Bruins notebook: Buy-in leading to success

For much of the evening Saturday, the Bruins had their fist cocked and ready to connect with the knockout punch to the hapless Buffalo Sabres.

That punch never really came, not until there were 2.2 seconds left in the game when Sean Kuraly tapped in an Elias Lindolm shot/pass to seal the game.

But while the game may have been frustrating at times, something important was unfolding. The B’s themselves did not get frustrated. They trusted what they were doing. They neither cheated for offense nor did they go into a protective shell. They kept grinding away, playing “north” as coaches like to say, and never gave the Sabres much.

It was a sign that this team knows and believes in its identity, that it is not a club that relies on a quick-strike offense but one that needs to play to the stru