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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- After the Boston Bruins struggled at the start of the 2014-2015 season with a 1-3-0 record in their first four games, coach Claude Julien felt the team's first multi-city road trip could help turns things around. Sure enough, it did. The Bruins concluded this three-game road trip with a 2-1-0 record by shutting out the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday at First Niagara Center. Boston also beat the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday before they lost to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.  On Saturday, the Bruins played with more intensity and produced a solid defensive game, which had been missing to start the season. The Bruins return home feeling good about their play and will host the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders this week at TD Garden. "When you come off a road trip, you want to come off with a winning record," Julien said. "If we do that every road trip, we're going to be OK. You've got to start somewhere; we know we've struggled out of the gate, but you feel like it's starting to come around. You can see it even in the body language of the players. They're starting to have more fun, and when you have more fun, you seem to have better legs, and we seem to move the puck better, so you've just got to hope that it continues. I like the way we've played the last three games, and if you take away those defensive mistakes in Montreal, it was a good road trip." Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was disgusted with the way the team had started the season. He made his displeasure known to his teammates, called the team's efforts "unacceptable" and said things needed to change. After Saturday's win, Chara said he was satisfied with the team's play on this road trip. "It was very important," Chara said. "We set ourselves a little bit back with the first four games, so we wanted for sure to put those behind us and really focus and have a better three games on the road. We had a bad result in Montreal, but we can build on being 2-1 this week on the road. It's something we can build on, and now we have to stay focused and play strong." During that 1-3-0 stretch to start the season, opponents outscored the Bruins 9-4. Julien preached -- and had the team practice -- getting more traffic in front of the opposition's net and the importance of getting pucks through. Boston was able to get it done against the Sabres. Three of the Bruins' four goals came from the point, and they created limited visibility for Buffalo goalie Jhonas Enroth. Bruins defensemen Dougie Hamilton, Chara and Torey Krug all scored on shots from the point. "It's something that you don't see very often," Chara said. "When you have good traffic and guys are driving to the net and staying in front of the net, it makes it hard on the goalies to see the puck. It creates a lot of good things, offensively. It's not going to happen if you're not going to have willingness staying in front, but it was a great job by the forwards." Hamilton struggled at the start of the season, too. But he's playing better of late, and Saturday was one of his best games. "What he needs is the confidence," Julien said. "He was good. You could see him coming around a little bit. He had a great camp, and he just struggled a little bit out of the gate. It's just a matter of time for guys like him to find his game and be the player that we know he can be. It was a good example of that tonight, for sure." Hamilton finished with a goal and an assist, along with a plus-3 rating. "I had a bad start, and I think I'm playing pretty good right now," he said. "It was nice tonight to have some lucky bounces, some pluses and be on for some goals and then win, obviously. Just to feel like you contributed and try to have your hard work pay off." Too many times in the early part of this season, the Bruins have uncharacteristically imploded defensively. That was the case against the Canadiens on Thursday when the Bruins allowed six goals. Even though Boston beat a lowly Sabres team Saturday, the shutout felt good. "It's something that we were not very happy about," Chara said of the loss to Montreal. "We always take a lot of pride in our defensive game, and giving up six goals is not acceptable with this team. Scoring four goals should be a good thing against a team like Montreal, but giving up six is way too much. There were too many mistakes being made, so we wanted to have a really strong game defensively tonight, and we did." Boston's compete level in its own end was solid, and as Chara described it, the team's attitude and focus were much better as well. Under Julien's tenure in Boston, the Bruins have built their game on playing strong defense. When they're successful, it translates into offense, and that was the case against the Sabres. "We talked about playing with more intensity, and we have in the last three games, which is encouraging," Julien said. "Last game, we talked about our breakdowns defensively, and tonight was much better. We protected the slot area much better. They got some shots from the inside, but most of it was coming from the outside, so we were a lot better defensively. It made a big difference, and it gives you an opportunity to go home feeling much better about yourself as a team, knowing you got four out of six points and our game is starting to come around."
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