Who’s bigger, stronger? Sabres more physical than Bruins in Game 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Marco Sturm suggested last week that the Bruins needed to take advantage of being bigger and stronger than the Sabres, suddenly physicality became a central discussion point of the teams’ best-of-7 series.

So it was fitting that one of the matchup’s most physical players made was a hero for Buffalo in its 4-3 Game 1 win. Mattias Samuelsson, who was second on Buffalo with nine hits, scored the go-ahead goal with 3:24 left in the game.

“Samuelsson was an absolute stud in the game, running over people. The fact that we were able to wear them down after a while, made a difference,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We talked about finishing people when we had the opportunity. He was by far our most physical.”

Overall Buffalo had 53 hits in the game compared to just 38 by the Bruins. Late in the game, Boston looked worn down as giveaways directly contributed to Buffalo’s late rally.

QUIET DEBUTS — The Bruins had five players who were playing in the first NHL playoff games and all five had quiet debuts.

The members of the kid line of Fraser Minten, James Hagens and Marat Khusnutdinov were all kept off the scoreboard. Mark Kastelic didn’t earn a point either, but was assessed a penalty. Jonathan Aspirot finished with a minus-1.

ATMOSPHERE DELIVERS — The Sabres’ first game back in the playoffs after 14 years made tickets for Game 1 at KeyBank Arena tough to come by. Many fans who couldn’t get them stayed for the team-sponsored ‘Sabrehood’ block party and watched on TV monitors outside.