battle Sabres in Buffalo

The Bruins are not out of the woods just yet, but there’s no denying that interim head coach Joe Sacco’s club has done a more-than-solid job of keeping their heads above water in a crowded Eastern Conference playoff picture. And more specifically, with two of their best defensmen unavailable, with Charlie McAvoy joining Hampus Lindholm on the shelf for the last six games.

It’s a stretch that’s played out to the Bruins grabbing 11 of a possible 14 points (and again, with McAvoy unavailable for six of those games), and one that will have to continue Tuesday night, with a head-to-head against the Sabres standing out as the lone potential ‘gimme’ of Boston’s pre-break slate.

And it has to be that kind of night for the Bruins, to be honest, as Buffalo comes into play as just one of four teams in all of hockey to be at least 10 points out of a playoff spot. And Buffalo’s by far the worst, too, with just 31 points on the year and the only Eastern Conference team truly out of contention by now.

Here’s five players to keep an eye on when the puck drops tonight in Buffalo…

Morgan Geekie

Bruins winger Morgan Geekie is one of the hottest players going for Joe Sacco’s squad right now. And with goals in three straight games (and four goals overall over that span), all eyes will be on the 6-foot-3 Geekie to see if he can make it four straight on Tuesday night. 

If Geekie scores on Tuesday, he’ll be the first B’s skater to have a four-game goal-scoring streak since Brad Marchand accomplished the feat in January last year. In fact, all but one of the last 21 goal streaks of at least four games from a B’s scorer have been accomplished by Marchand, David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk, or Patrice Bergeron. The lone outlier over that stretch of 21: A four-game goal streak for Charlie Coyle during the first month of the 2022-23 season. 

Geekie scored the game-winning goal in the only prior Buffalo-Boston showdown this season (Dec. 21 in Boston), and has two goals in three head-to-heads with the Sabres since joining the Bruins.

Charlie Coyle

After a three-game goal streak in late December, things have cooled down for the Bruins’ Charlie Coyle, who comes into tonight’s game with just two goals and six points in his last 14 games. (And both of those goals over that 14-game sample came in the third period of last week’s win over the Sharks.)

But if prior history is an indicator of what’s to come, a head-to-head with Buffalo could be just what the doctor ordered to get the Weymouth, Mass. native’s offensive game going.

When these teams met back in December, Coyle put Buffalo’s James Reimer in a torture chamber with a multi-hack effort that ended up in the back of the Buffalo net, and going back to last season, Coyle has scored three goals on 13 shots in four games against the Sabres. Go back even further and Coyle has recorded seven goals and 13 points in 12 head-to-heads against the Sabres since 2021-22.

Coyle is projected to skate to the right of Brad Marchand and Matt Poitras on Boston’s second line.

Andrew Peeke

Despite practicing on Monday, the Bruins remain without Charlie McAvoy (and Hampus Lindholm) for Tuesday’s contest against the Sabres. And Tuesday came with another potential issue on the backend, with Brandon Carlo considered a game-time decision due to an illness. And if the bug is enough to keep Carlo on the shelf (I’d argue that you almost want it to be given the way it’s gone through the Boston room lately), that’s going to absolutely hammer the right side of Boston’s defense, and set Andrew Peeke up for what could be a big night of munching minutes.

Of course, that’s nothing new for Peeke, who played at least 20 minutes in the six games that the Bruins have played without McAvoy. But with Carlo potentially out, that number could hit yet another season-high (Peeke logged a season-high 22:43 last Saturday against Colorado).

The 6-foot-3, 216-pound Peeke has answered the bell throughout the McAvoy absence, with one goal, three assists, plus-5 rating, and 12 blocks in six games.

Alex Tuch

If the Bruins enter this deadline season looking to make a hockey trade, I can’t help but wonder if this is finally the year they make a serious push for the Sabres’ Alex Tuch.

A right-shot, right wing, Tuch is enjoying yet another successful season for himself, with 16 goals and 35 points in 49 games for the Sabres. The 28-year-old Tuch also has some term left on his current contract, too, with a $4.75 million cap hit through the 2025-26 season. And just from a Sweeney/Bruins scope of sorts, Tuch checks a whole lot of boxes: He’s 6-foot-4, he played at Boston College, and he has some playoff history, with 19 goals and 33 points in 66 career playoff games. I mean, it all just screams Bruin.

If the Bruins were to acquire Tuch, he would immediately provide some much-needed secondary help behind the David Pastrnak line, and would give the Bruins the bonafide scoring threat they lost when they decided to let Jake DeBrusk leave as an unrestricted free agent last summer.

As far as the now goes, Tuch comes into Tuesday’s contest with four goals and seven points in his last nine games, and has scored three goals and six points in seven head-to-head showdowns against the Bruins since joining the Sabres in 2021.

Jason Zucker

Another player to watch if you’re trade deadline window shopping from a Bruins POV? Jason Zucker.

A pending unrestricted free agent, the 33-year-old Zucker has certainly been a Buffalo success story this season, with 16 goals and 36 points in 47 appearances. And one additional note when it comes to Zucker and his potential connection to Boston is that Zucker is an extremely close friend of Bruins forward Charlie Coyle, as the two played against each other as kids and later came up through the Minnesota system together, and Coyle was actually the best man at Zucker’s wedding.

Zucker, who is a left shot, has also been one of the hottest scorers in the league for the last month and change, too, with eight goals and 15 points in 14 games since Dec. 21. His 15 points over that span enter tonight’s contest as the 43rd-most among all NHLers.

Ty Anderson is 98.5 The Sports Hub’s friendly neighborhood straight-edge kid. Ty has been covering the Bruins (and other Boston teams) since 2010, has been a member of the PHWA since 2013, and went left to right across your radio dial and joined The Sports Hub in 2018. Ty also writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to the Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox.