After a great first-round series, the Montreal Canadiens are set to start their second-round series against the Buffalo Sabres at 7:00 PM on Wednesday night. Here's what you need to know ahead of the clash.
The Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres will finally start their second-round series on Wednesday night in Buffalo. While this should be an interesting series, it promises to be different from the one we saw against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and that could be a welcome change of pace. Lindy Ruff’s men do not have the kind of defensive forwards Jon Cooper had on his roster, and that should be good news for the Habs’ top line.
That’s not to say Buffalo doesn’t have a good defense, however. Their top four defensemen are a force to be reckoned with: Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Bowen Byram, and Owen Power are a solid group. The quartet will no doubt be keeping a close eye on the Canadiens’ top forwards and aiming to make their lives harder with big hits.
On Tuesday, at practice, Martin St-Louis reunited Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky. Even though the line struggled to make a mark against the Tampa Bay Lightning, it’s not surprising to see the coach want to go back to the line that has provided so much offense for this team in the regular season. The bench boss had Alex Newhook, Jake Evans, and Ivan Demidov on his second line, Alexandre Texier with Phillip Danault and Josh Anderson on his third line, and Zachary Bolduc with Kirby Dach and Brendan Gallagher on his fourth line. Meaning that Joe Veleno, Oliver Kapanen, and Patrik Laine were on the outside looking in.
On the back end, Mike Matheson was still with Alexandre Carrier, Kaiden Guhle with Lane Hutson and Jayden Struble with Noah Dobson. That left Arber Xhekaj as the odd man out, since Adam Engstrom has been returned to the Laval Rocket. Given how big the Sabres’ defense is, I can’t imagine that the gritty defenseman will be sitting for the whole series.
Of course, what we saw in practice and in the warmup in the first round wasn’t always what we saw during the games, so no one should be shocked if that’s not how the Canadiens line up on Wednesday night. Still, it would be surprising if St-Louis didn't stick to his usual first line.
On Tuesday, Ruff told the media that Sam Carrick, who was originally supposed to miss the second round, was now officially considered day-to-day. No such luck for Noah Ostlund, however, as the centerman is still expected to miss the best-of-seven series. As for the Habs, with Dobson’s return in Game 7 against Tampa, they can be considered fully healthy, well aside from the bumps and bruises hockey players always play through of course.
The Sabres have a very good record in the first game of a series; they are 26-15 (.634) and 12-5 when the series starts on their own turf, for a whopping .706 winning percentage. Meanwhile, the Canadiens have improved their record to 76-50 in the first game of a series when they beat Tampa Bay to kick off these playoffs. On the road, that gives them a 14-32 record, for a measly .304 winning percentage.
Both teams won the first game of their previous series, so something will have to give when they both meet on Wednesday night. The Habs and Sabres have also split the season series evenly, with both teams winning two games each and scoring 13 goals across the four games. It’s interesting to note that Jakub Dobes was in the Canadiens’ net for both wins, the only two games he’s ever played against Buffalo.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM and you can catch it on HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, and CBC. Pierre Lambert and Wes McCauley are set to officiate with Scott Cherrey and Jesse Marquis being the linemen.
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