When he dropped low and sent that pass to Byrum, I knew it was going. He came back with the attitude that got him to the Sabres, permanently and that goal woke the team up and brought them back to the style we saw during the season
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Rookie forward Noah Östlund had two points in Buffalo's 3-1 win over Boston. Maddie Meyer / Getty Images
The Buffalo Sabres were trailing the Boston Bruins 1-0 in the second period when Noah Östlund grabbed the puck in the neutral zone. He skated through the spoked B at center ice of TD Garden and flew into the offensive zone with speed. He then pivoted to make Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke think he was going to pass before racing into the corner. Josh Doan was crashing the net and had the Bruins’ attention. But Östlund, as he typically does, saw something else.
He held onto the puck a split second longer and saw Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram creeping up toward the faceoff dot. Somehow, Östlund feathered a pass through the narrowest of lanes, and Byram hammered the puck past Jeremy Swayman to tie the game.
“Honestly, he kind of surprised me a bit there,” Byram said. “I wasn’t sure he was going to get it through to me. Unreal pass by him.”
Sitting at his locker after the game, Östlund shrugged it off as a routine play.
“I saw him all the way, and then Doaner did a good job driving the net, so that lane opened up,” he said.
Östlund, 22, was playing in his first Stanley Cup playoff game. He missed the first two games of this season and the final few weeks of the regular season with an injury. With the series tied 1-1 coming to Boston, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff put him into the lineup in place of the injured Josh Norris on a line with Zach Benson and Doan.
“He’s been a guy that I can rely on in all situations,” Ruff said before the game.
That turned out to be true throughout the Sabres’ 3-1 win that gave them a 2-1 series lead. After Östlund set up the tying goal, the Sabres entered the third period tied with Boston. Alex Tuch scored just over four minutes into the third period on a perfect wrist shot, and the Sabres then had to protect a third-period lead. With just over a minute left and the Bruins’ net empty, Ruff trusted Östlund, a rookie, to go over the boards and help protect the lead.
Viktor Arvidsson, who has been a thorn in Buffalo’s side all series, was carrying the puck through the neutral zone. Jason Zucker bumped him off the puck, and Jack Quinn won a battle to get the loose puck and clear it down the ice. It would have been called icing, but Östlund managed to fight off Pavel Zacha and then beat David Pastrnak to the loose puck to beat out the icing. He spun around and put the puck through Pastrnak’s legs to give the Sabres the insurance goal in a 3-1 win.
“The effort to get down there, the effort to out-battle, and then the scouting report on Pastrnak when he’s in goal is you’ve got to go five-hole,” Ruff said with a smirk.
The Sabres were starting to feel desperate for offense midway through this game. The Bruins haven’t afforded the free-wheeling Sabres much time and space in this series. And Swayman has been a difference-maker in net. Outside of their spirited third-period comeback in Game 1 and a few late garbage-time goals in Game 2, Boston’s disciplined defense has put Buffalo’s offense in a vice grip.
Östlund helped change that. He’s 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, but Östlund is a crafty and slippery player with the puck on his stick. Multiple times in the first period, he managed to slip into the offensive zone and help the Sabres establish zone time. As Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin pointed out before the game, Östlund never seems to make a bad decision, with or without the puck. That’s part of why the Sabres had 90 percent of the expected goals when Östlund, Benson, and Doan were on the ice at five-on-five. The Sabres didn’t allow a single scoring chance with that line on the ice.
“I mean, yeah, jumping right in, he hasn’t played a game in a couple weeks, first-ever playoff hockey game in his rookie year, and the guy gets one (goal) and one (assist), that’s special,” Tuch said. “I mean, the hockey IQ’s off the charts. But honestly, the compete, he went in there every single shift, made a difference every single shift, and he was phenomenal.”
Östlund is human, though. He was feeling the nerves you might expect a rookie to feel in his first playoff game. But Östlund has been quick to point out that he’s played playoff games in the AHL and when he played professionally in Sweden. He loves big games and wants the puck on his stick. Even so, his heart rate was spiking early in the game.
“Maybe a little bit in the first couple shifts,” Östlund said with a smile. “But it goes away pretty quick, too.”
Back in December, Ruff wasn’t happy that the Sabres sent Östlund back to Rochester. He rejoined the team a few days later, scored goals in his first two games back in the lineup, and hasn’t had to make that drive down the thruway again since.
When the Sabres took Östlund at No. 16 in the 2022 NHL Draft, he profiled as a playmaking center who played a reliable defensive game. He knew when he was drafted that he would need two more seasons in Sweden before he was ready to come to North America. He had a plan and stayed true to that plan. He needed to add strength to handle the competitiveness of the pro game in North America. Then he played one year in the AHL, and by the end of it, he was drawing the toughest matchups as the Amerks’ No. 1 center.
So maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that he was ready to jump into the NHL and make an impact the way he has this season. He always had the skill, but the way he’s consistently won puck battles is what separates him. When I asked Dahlin before the game if, because of his size, people don’t realize how good Östlund is in that area of the game, Dahlin shook his head.
“They should know by now,” Dahlin said.
If the Bruins didn’t know, they found out on Thursday.
“For a first playoff game with us, he gets an A-plus,” Ruff said.
How Sabres’ Noah Östlund delivered a ‘special’ playoff debut to help win Game 3
Östlund, 22, was playing in his first Stanley Cup playoff game and had two points as Buffalo beat Boston.
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Rookie forward Noah Östlund had two points in Buffalo's 3-1 win over Boston. Maddie Meyer / Getty Images
The Buffalo Sabres were trailing the Boston Bruins 1-0 in the second period when Noah Östlund grabbed the puck in the neutral zone. He skated through the spoked B at center ice of TD Garden and flew into the offensive zone with speed. He then pivoted to make Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke think he was going to pass before racing into the corner. Josh Doan was crashing the net and had the Bruins’ attention. But Östlund, as he typically does, saw something else.
He held onto the puck a split second longer and saw Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram creeping up toward the faceoff dot. Somehow, Östlund feathered a pass through the narrowest of lanes, and Byram hammered the puck past Jeremy Swayman to tie the game.
“Honestly, he kind of surprised me a bit there,” Byram said. “I wasn’t sure he was going to get it through to me. Unreal pass by him.”
Sitting at his locker after the game, Östlund shrugged it off as a routine play.
“I saw him all the way, and then Doaner did a good job driving the net, so that lane opened up,” he said.
Östlund, 22, was playing in his first Stanley Cup playoff game. He missed the first two games of this season and the final few weeks of the regular season with an injury. With the series tied 1-1 coming to Boston, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff put him into the lineup in place of the injured Josh Norris on a line with Zach Benson and Doan.
“He’s been a guy that I can rely on in all situations,” Ruff said before the game.
That turned out to be true throughout the Sabres’ 3-1 win that gave them a 2-1 series lead. After Östlund set up the tying goal, the Sabres entered the third period tied with Boston. Alex Tuch scored just over four minutes into the third period on a perfect wrist shot, and the Sabres then had to protect a third-period lead. With just over a minute left and the Bruins’ net empty, Ruff trusted Östlund, a rookie, to go over the boards and help protect the lead.
Viktor Arvidsson, who has been a thorn in Buffalo’s side all series, was carrying the puck through the neutral zone. Jason Zucker bumped him off the puck, and Jack Quinn won a battle to get the loose puck and clear it down the ice. It would have been called icing, but Östlund managed to fight off Pavel Zacha and then beat David Pastrnak to the loose puck to beat out the icing. He spun around and put the puck through Pastrnak’s legs to give the Sabres the insurance goal in a 3-1 win.
“The effort to get down there, the effort to out-battle, and then the scouting report on Pastrnak when he’s in goal is you’ve got to go five-hole,” Ruff said with a smirk.
The Sabres were starting to feel desperate for offense midway through this game. The Bruins haven’t afforded the free-wheeling Sabres much time and space in this series. And Swayman has been a difference-maker in net. Outside of their spirited third-period comeback in Game 1 and a few late garbage-time goals in Game 2, Boston’s disciplined defense has put Buffalo’s offense in a vice grip.
Östlund helped change that. He’s 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, but Östlund is a crafty and slippery player with the puck on his stick. Multiple times in the first period, he managed to slip into the offensive zone and help the Sabres establish zone time. As Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin pointed out before the game, Östlund never seems to make a bad decision, with or without the puck. That’s part of why the Sabres had 90 percent of the expected goals when Östlund, Benson, and Doan were on the ice at five-on-five. The Sabres didn’t allow a single scoring chance with that line on the ice.
“I mean, yeah, jumping right in, he hasn’t played a game in a couple weeks, first-ever playoff hockey game in his rookie year, and the guy gets one (goal) and one (assist), that’s special,” Tuch said. “I mean, the hockey IQ’s off the charts. But honestly, the compete, he went in there every single shift, made a difference every single shift, and he was phenomenal.”
Östlund is human, though. He was feeling the nerves you might expect a rookie to feel in his first playoff game. But Östlund has been quick to point out that he’s played playoff games in the AHL and when he played professionally in Sweden. He loves big games and wants the puck on his stick. Even so, his heart rate was spiking early in the game.
“Maybe a little bit in the first couple shifts,” Östlund said with a smile. “But it goes away pretty quick, too.”
Back in December, Ruff wasn’t happy that the Sabres sent Östlund back to Rochester. He rejoined the team a few days later, scored goals in his first two games back in the lineup, and hasn’t had to make that drive down the thruway again since.
When the Sabres took Östlund at No. 16 in the 2022 NHL Draft, he profiled as a playmaking center who played a reliable defensive game. He knew when he was drafted that he would need two more seasons in Sweden before he was ready to come to North America. He had a plan and stayed true to that plan. He needed to add strength to handle the competitiveness of the pro game in North America. Then he played one year in the AHL, and by the end of it, he was drawing the toughest matchups as the Amerks’ No. 1 center.
So maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that he was ready to jump into the NHL and make an impact the way he has this season. He always had the skill, but the way he’s consistently won puck battles is what separates him. When I asked Dahlin before the game if, because of his size, people don’t realize how good Östlund is in that area of the game, Dahlin shook his head.
“They should know by now,” Dahlin said.
If the Bruins didn’t know, they found out on Thursday.
“For a first playoff game with us, he gets an A-plus,” Ruff said.