It was La Soirée Québécoise at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night, as the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Buffalo Sabres, the first time the two teams met since Montreal eliminated them in the second round of the playoffs. For a third straight game, Jacob Fowler started for the Habs and, interestingly, the New York Rangers goaltending scout was in attendance.

He may not have known whether Fowler or Dobes would be in net that night, but his presence after Igor Shesterkin was ruled out for the rest of the season is still interesting. However, with their number one goaltender still having six years left on his contract, Samuel Montembeault would be the best fit for the Rangers, but he’s still injured.

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The Canadiens' penalty kill was very impressive on four power-play opportunities; the Sabres couldn’t get a single shot on net. Granted, their man advantage is hardly menacing, with a 13.6% success rate before Tuesday night’s game, but the Canadiens still played well on the kill.

Jake Evans had an active stick to break up plays; Arber Xhekaj timed his dive perfectly at one point, taking away a passing opportunity in the second frame, while Noah Dobson’s long reach came in handy on the PK in the first frame. Asked how he felt about the PK’s work on the night and the fact that it didn’t allow a single shot, Evans said: "I didn’t even know that. Yeah, you know, we feel confident. Everyone’s been working their tail off and blocking shots if they need to. We get the saves when we need to. You know, when the PK’s going well, it’s not one guy; it’s not just the goalie. It’s everyone chipping in and helping out."

As for Josh Anderson, he added: "We’re starting to get a little bit comfortable and used to the new kill this year; we’re trying to dial it in each and every day, just watching clips of what we need to work on and obviously things went our way tonight with the kill."

The PK’s efficiency didn’t go unnoticed by Martin St-Louis; we played a good game. The two goals in the third hurt, but we’ll look at it and try to correct things. […] The PK was excellent; we went out and got a goal on the PP. We were organized, played a good second frame, and did a lot of things well, but nothing was perfect. Perfection is impossible, so it’s about correcting errors and trying to be perfect, knowing full well it’s impossible.

Days after GM Kent Hughes traded Jayden Struble, Mike Matheson was labelled day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, and sources say his absence could be lengthy. As if that wasn't worrying enough for the Habs, Dobson took a puck to the face in the second frame and headed straight down the tunnel once he regained his senses.

Thankfully, he returned at the start of the third, looking no worse for wear; in fact, he finished the evening with 5 hits, doubling his season total. Despite missing a good chunk of the middle stanza, he still spent nearly 19 minutes on the ice.

In the dying seconds of the game, Alexandre Carrier threw caution to the wind and threw himself off a Tage Thompson cannon shot to push the game to overtime. While the coach said every player knows how much that hurts, the blueliner didn’t agree: "It wasn’t that bad, honestly. The opportunity was there, so I just tried to block it."

The Canadiens seemed in full control, leading 3-1 at the start of the third frame and having given Buffalo only nine shots, but at 4:24 the Sabres got a goal back, tying the game just over a minute later. Those goals felt like déjà vu, with Fowler unable to see the puck through heavy traffic. Two of the visitors' goals came off deflections, which makes the netminder’s job really hard. The coach explained:

We got to block the shots from up high, and you need to box out and take the sticks away down low. It’s really simple.

Still, the Canadiens managed to get away with the two points thanks to another Zachary Bolduc shootout goal, but they nearly lost that extra point in overtime when Juraj Slafkovsky made a couple of mistakes.

After the game, the Habs headed to Washington, where they’ll take on the Capitals tomorrow at 7:30 PM. Both teams will be on the tail end of a back-to-back, and since the Caps were playing away, they both will have travelled post-game.

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