10 Thoughts: Habs spank the Sabres 5-1 to tie up the series

After a 4-2 loss in the series opener, the Habs needed to find a way to win the second bout of the series and avoid going down two games to the Sabres to start the series. The Sabres, of course, had opposite thoughts, and were looking to lock in their home-ice advantage by winning both of the first two games in Buffalo.

But this time, the Canadiens were ready when the puck dropped, and by the time the game was five minutes old, they already held a 2-0 lead over the home team. The Sabres had their opportunities and did score on one of those, but they never looked like a serious threat to take over the game. The smattering of Montreal fans were finally treated to a 5-1 win, courtesy of the captain’s empty-netter in the closing minutes. On to Montreal, then.

Habs’ Starting Lines

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

Matheson – Carrier
Guhle – Hutson
Xhekaj – Dobson

Dobes
Fowler

Ten Thoughts

1) As the second game got underway, it was clear that the two teams’ basic formulas remained the same: speed and skill, go for the kill. The suffocating checking of the first-round match-up with Tampa was nowhere to be seen. Rushes, pressure, quick transitions, counter-attacks–and strong goaltending performances–were what both teams were counting on.

2) Tage Thompson got things underway, slamming Lane Hutson into the boards in the Montreal zone with a hit on Hutson in the Montreal zone, but the diminutive defenceman still made the pass to start the Habs’ breakout. Alex Newhook and Jake Evans outfought Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch for the puck to get the play going in the offensive zone. Hutson, no worse for wear, sent a pass to Kaiden Guhle, at the right-side hashmarks, and Guhle snapped it to the front of the net. Newhook was there and tipped the puck past a surprised Alex Lyon to give the Habs the opening lead with just 1:36 on the clock.

3) The Canadiens dominated the faceoffs in the first period, winning 15 of 22. Phillip Danault claimed two of those a little over four minutes into the game. A clean win, a pass back to Mike Matheson, and a quick shot–and a save by Lyon. However, Danault won the next faceoff as well, and this time Matheson found enough traffic to screen Lyon, and his shot hit the top corner of the net cleanly to double the lead to 2-0.

4) Josh Doan gave a gift to the Habs with a foolish late penalty, making a late hit on Noah Dobson behind the play, with just 9.9 seconds left in the first period. Completely unnecessary, and surely not one that Lindy Ruff would look upon kindly.  The Habs managed two shots in the final ten seconds of the first period, but the final 1:50 of the power play was far less effective. The control and movement looked pretty, but the Sabres’ penalty killers kept the visitors well to the outside, not giving them anything to shoot at. Worse, Ivan Demidov took a heavy–but legal–open-ice hit from Jordan Greenway, and was clearly in some pain as he made his way to the Habs’ change room.

5) Early in the second, Jason Zucker slammed Noah Dobson hard into the boards behind Dobes’s net, but Dobson was still able to make a pass to Jake Evans, who skated hard on the right side and into the Buffalo zone, with Newhook not far behind, on the left side. Evans judged that he didn’t have a good shot but Newhook did, so he sent a hard pass across the front of the net toward Newhook. He beat Rasmus Dahlin on the play and snapped the puck into the open side of the net to extend the lead to three.

6) With three minutes to go in the second, Zach Benson got a scrum going in front of Dobes, shoving the goaltender to get the party underway. He ended up at the bottom of a pile, with Matheson’s bear hug around his helmet, but still chirping. Somehow, it was Logan Stanley and Guhle who got sent off, resulting in two minutes of rather tentative four-on-four hockey. Benson was at it a few minutes later, this time doing some real damage, at least on the scoreboard. With the Sabres exerting pressure in the Montreal zone, there were two Buffalo forwards crowding the front of the net, but only Dobson herding them, with Kaiden Guhle aggressively pursuing the puck near the blue line. Benson was free, then, and able to tip in a pass from Conor Timmins to bring the Sabres back within two with less than a minute remaining in the second.

7) As expected, the Sabres pressed hard in the third period, but never with the same kind of intensity we might have seen in the third period against Tampa. There was no panic among the bleu blanc et rouge, though, and they were ready to counterattack on the drop of a hat. It was cool, calm, and collected for the most part; it would have been nice to see more effort on maintaining possession but on this night, it was very much sufficient to keep the Sabres at bay: the boys in blue only managed eight shots and 0.6 xG on Dobes in the final frame, and the big Czech handled seemingly with ease.

8) It was one of those counterattacks that saw Alexandre Carrier strip the puck from Tage Thompson and skate off into the attack unmolested. The defenceman, not known as either a speedster or a sniper, skated in with Danault to his right. With Owen Power taking away the pass opportunity, Carrier lifted a wrist shot high and to the right, beating Lyon’s glove and restoring the lead at three.

9) Ruff pulled Lyon with about four minutes remaining, maybe less with a realistic chance of tying the game, and more with the intent of generating some momentum for the next game. But it took less than 10 seconds for Nick Suzuki to get the puck on his stick in the neutral ice and the quick wrist shot into the Buffalo net fully deflated any momentum the Sabres might have hoped for.

10) So the Habs continue their perfect record in the playoffs, having won the next game after every loss. But the flip side of that stat is that they have also lost the next game after every win, with not even a two-game winning streak so far. They will need to erase that second stat in order to win this series, and the next game, at the Bell Centre, looks to be the perfect opportunity to start a winning streak.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Alex Newhook (2g, 0a, 4 shots, +2, 14:29 TOI) was a menace in the Buffalo zone, finding his way consistently to the side of the net and the blue ice, creating scoring chances and, most importantly, potting two goals to lead the Habs’ attack.

Second Star: Alexandre Carrier (1g, 0a, 1 shot, +4, 1 block, 2 hits, 19:38 TOI) was absolute rock on the night. Sometime maligned as a bottom-pairing D, he was absolutely solid with Matheson next to him. Apart from his goal, he was +4 on the night, a stark contrast to the Sabres’ top forward, Tage Thompson, who recorded a -4.

Third Star: Jakub Dobes (30 shots, 29 saves, .967 SV%, +0.9 GSAx) was solid on the night. Also focused, well-positioned, unflappable, aggressive–and very chirpy. The Sabres didn’t have all that many dangerous opportunities but when they did, Dobes was there to keep the puck out. After a subpar start to the series, it looks like we have the Playoff Dobes back in net.