Nikita Zadorov big hit on Josh Doan shifts Game 1 tone

The Bruins defenseman stepped into the 24-year-old Sabres winger along the wall. Textbook timing, full body, nothing cheap.

Playoff hockey, right on cue.

Zadorov carries a $5 million cap hit and 81 games worth of regular-season work behind him, finishing with 22 points and a plus-18 rating. Nobody's paying him for the 2 goals.

They're paying him for exactly what just happened to Doan.

Doan is not a throwaway name to line up. He finished the regular season with 25 goals and 52 points in 82 games, one of Buffalo's quiet breakout stories at a $925,000 cap hit.

Losing him to injury or to hesitation on the next shift changes the Sabres' second line. Lindy Ruff has been running him in a scoring role all year. The Bruins know it.

Here's the clip in case you missed it on the broadcast.

Size is a tool, full stop. Teams spend years trying to manufacture it through trades and signings, and most never find a true 6-foot-6 defender who can skate, land hits, and still move the puck at an NHL level.

Zadorov is that rare combination. Marco Sturm was handed him and told to win a first-round series with it.

The Bruins are also dealing with Viktor Arvidsson heading down the tunnel earlier in the same game, along with the Jason Zucker-Jeremy Swayman scrum that had the bench ready to jump the boards.

This series was never going to be quiet. Two nights in, it's already a street fight.

Buffalo finished first in the Atlantic at 50-23-9 and 109 points, with the kind of skill top-to-bottom that should have the series edge on paper. Boston closed at 100 points with a plus-22 goal differential and a lineup that specializes in not letting skill breathe.

Zadorov's job for the next two weeks is to make every Sabre forward check their head twice before pulling up with the puck. Doan just got the first lesson.

Whether the rest of Buffalo's top nine adjusts or whether Ruff sends them right back into that traffic will tell you where this series is actually going.