{"id":558278,"date":"2026-04-22T22:31:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558278\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:31:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:31:28","slug":"3-stars-bruins-2nd-line-responds-to-sturms-challenge-in-game-2-98-5-the-sports-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558278\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Stars: Bruins 2nd line responds to Sturm’s challenge in Game 2 – 98.5 The Sports Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was worth wondering how Bruins head coach Marco Sturm<\/a>, coaching in the NHL playoffs for the first time as a head coach, would regroup following his team’s late-game collapse in Buffalo on Sunday night. <\/p>\n

Would he tinker, shake it up entirely, or simply stay the course and lean on his guys to make the necessary adjustments? Ultimately, Sturm decided to stick with the lineup that got him here, and trusted them to deliver the bounce-back performance they undoubtedly needed to send this series back to Boston with an even 1-1 split. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very confident [and] I knew we were going to respond today,” Sturm said following the Black and Gold’s 4-2 final over the Sabres. “It wasn\u2019t terrible how we played in Game 1, but we knew we needed to be just a little bit better. The guys played to our identity. That was Bruins hockey from start to finish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game…<\/p>\n

3rd Star: Nikita Zadorov\"\"<\/p>\n

BUFFALO, NEW YORK – APRIL 19: Nikita Zadorov #91 of the Bruins delivers a check to Peyton Krebs #19 of the Buffalo Sabres during the 1st Round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Joe Hrycych\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Sabres answered the bell from a physicality standpoint in Game 1. In fact, in what was somewhat of a surprising move, the Sabres were the tone setters. But on Tuesday, the Bruins’ go-to defensive pairing of Nikita Zadorov<\/a> and Andrew Peeke stood up to the challenge and pushed back in a major way. <\/p>\n

Chances were snuffed out at a higher clip, the communication was noticeably better, and the pair was able to get out of their zone and push pace the other way with regularity. Overall, Zadorov finished this contest with a plus-1 rating, along with four hits and two blocked shots, in 15:53 of time on ice for the B’s. <\/p>\n

But what you had to love from Zadorov in this game was the way he protected his goaltender in the third period and with the Sabres trying to punch back. <\/p>\n

After yet another post-whistle crash and subsequent Hack-A-Swayman on the Bruins netminder, Zadorov went at any and ever Sabre in his sightline. Zach Benson, Alex Tuch, it didn’t matter. Now, this is something you’re seeing the Sabres do a lot through two games this series. It’s nothing new, and hey, you can’t fault the Sabres for trying whatever they can to get under Swayman’s skin. One time, sure. Two times, I don’t love that. But four times? There’s gotta be a response. And Zadorov took care of that and made sure the Sabres were going to pay for it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I grew up, all my coaches were telling me to protect my goalie, so when someone slashes my goalie, that\u2019s my job to step in,” Zadorov said following the win. “If they want to keep doing it, they\u2019re going to keep getting it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2nd Star: Jeremy Swayman\"\"<\/p>\n

BUFFALO, NEW YORK – APRIL 21: Jeremy Swayman #1 of the Bruins tends goal against Tage Thompson #72 of the Sabres during the second period in Game 2 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs . (Joe Hrycych\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When the Bruins first built this team, the focus was on being a “harder out.” The Bruins made additions centered on that very premise, and those players have held up their end of the bargain to get them to this point. Same for that identity as a whole. But what will make the B’s a harder out more than anything else is if Jeremy Swayman<\/a> continues to play like he has through the first two games of this series. <\/p>\n

Hit with 35 shots, Swayman allowed the Sabres to find the back of the net just two times, and held them off the board until the 13:54 mark of the third period. <\/p>\n

Swayman’s strong performance in this one went beyond just the saves and stops, too, as he also successfully urged Sturm to call a timeout following Buffalo’s second goal. From the timeout on, Swayman was dialed in and continued to deliver, refusing to break the same way he did once Buffalo got their momentum going in Game 1. <\/p>\n

“It was a little bit of a momentum shift, I thought,” Swayman said of his motioning to Sturm to call timeout. “I knew were weren’t going to have a TV timeout after the goal call, so it was just important to get everyone to take a breath.” <\/p>\n

Through two playoff games, Swayman has made 67 saves (second-most among playoff goalies, trailing only Linus Ullmark, who has played over 32 more minutes thanks to a double-overtime game), and has posted a .931 save percentage. <\/p>\n

1st Star: Viktor Arvidsson\"\"<\/p>\n

BUFFALO, NEW YORK – APRIL 21: Viktor Arvidsson #71 of the Bruins celebrates scoring a goal with Casey Mittelstadt #11 in Game 2 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Joe Hrycych\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sturm knew what he was doing when he called out the Bruins’ second line and urged them to be better following a minus-3 performance in Game 1. And no player took that to heart more than winger, and the line’s true heartbeat, Viktor Arvidsson. <\/p>\n

On the board with two goals, it was Arvidsson who got things started with Boston’s first goal and their fourth goal on the way to a series-evening victory. <\/p>\n

The veteran Arvidsson had a ton of jump in this game, and was not afraid to take hits and absorb contact if it meant advancing the play in some fashion. This all-gas, no-brakes approach is something the second line desperate needs to bring every game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was worth wondering how Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, coaching in the NHL playoffs for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[62716,154,95,5132,530,5,156,4,3387,1745],"class_list":{"0":"post-558278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-2026-bruins-playoffs","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-bruins","11":"tag-bostonbruins","12":"tag-bruins","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-jeremy-swayman","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-nikita-zadorov","17":"tag-viktor-arvidsson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116450737441253116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}