NHL Player Safety about to drop the hammer after disgusting Game 6 hit

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NHL Player Safety about to drop the hammer after disgusting Game 6 hit

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Joe Veleno absorbed a clear shot to the head Saturday night, the officials swallowed the whistle, and the Buffalo Sabres turned that non-call into the goal that broke Montreal.

Martin St-Louis watched it unfold from the bench. No arm went up. No review. Just play on, and seconds later, the puck was in his net. Head was not down, it’s just pure dirty hit that went uncalled and a goal as a result of the play.

The Canadiens lost 8-3 at home. They also lost the series lead they had spent two weeks protecting.

Buffalo is now headed back to KeyBank Center for Game 7 on Monday. The series is tied 3-3. The momentum is not.

Veleno never finished his shift cleanly. The replay shows a Sabres defender catching him high through the neutral zone, his head snapping sideways, and the play continuing the other way.

You can watch the sequence here. The contact is not subtle.

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Department of Player Safety now has a phone call to make

The hit landed at 7:03 of the second period. Buffalo scored to make it 4-3, and the building went quiet. From there, the Sabres piled on four more.

Jakub Dobes finished the night with 27 saves on 33 shots before getting pulled. The Habs got nothing from their top six. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky combined for one assist.

Rasmus Dahlin ran the show from the back end. Five points. A goal, four helpers, and a plus-2 in a building that wanted him dead.

Tage Thompson added four. Jack Quinn buried two on the power play, including the game-winner. Buffalo’s power play went to work the moment Montreal stopped getting calls.

The bench discipline cracked too. Arber Xhekaj, Alexandre Carrier, Kirby Dach, and Jake Evans combined for 46 penalty minutes. That is not a team holding its composure with a series on the line.

So what happens now? Veleno’s status for Monday is the first question. Whether Player Safety reaches for the phone is the second. The third is whether anyone in Montreal still trusts this officiating crew.

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Game 7 drops Monday in Buffalo. The Canadiens have to win a series-deciding road game with a depleted forward group and a fan base that just watched its team get steamrolled on home ice.

Lindy Ruff’s group has been here before. This one has not.

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NHL Player Safety about to drop the hammer after disgusting Game 6 hit