NHL predictions: Sabres face Bruins in Stanley Cup Playoffs first round

The Buffalo Sabers are about to enter uncharted territory, as they will make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 15 seasons. Additionally, they haven’t won a playoff series in 20 campaigns.

Sabers head coach Lindy Ruff hopes a matchup against the team they’ve faced the most will help them end that drought as Buffalo meets the Boston Bruins in a first-round series of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs that begins Sunday. This will be the ninth playoff meeting between the rivals, with Boston having won six of the previous eight, including their 2010 Eastern Conference quarterfinals clash.

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A candidate for the Jack Adams Award for the second time in his coaching career, Ruff served as the Sabers’ left winger/defender in their first three playoff series against the Bruins, who won all three (1982, 1983, 1988). The 66-year-old was behind Buffalo’s bench during its conference semifinal win over Boston in 1999 and quarterfinal loss in 2010.

Both meetings took place during Ruff’s first head coaching stint with the Sabres, which spanned from 1997 to 2013. After four seasons with the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils, he returned to upstate New York ahead of the 2024-25 campaign. The team recorded just 79 points, but completed a huge turnaround this season by collecting 109, its highest total since winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2006-07 with a franchise-tying 113 to win the Atlantic Division title.

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The Bruins, who missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016, return after being one of five teams in the East to score at least 100 points. Boston has won three of its four meetings against Buffalo in 2025-26, including two in overtime, and won its final two regular season games after suffering a five-game slide (0-3-2). The Sabers enter the playoffs with a five-game point streak.

NHL betting Odds from major sportsbooks peg the Sabers as first-round series favorites, with futures bets odds between -175 and -210. Meanwhile, the Bruins are priced from +145 to +170. Learn how to read betting odds here.

Choice: the Sabers to advance

History says the Bruins should advance to the second round, as they are 6-2 against the Sabers in the playoffs and 3-1-0 in the 2025-26 season series. But if you’ve followed Buffalo this entire campaign, those results may be thrown out the window.

Two of the Sabres’ losses to the Bruins came in their first 29 games, during which time they went 11-14-4. Buffalo went on to go 39-9-5, a stretch that began with a franchise-record 10-game winning streak and during which the team suffered just one straight loss in regulation.

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Tage Thompson led the Sabers in goals for the fifth straight season with 40, marking the third time in four seasons that he reached that plateau. The 28-year-old center, who was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Winter Olympics in February, will be eager to find the back of the net in his first career playoff series as he led Buffalo with five points against Boston this season but was held scoreless.

The Sabers have a number of other offensive weapons as Alex Tuch (33), Josh Doan (25), Jason Zucker (24) and Jack Quinn (20) all reached the 20-goal mark, with Doan and Quinn setting career highs. Meanwhile, Zucker led Buffalo with three goals against the Bruins this campaign.

Boston has some dangerous players as David Pastrnak recorded 100 points to join Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito as the only players in franchise history to reach the century mark at least four times, while Morgan Geekie (team-leading 39) and Pavel Zacha (30) set career highs in scoring. But something magical seems to be happening for the Sabers this season, and I don’t see an end to this series.

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