First period
- Nineteen seconds in, the Canadiens’ fourth line strikes. Jake Evans works his way in and just misses the net, but Joel Armia fires the rebound off the boards into the net before Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen can recover.
- I don’t think this is what owner Terry Pegula made his special trip to Montreal for. Hopefully he at least has some good smoked meat.
- Lane Hutson has his first shot on goal before the first minute ends. I think he might have half a dozen tonight.
- Buffalo has no idea how to handle this early push from Montreal. Credit to the Canadiens for coming out this way versus a team playing so poorly. That isn’t always the case.
- Add a loud post to the five shots Montreal already has through 150 seconds.
- The Sabres had some zone time, but as soon as the puck gets in their own end, they are completely lost. Montreal gets three chances, the third a shot square off the post on a shot from Patrik Laine. That close to his first five-on-five goal.
- Zach Benson tried to go on a breakaway to spark his team. Instead he has to latch on to Hutson to prevent a counter-attack.
- We hit the first commercial break with Montreal having eight shots, two posts. a goal, and now a power play.
- No post on that shot. Buffalo gives Laine the entire left side of the ice to himself, and he rips a shot past Luukkonen. I think his stick grazed Ken Dryden’s banner on that one.
- RDS reports that Laine now has three shots on Luukkonen in his career. All three have gone in. Plus that post….
- Kirby Dach gets flipped to the ice by Mattias Samuelsson before touching the puck, and takes a minute to get up. You don’t like to see that, but he was probably just winded from the unexpected contact.
- Dach is on the second wave of the power play, so he seems to be fine.
- Now, while Montreal is killing a David Savard penalty, Dach has gone to the room. He may have been pulled by the concussion spotter.
- Brendan Gallagher saw it was Christian Dvorak coming with him on a two-on-one and made the correct decision to take the shot himself. No goal, but it was more dangerous than the alternative.
- Montreal held Buffalo to four shots on goal. Just play two more periods like that and make this game easy on yourselves.
Second period
- Dach has returned for the second, so he cleared whatever medical examination he went through.
- Samuel Montembeault makes an acrobatic toe save on Jiri Kulich just second in.
- This isn’t the start Montreal needs to maintain the 2-0 lead. Buffalo already has four shots on goal.
- Their fifth goes in. Dylan cozens erases half of what Montreal worked for in the opening 20 minutes.
- Alex Newhook walks right to the post, and then hits it.
- Juraj Slafkovský decides to shoot at Luukkonen even though he’s behind the net, and gets a bank goal to restore the lead. Clever play from him.
- A long shift in Montreal’s zone ends with Bowen Byram slashing Josh Anderson’s stick in half as the Powerhorse was just escorting the puck down the ice for a change.
- Dach takes a stick in the face, and we’ll have a 30 seconds on a five-on-three shooting gallery for Laine.
- Only one shot is needed. 4-1.
- Cozens sends the puck over the glass, and this two-man advantage will be 80 seconds long.
- Hatrik Laine does it. Three power-play goals.
- “…. and a second-round pick.”
- The crowd gives him an ovation to rival the first goal he scored as a Hab.
- They are singing “Olé!” Surely that’s okay now.
- Newhook is going to box. You knew that was coming sharpish.
- Dvorak just tries to play the puck up to his stick using his foot. It wasn’t graceful.
- Buffalo is really pushing for a second. I admire the effort to not just throw in the towel.
- Luukkonen is forced to freeze the puck at the side of the net on a dump-in from centre ice rom Kaiden Guhle.
- After praising their work ethic, the Sabres just allowed two different shifts to win about 10 consecutive one-on-one battles, and it ends with an Anderson goal.
- Anderson now has goals in back-to-back games.
- Just went up to reread points three and four from this period. Fair to say the Canadiens righted the ship.
Second intermission
- Slafkovský was asked about the reaction to Laine’s hat trick. He shrugged it off and said, “I think mine was louder” for last year’s three-goal game.
Third period
- Let’s enjoy a nice 20 minutes of stress-free hockey. Maybe a Hutson goal or two.
- Hutson is off the box for cross-checking. He can’t score from there.
- Anderson’s trip to visit the Wizard of Oz this off-season was well worth it. He made a very composed play to take stock of his surroundings and calmly play the puck to an area with no Sabres while on the penalty kill.
- Buffalo now gets a five-on-three as Montreal was bit overaggressive trying to create a short-handed rush. Perfectly fine with a five-goal lead.
- Montreal does well to kill off the penalties, just one dangerous shot off the side of the net for Buffalo.
- The Habs are trying to see this out by playing exclusively in the Sabres’ zone, and the crowd showed their appreciation for that strategy.
- Guhle blocks a shot and stays down for a minute. hopefully just a bit of pain. He’s been very good defensively on a night all about offence.
- A late power play for Montreal as Gilbert knocks Dach into the linesman. Will Laine be on the ice for it?
- No he is not.
- If I were the opposing coach if would be more embarrassing if the opponent didn’t put a guy on the ice who already has three goals.
- Montreal wins 6-1.
- Buffalo will have to wait until Friday at home to the Toronto Maple Leafs to break what is now an 11-game losing streak.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) No way those moves are going to work versus players who still don’t have his elite mobility.
2) This could be an interesting contract negotiation starting July 1.
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