Canadiens: Sabres Pity Party Still Going Strong

When Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula came to Montreal to have a meeting with his players, he was probably looking for it to have some kind of effect. After the boss essentially told his players the answer was in the room, they came out as flat as possible against the Montreal Canadiens.

As for the Habs, they came out flying out of the gate and within 19 seconds, they had a 1-0 lead. Jake Evans missed his shot on a breakaway, because that’s how the Canadiens roll, but Armia jumped on the rebound off the board to bury the first lamplighter of the match.

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Within two minutes, the Canadiens, a team that had yet to take 30 shots on net this season, had 5 shots on goal. Even if they made a drop pass and two Habs skated by without taking the puck, the third one was picking it up, thanks to the Buffalo Sabres essentially standing there. After six minutes, the shots were 8-0 Montreal and clearly frustrated, Mattias Samuelsson took an interference call for hitting an unsuspecting Kirby Dach who didn’t have the puck.

The center took some time to get back up and eventually left for the room, but came back in the second period. Meanwhile, the Canadiens only needed 20 seconds to score on the power play. Patrik Laine, who had nearly scored earlier, was left all alone in acres of space and had no trouble beating Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The big Finn signaled the goal was good both by the net and by the Sabres’ bench as he made his way to the Habs’. A fourth goal in seven games for Laine.

The Sabres finally got their first shot on net at 9:45 and would only manage three in the first 20 minutes. As for the Canadiens, they had 11 at the end of the frame, but didn’t find the back of the net again, going back to the room with a 2-0 lead.

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Buffalo looked like it was going to turn things around in the second, getting three shots in the first two minutes and Dylan Cozens scored a beauty from the slot, picking his spot and beating Montembeault with a wrister. There were times this season where that goal would have been the beginning of the end for Montreal, but not against a Sabres team that lacks confidence.

The Canadiens put their working boots back on and just over two minutes later, Juraj Slafkovsky scored his third of the year from behind the net and it opened up the floodgates. Buffalo took three penalties in quick succession, allowing Montreal to score two goals on two-man advantages, both by Laine who notched his first hat trick with the Canadiens, the 11th of his career. His last one dated back to January 2023 against the Detroit Red Wings (the Canadiens opponents for the next two games).

Montreal was leading 5-1 after the Laine show, but that wasn’t enough, with less than a minute to go in the middle frame, Christian Dvorak tried to send a cross crease pass to Josh Anderson, the puck was touched, but it still met its mark, an easy goal for number 17. After 40 minutes the Canadiens had 21 shots, were leading 6-1, and were looking like a team that would finally put 30 shots on net in a game.

Somehow, they didn’t though as they were limited to six shots in the last frame, but to be fair, Martin St-Louis took his foot off the pedal towards the end. With a power play at less than four minutes to go, the coach kept his first unit off the ice, preferring to send the Mike Matheson, Alex Newhook, Dach, Brendan Gallagher and Emil Heineman unit out. To be fair, he probably hoped to help the likes of Newhook and Dach build confidence by taking advantage of a weak Buffalo side.

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In his post game media availability, the hero of the hour Laine said he had played an average game, he had gotten a hat trick but he was minus-1 at even strength and he didn’t like that. You have to admire a veteran who wants to focus on what he can improve even in such a one-sided game.

Everyone was all smiles in the Canadiens’ dressing room and Slafkovsky even had fun joking with the media:

It’s great [Laine’s shot], if I had that shot I’d be shooting pucks like him, but I don’t so I have to shoot from behind the net.

He was then asked if he thought his hat trick ovation was louder than Laine and replied:

Yeah, for sure! You don’t think? You’re on my side, no?

This 6-1 win clearly did wonders for both team morale and confidence, but it has to be said it came against a team that has now lost 11 games in a row and looked disorganized and disorientated. Eight of the Sabres’ players took the warm up without wearing a helmet, perhaps they thought it would change their luck, but clearly that was not the answer. Rasmus Dahlin cannot come back soon enough for this team.

The Canadiens’ next game will be on Friday night in Detroit, and they’ll then play the second part of the home-away series on Saturday night at the Bell Centre. Then, they’ll only have a game left before the Christmas break, a visit to Columbus on Dec. 23.

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