The Boston Bruins have won 11 Stanley Cup playoff rounds since the last time the Buffalo Sabres made the postseason.

That experience seems to have Boston coach Marco Sturm oozing with confidence heading into Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series on Sunday night in Buffalo.

“We know how we have to play, we’re going to be ready to go,” Sturm said Friday. “We’re excited. We are bigger, stronger, we are more physical. We just have to be smart, but we’re going to go after them.”

Buffalo forward Josh Doan said on Saturday that those comments have been seen and heard by the Sabres, who will play their first postseason game since April 26, 2011.

“At the end of the day, I think our group trusts what we’re doing here and we’ll just let that play out throughout the series,” he said. “We’re going to stick to our game plan. So, it’s one of those things that you see, but at the end of the day there’s no real response from us in this room.”

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff didn’t fire back either when asked about Sturm’s comments.

“That’s his take on his team,” Ruff said. “I have a lot of respect for what our team has done and how we play and the speed we play the game. They’ve got a good team. I mean, they know who they are and we know who we are.”

Boston won three out of four meetings with Buffalo this season, most recently a 4-3 overtime win on March 25 that moved the Bruins into a tie for third in the Atlantic Division at the time.

Boston ultimately finished fourth in the Atlantic, six points behind the third-place Montreal Canadiens. That dropped the Bruins into the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot.

The Bruins are just happy to get back into the postseason after missing out last season for the first time in nine years.

“I think if you don’t enjoy (the Stanley Cup playoffs), you’re in the wrong sport or wrong place,” Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “That’s playoff hockey. That’s pressure, that’s atmosphere, intensity, physicality, blood, sweat — you name it.”

Leading the way for the Bruins will be 29-year-old forward David Pastrnak, who finished the regular season with exactly 100 points (29 goals, 71 assists) — the fourth straight year he has hit triple digits.

After Pastrnak, however, the Bruins have a significant drop-off in point totals with Morgan Geekie next at 68 points (39 goals, 29 assists).

Sturm said he doesn’t expect Ruff to try to match up line for line.

“In the past, Lindy wasn’t really a big matchup guy,” Sturm said. “He did his thing, so we’ll see where it goes. Maybe he does it differently in the playoffs, but we don’t really care.”

The Sabres not only ended the NHL’s longest active playoff drought at 14 years, they won the Atlantic Division by three points over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Buffalo doesn’t have a 100-point scorer, but Tage Thompson remains one of the top centers in the league. He followed up last year’s 44-goal output with 40 goals and 41 assists this year.

The Sabres also boast one of the top offensive defensemen in Rasmus Dahlin, who finished second on the team with 74 points (19 goals, 55 assists). That ranked sixth among all NHL defensemen.

–Field Level Media

Matt Fitzpatrick of England turned in a strong stretch on the back nine Saturday to shoot a 3-under-par 68 and keep the lead through three rounds of the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Fitzpatrick moved to 17-under 196 and increased his lead to three shots, but world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will be his closest pursuer going into Sunday’s final round.

Fitzpatrick’s eagle 3 on the 15th hole at Harbour Town Golf Links capped a four-hole stretch that he played at 4 under. He settled down after three bogeys on the front side.

Scheffler shot 64 to climb into second. Brian Harman (63) joined Austria’s Sepp Straka (67) and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (66) at 13 under.

Fitzpatrick will be aiming for his second victory of the year. He won a month ago at the Valspar Championship, just one week after a runner-up finish at The Players Championship.

Scheffler sizzled at the start Saturday with birdies on five of the first six holes.

Harman became the clubhouse leader before the final groups reached the round’s midway mark. Harman began the day in 27th place, but he posted birdies on the final three holes to be the first to get to 13 under.

The golfers at 12 under are Andrew Novak (65), Gary Woodland (66), Patrick Cantlay (68), Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (68) and South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter (67).

–Field Level Media

Second-seeded Ben Shelton halted the stunning run by unseeded Slovakian qualifier Alex Molcan, 6-3, 6-4, on Saturday to advance to the finals at the BMW Open in Munich, Germany.

Shelton will face fourth-seeded Italian Flavio Cobolli, who stunned top-seeded and defending champion Alexander Zverev of Germany, 6-3, 6-3.

Shelton, who lost to Zverev in the 2025 title match, did not produce his usual superior services, but only faced one break point in the match. He managed to break Molcan late in each set to advance to his seventh ATP Tour final.

Cobolli blistered 32 winners on the clay and lost only eight points on his serve against his good friend Zverev. It was the Italian’s first-ever win over a Top-5 opponent. He broke the big-serving German four times, including in the final game of the match.

Shelton leads the all-time series, 3-2, winning all three matchups in 2025.

Barcelona Open

Fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia and ninth-seeded Frenchman Arthur Fils each needed three sets to advance to the finals of the ATP 500 clay-court event.

Rublev rallied to knock off Serbian qualifier Hamad Medjedovic, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, while Fils came from behind to outlast Spain’s Rafael Jodar, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Rublev reached his 29th ATP final by capturing the final four games of the match. He converted 4-of-9 break point chances, while Medjedovic was 1-of-6.

Fils halted Jodar’s eight match winning streak by cracking 28 winners to only 11 for the 19-year old upstart. With the third set knotted at 3-3, Fils staved off four break points, broke Jodar’s serve and turned back two more break chances in the final game to prevail.

They have split two previous on-court matches, with Fils winning on clay, capturing a two-set decision in the 2025 event in Monte-Carlo.

–Field Level Media