James Hagens made his playoff debut for the Bruins in Game 1 against the Sabres on Sunday at KeyBank Center, opening the night at left wing on a line with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.
Hagens said it was his third game in the NHL, and the moment came with plenty of company. Five Bruins were pushed to the center of the pregame stretching circle before the morning skate because they were only hours from making their postseason debuts, a small ritual that turned into a marker of how much inexperience Boston was carrying into the opening game.
Hagens called it a cool moment, but the bigger message from coach Marco Sturm was simple: nothing changes now. Sturm told him to stay in the moment and not let the noise in Buffalo get to him, adding that the pressure of the setting is something young players have to work through before it starts to feel normal.
That advice mattered because Hagens, Minten, Khusnutdinov, Mark Kastelic and Jonathan Aspirot all entered Sunday with zero postseason games on their résumés. At the end of Bruins practices and morning skates, the team forms a circle for a quick stretch and one player, or occasionally two, leads it. Sunday’s version was tied to milestone moments, with five players stepping into the center because the opener against Buffalo would be their first playoff game.
Buffalo had home ice for Games 1 and 2, which gave coach Lindy Ruff the last change, but Sturm said he was not especially worried about that advantage. He said the Bruins know how they have to play, want to be bigger, stronger and more physical, and plan to attack the Sabres without worrying too much about which Buffalo line steps over the boards first.
The matchup also brought a test for Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin, who finished the season with 19 goals, 74 points and a plus-18 mark. Sturm compared him to Colorado defenseman Cale Makar, calling both special players and warning that if Dahlin is allowed to dictate the game, he can “destroy us basically.” For Hagens, the assignment was more immediate and more personal: a first playoff game, against a home team with the last change, on a night when the Bruins’ youngest players were asked to absorb everything at once and keep skating.
