The Montreal Canadiens finally managed to beat the Buffalo Sabres on the back of great performances from Cole Caufield and Jakub Dobes. With the win, the Habs now find themselves back in third place of the Atlantic Division.
Martin St-Louis might have said that the Montreal Canadiens’ game against the Buffalo Sabres was the most important only because it was the next one, but the fact is, it was a must-win game. A divisional match-up with the standings as tight as they are against an opponent that had beaten them twice in two weeks, they needed a win, and not just because of the points, but also because of the confidence infusion it could provide.
For a third game in a row, the Habs had decided to keep Jakub Dobes in the net, a deserved presence given how well he had played against the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche. Earlier this season, the coach kept going back to Samuel Montembeault, desperate to get his number one goaltender back on track. But the Canadiens needed a result on Saturday night, he went with the goalie who gave him the better chance of winning, and he was rewarded.
Montreal finally managed to beat Buffalo 4-2, and Dobes played a significant part, stopping 36 of the 38 shots he received, meaning he finished the night with a .947 save percentage. For a third game in a row, the netminder was named the second star of the game.
Saturday Night Fever
When the puck dropped on the third frame, the Sabres had a 2-1 lead, and the Canadiens were in a precarious position. They needed someone to step up, and the usual suspect did. Cole Caufield scored his 12th and 13th goals on a Saturday night this season.
His first goal was a perfect deflection off a Noah Dobson slapshot, while Alex Lyon couldn’t see much behind Bowen Byran and Caufield battling for position in front of him. Six minutes later, Kirby Dach, who was filling in on the first line because of Alexandre Texier’s injury, made a Juraj Slafkovsky of himself by going hard in the corner to retrieve the puck and pass it to Nick Suzuki, who instantly fed Caufield on the doorstep. The puck travelled so fast that Lyon had no chance; the sniper scored what would turn out to be the game-winning goal.
He may not be going to Italy, but Caufield has got quite the tally. He now has 32 goals on the season, the third-highest total in the league behind Nathan MacKinnon, who has 40 and Connor McDavid, who has 34. That’s pretty elite company. When it comes to game-winning goals, he leads the league with Steven Stamkos since they both have eight game-winners so far this season, including four in overtime, which is first in the league.
What stands out with Caufield is how clutch he is. He steps up when the Canadiens need a hero. He may have fewer goals than MacKinnon and McDavid, but he has the edge on them when it comes to crucial goals. The former has five game winners while the latter has two. 23 of Caufield’s 32 goals have come with the Habs either tied or down by one; he’s the very definition of a clutch scorer. On Thursday night, when the Canadiens put seven goals past Scott Wedgewood, Caufield didn’t even get on the scoreboard; the Habs didn’t need him to, but when his team needs him, he always answers the call. The fact that Team USA has decided not to take him to the Olympics is mind-boggling. Marie-Phillip Poulin may be Captain Clutch, but Caufield is the Clutch Sniper.
A Pair Of Aces
For a second game in a row, St-Louis decided to go with the same top four on defence; Mike Matheson with Kaiden Guhle and Noah Dobson with Lane Hutson. The result was impressive, particularly with the second duo.
While they haven’t played together a lot this season, there’s already some chemistry there. On Caufield’s first goal, you can actually see Dobson start skating one way and change course when he saw where Hutson was going. They read each other incredibly well. If there’s one thing that Hutson is lacking, it’s a booming shot, and giving him Dobson has an option that makes up for that.
On Saturday, the summer’s big acquisition finished the night with a plus-three rating, took four shots, blocked two and landed two hits. Playing alongside Hutson means he gets more starts in the offensive zone than he does with Mike Matheson, giving him more scoring opportunities. With 35 points in 55 games, he’s now only four points short of his total last season with the New York Islanders. He’s on pace for 52 points on the season, which would be the second-highest total of his career.
Room For Improvement
While the Canadiens played a very good game tonight, one minor issue stood out for me. As mentioned earlier, Hutson doesn’t really have a booming shot, which often leads to him getting in close to shoot, and he does that as well on the power play. If he manages to take the shot, there’s no issue, but if he loses the puck, there’s no one at the back to handle the counter-attack.
That’s precisely what happened early in the second frame. Of course, Hutson immediately gets into damage-control mode and backchecks like a man possessed, but it puts him at a disadvantage and, like last night, can lead to him taking a penalty.
In the end, though, the Canadiens leave Buffalo with the all-important two points, and they managed to close out the game in regulation, something they have often struggled to do this season. It was a good team performance, even though Dobes had to make a lot of saves; the Habs blocked 20 shots for the second game in a row. Montreal will now take on the Minnesota Wild on Monday night and the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night before entering the Olympic break.
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