The Montreal Canadiens had a chance to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday night at the Bell Centre, but the Buffalo Sabres had other plans.
It had been 11 long years since Montreal, the Mecca of hockey, got a real taste of Saturday night playoff hockey, and fans were hungry for an instant classic. Long before puck drop, at quarter past six, fans were chanting “Go Habs Go” in the arena, soaking up the atmosphere and egging each other on. As always, the starting montage only fired up the crowd further, especially when another Stanley Cup winner from the organization’s past, Larry Robinson, walked in with the torch to light up the ice.
Business As Usual
Despite having the best of intentions, the start of the game felt like Groundhog Day, but starring Martin St-Louis instead of Bill Murray. The Montreal Canadiens’ coach could only watch helplessly from the bench as Juraj Slafkovsky committed an unforced turnover and was easily beaten by Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin, who walked in with the puck and backhanded it behind Jakub Dobes.
Just like on Thursday, though, the Canadiens roared back into the game, scoring three goals on their first three shots, ending Alex Lyon’s night after just over 10 minutes of action. The Canadiens beat him at even strength through Arber Xhekaj to equalize, on the power play through Ivan Demidov to take the lead and shorthanded when Jake Evans scored on an odd-man rush. Clearly, the Canadiens are no fans of Jean De Lafontaine's fable The Hare and the Tortoise; they may not start on time, but they are confident that they can catch up, perhaps a little too confident.
An Awareness Issue
While Slafkovsky has two three-point games in these playoffs, he has had several ups and downs. When he’s not sending no-look back passes in no-man’s land, he appears unaware of what’s going on around him.
In the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he was completely blindsided by a hit, and it happened again on Saturday night. He was rocked by a hit in the middle of the neutral zone; it wasn’t as hard as the one against the Bolts, but it still led to the Canadiens losing puck possession.
Then, on the power play, he was attacking the zone as if he had all the time in the world, unaware that there was a Sabres forward hot on his tail just about to dispossess him. While some of that may be due to just how noisy the Bell Centre is, he still has to be more aware of what’s happening around him. In the third, as the Habs were desperately trying to generate some scoring chances, he almost collided with Nick Suzuki as he had his head down.
Dobes Got The Hook
After resisting the urge to pull his goaltender in Game 5, St-Louis had to pull the trigger in Game 6. The Canadiens had become completely undone, and Dobes had allowed six goals on 33 shots by the time he was called back to the bench to make way for Jacob Fowler.
One would be hard-pressed to blame him for the loss, however. After scoring three quick goals in the first frame, the Habs appeared to forget how to play. Not only could they not generate anything offensively, but they also forgot how to defend, allowing plenty of odd-man rushes.
At one stage, it became pointless to leave Dobes out there in a game the Canadiens were never going to get back into. In the end, the Habs lost 8-3 and will now have to play a do-or-die game in Buffalo on Monday night. While that’s not the result they were hoping for, the Habs can at least find comfort in the fact that they have been playing better on the road than at home in these playoffs and that they are 5-0 after a loss.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.
Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.
Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here.