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 great move by Cole Caufield not only made Macklin Celebrini look silly in the Calder Trophy battle between the Sharks forward and Montreal’s Lane Hutson, it resulted in the overtime goal that gave the Habs a three-game winning streak coming out of the break. It wasn’t an easy win, as was the case the first time the teams met at the beginning of February, but it all counts for two points in the standings.
Another two-goal game from Nick Suzuki (the 12th of his career; he’s never had a hat trick) put the Canadiens in a position to win despite being well off their game, and then he claimed his third point of the evening on Caufield’s winner. He has five points in the season series with Buffalo so far and is aiming to keep that run going as well.
Patrik Laine does have plenty of hat tricks in his career, and his last was in the most recent meeting between this team, finding the net three times on the power play. Laine has points in all three games since returning from his time with Finland at the 4 Nations, and he’ll be looking forward to facing the Sabres twice in the next three days.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #15 Alex Newhook |
#62 Owen Beck |
#92 Patrik Laine |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Injured: Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle, Michael Pezzetta
Buffalo Sabres projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| J.j. Peterka |
Ryan McLeod |
Tage Thompson |
| Jordan Greenway |
Dylan Cozens |
Alex Tuch |
| Zach Benson |
Jiri Kulich |
Jack Quinn |
| Beck Malenstyn |
Peyton Krebs |
Sam Lafferty |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Bowen Byram |
Rasmus Dahlin |
| Owen Power |
Mattias Samuelsson |
| Jacob Bryson |
Connor Clifton |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen |
James Reimer |
