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Joe Veleno and Arber Xhekaj drew back into Game 1 of the second round as the Canadiens looked to open their series on the road as they did in Florida. Unfortunately for the Habs, they did little other than their accomplishment of a power play goal.

The Buffalo Sabres scored their four goals of the night on the first nine shots, including a two-on-one early in the first as Hutson tripped on the ice and an effective two-on-one during a power play after a horrendous tripping call.

Regardless of any caveats, the Canadiens did not give themselves nearly enough of a chance to come back and win the game, especially in the third period. Surely the hope from the management team is that this game will set the expectations for the Canadiens and remind them of how the Sabres approach all three zones of the ice. Montreal split the season series with Buffalo, but in the games they lost, the mistakes and breaks were eerily similar to those seen in Game 1, and the Habs did not adjust in-game appropriately then either. The next test for Montreal is on Friday night, where they will have the chance to earn a split on the road before heading back to Montreal to play at home on Sunday.

Starting Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Texier – Evans– Demidov
Texier – Danault – Anderson
Bolduc – Veleno – Dach

Guhle– Hutson
Matheson – Carrier
Xhekaj – Dobson

Dobes

Ten Thoughts

1) The second round for Montreal opened up with a penalty 10 seconds into the game. Lane Hutson tripped up Zach Benson when a bouncing puck that was dumped into the Canadiens zone ended up in Benson’s feet as Hutson was reaching for it. Jake Evans was able to win the first faceoff – surely a point of great emphasis leading into this series – and began a chain of clears and blueline coverage that would retire the first minute of the Buffalo power play. The Habs continued to fight off the attack and the Sabres only established themselves for a shot on net during the final 15 seconds, and Jakub Dobes was there to stop the shot with his face. A final faceoff win put the remaining seconds to bed.

2) After the penalty, the crowd was treated to a sequence of hits from their fourth line before Hutson clipped the top of Alex Lyon’s pad as he walked clear down the wing. Ivan Demidov had won his battle along the boards to feed him across the zone, and Hutson’s missed chance would end up costing them immediately afterwards. As the Sabres broke out of the zone, Hutson fell at the red line as he attempted to move the loose puck up the ice and gifted a two-on-one to Benson and Josh Doan. Benson expertly waited out the sliding Noah Dobson before moving the puck across the ice to Doan for an easy tap-in to give the Sabres the lead in Game 1.

3) A few high-danger scoring chances were exchanged by both teams as the time progressed in the first period. Dobes needed to be sharp on a hard shot by Alex Tuch, whereas Lyon had three slot shots hit him as they were sent into the middle of the ice after the Sabres left the slot open. Nick Suzuki was the next Canadiens player to be called for a tripping penalty, although how Suzuki can trip Benson (again) if his stick is in Benson’s midsection and Benson is leaned over it befuddles the rest of us.

4) The Canadiens held the zone and efficiently erased the Sabres’ top unit’s effort both at the blueline and neutral zone, closing off passes and hitting the wingers along the wall. Once more, Buffalo’s second unit was able to gain the zone far more easily by overwhelming the Canadiens along the wall. Ryan McLeod was the recipient of a spectacular pass from Benson (again) right in front of the net that stretched Dobes beyond his capacity to make the stop. The Sabres had worked the puck to the point and attempted to hit Doan with a longer pass. That pass was blocked by Josh Anderson, but the puck dropped at both his feet and Doan’s in the slot, and Doan reacted first by moving it to Benson in the soft ice near the goalie.

5) Montreal drew its first man advantage of the game when Rasmus Dahlin shoved Jake Evans into the crossbar behind Lyon. Evans had been rushing up the ice on a two-on-one after picking off a pass near the Habs blueline. His shot fluttered into the post and out of the crease after being slowed by Lyon’s arm, and Evans was carried into the net along his path as Dahlin did not let him out of the way of Lyon. The penalty was officially categorized as interference, an apt characterization of numerous components of the play, crystallized by the still-shot of the back of Evans’ helmet rattling off the crossbar.

6) The power play for Montreal, however, had little that seemed to interfere with it on the first iteration during this series. Buffalo delivered an entirely different defending style and complexion than the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Montreal’s top unit had much more time and space, especially along the top of the zone and the walls. Demidov was able to orchestrate two choice passes that forced excellent saves by Lyon and blocked shots by dutiful penalty killers, but Montreal was spotted multiple times with three skaters (even four at one point) within five feet of the blue line. During one of the cycles, Demidov received a pass and spun, sending the puck behind him to the goal line and just in front of Slafkovsky, who handled it with panache towards the front of the net. Instead of driving into Lyon and trying to force the shot, Slafkovsky spied Suzuki on the opposite post and laid a perfect feed for Suzuki’s tap-in goal.

7) Jordan Greenway recovered the two-goal lead for Buffalo after firing a meaty wrist shot that pushed its way past Dobes’ glove. Mattias Samuelsson had sent a pass from his own zone to Greenway at the Habs blueline, and Greenway used a flyby block to tie up Mike Matheson and ensure a clean shooting lane. The Buffalo faithful continued to jeer Dobes into the next play, thrilled with their team’s performance in the opening minutes of the second period and the second round. Buffalo nearly added another notch when McLeod wired the crossbar on another two-on-one and Guhle was rung up on another devastatingly weak cross-checking call that sent Montreal back to the penalty kill. The Habs delivered another 1:45 of highly effective penalty killing before Bowen Byram, on the second unit, sent a wrist shot past Dobes into the far top corner. Dobes had three bodies in a line in front of him but just got beaten as he could see the shot along the right side of the screen.

8) Montreal was sent to the power play immediately on the puck drop after the goal when Beck Malenstyn got his stick into Hutson’s face. Montreal’s top unit was held to primarily the perimeter as they worked the puck in the zone, and Demidov got the only substantive shot on net but was deflected out of play. With 3:29 left in the second period, Kirby Dach got the Canadiens back within striking distance as a result of an incredible effort toward the net. After turning the puck over in the neutral zone, the Sabres forwards were caught chasing Bolduc and Dach as they burst into the zone and beat their excess defender on the way to the net. Conor Timmins slid into Dach’s feet to erase the possibility of a pass, but as he was falling, Dach batted the puck into the air and past Lyon on the short side. An incredible display of will and talent got Montreal back to a two-goal deficit as both teams headed to the dressing room before the final frame.

9) Caufield and Suzuki nearly connected to convert a two-on-one of their own nine seconds into the period as a result of Suzuki beating his man while carrying the puck. Caufield sent the shot into Lyon’s crest, and a minute later, Montreal nearly gave away their recovered progress when Jack Quinn barely missed the net after beating Carrier to the middle of the slot. Montreal’s five-on-five pace of play picked up immediately in the third period, as did their defending up the ice. Following an icing through six minutes of play, the Canadiens nearly gave the three-goal lead right back to the Sabres. As time ticked away in the third period, Montreal continued to try to penetrate the Buffalo zone and establish a presence behind the forwards. The Sabres exacted a deliberate and consistent plan of pushing pressure to the edge of the neutral zone before Montreal could cross the blue, stymying the forecheck when the puck couldn’t instead be turned over.

10) Montreal would end up pulling Dobes with a little under three minutes remaining, and utilized a TV timeout to rest their top players and likely draw up a specific plan of attack. Josh Norris was able to win the faceoff, however, and sent the puck along the wall down the ice. The icing waved off, Montreal burned valuable seconds getting back into the zone and then even more when Slafkovsky sent a meaningless shot towards the net from the point with no coverage or screen at all. An offside put Montreal back outside the zone again, and Martin St. Louis called for a timeout with 1:31 remaining. None of the following chances would be enough to earn even one more goal, including a back-door from Demidov. To the chagrin of every Canadiens fan watching, Demidov and Slafkovsky elected to pass the puck back and forth between each other in the Sabres’ left corner from 00:55 – 00:31 without any effort to get a shot and without anybody in front of the net. If Montreal hopes to dominate and win this series, putting Phillip Danault on the ice during a six-on-five for winning faceoffs and “net-front presence”, they need to reevaluate how they scraped by beating Andrei Vasilevskiy and how those goals were actually scored.

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Kirby Dach

Dach’s effort and commitment to finishing plays has led to his scoring of three goals so far these playoffs. His tally tonight was another such example, and in a game without heroes, he served as an emotional leader for the group.

Stats: 1 goal, 1 shot, 2 hits, 9:46 T.O.I.

2nd Star – Nick Suzuki

Montreal’s captain had an active role in Game 1 against Buffalo and scored his goal on the power play. He orchestrated numerous high-quality scoring chances for the Canadiens at even strength and was pivotal to stopping a few attacks into the Canadiens zone.

Stats: 1 goal, 3 shots, 2 hits, 21:02 T.O.I.

3rd Star – Zachary Bolduc

Alike to Dach, Bolduc clearly has the jump and jam to take on the challenge in Buffalo. He was flying around the ice and engaging himself in plays of all kinds, stealing pucks, laying hits, delivering sneaky cross-checks and pump-fakes during stoppages, essentially thriving on the play from Round 1. Bolduc has certainly found a place for himself in the playoffs and will need to continue to build on this attitude if the Habs hope to get themselves into this series.

Stats: 1 assist, 5 hits, 8:53 T.O.I.