Game 60: Montreal Canadiens @ Buffalo Sabres
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Sabres region: MSG Buffalo
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
A losing streak that carried through most of the month of December, a span of about one-sixth of the NHL season, made achieving a post-season spot impossible for the Buffalo Sabres. They dropped from a spot in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference to last place in the section. Even though they’ve gone 13-9-1 since that free-fall ended on December 21 (a game after captain Rasmus Dahlin’s return from an injury that coincided with most of the losing streak), they’re still four points behind the next team.
As has become the regular routine for the franchise, they’re now going into the deadline in a selling position looking for picks and prospects as the rebuild slogs on. It’s going to be a 14th consecutive season without a post-season appearance, and it seems that the organization might actually be moving backward after at least getting within striking distance of a spot the previous two seasons.
The reports are that general manager Kevyn Adams is happy with the core he’s installed, and doesn’t want to just continue the endless cycle of taken the best players at the NHL level and swapping them for future assets to start over from scratch. He’s gone on record saying he has no interest in trading Alex Tuch, acquired when the team had to move a disgruntled Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden Knights, before the deadline, seeing him as a key piece of the future.
It helps that Buffalo has gotten hot in recent games. They enter the final week before the trade deadline having won six of their last eight matches, scoring at least four goals five times in that time, with the biggest result being an 8-2 win over the Rangers. You can understand why management sees good things in the future, especially with another top prospect that will be added at this summer’s draft.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Sabres |
|---|---|---|
| 28-26-5 | Record | 24-28-5 |
| 48.7% (22nd) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.2% (26th) |
| 2.95 (15th) | Goals per game | 3.19 (11th) |
| 3.34 (28th) | Goals against per game | 3.39 (29th) |
| 21.4% (17th) | PP% | 17.0% (27th) |
| 81.8% (6th) | PK% | 77.2% (20th) |
| 2-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-2-0 |
Montreal was one of the teams that beat up on the Sabres in December, claiming a 6-1 win in one of those 13 Buffalo losses. That added to an eventful 7-5 win back on Remembrance Day to give the Habs a 2-0 record on their rival. The season series wraps up over the next three days as the Canadiens will travel home following today’s game for the finale at the Bell Centre on Monday.
The Canadiens players remain vocal about still wanting to make the post-season, and if they’re serious about making that happen they probably need to sweep these two games. Even that may not be enough given how far back they are in the list with just over a quarter of the season to play, but a 4-0 record from the season series with the Sabres makes their chances of resurrecting their dream a little bit more plausible.
What they can’t do is come out the same way they did on Thursday when they played the last-place team in the Western Conference. The contrast was stark in how they played that game versus the way they had committed to a 60-minute disciplined team game when they hosted the Carolina Hurricanes two nights earlier. Montreal was lucky to come out of the game with an overtime win after getting outplayed by the Sharks for the second time this year, and the officials probably did them a rare favour by ignoring some infractions in the third period.
Regardless of how they got there, the Canadiens have achieved their fourth three-game winning streak of the season. They’ve earned that with their lineup depth coming through in this stretch. Fourteen players have points since the 4 Nations Face-Off, and the list of those who are still without one includes Jake Evans, Joel Armia, and Emil Heineman, who have been one of the best trios at generating chances in the offensive zone in that time. If not for a couple of posts for Heineman versus the Hurricanes, they could have increased that number to 17 and encompassed nearly the entirety of the lineup getting on the scoresheet. The line will probably correct that in today’s game.
If Montreal can play at a similar level to how they did versus Carolina, they will have offensive success today. But the Sabres are also filling the net in recent games, so this one might be another high-scoring affair between the two clubs.
