Game 55: Montreal Canadiens @ Buffalo Sabres
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Sabres region: MSG Buffalo
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
It was a weakened Colorado Avalanche team that came to the Bell Centre on Thursday. The Canadiens, who had been guilty of playing down to opponents in recent years, were able to pounce and get out to a quick lead, carrying that all the way to a 7-3 win. It improved their January record to 9-5-1.
The problem for the Habs has been that the losses have come to the wrong teams. Five of the six they’ve suffered have come versus the Washington Capitals, a team in the wild-card chase, the Detroit Red Wings, the Boston Bruins, and two at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres. As nice as the 10th-best points percentage in January is for the Canadiens, it is only the fifth-best in the Atlantic Division, with all of Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, and the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning posting better results. The differences are small, but it now means Montreal is in a three-way tie with Boston and Buffalo for the final three spots available to teams in the division.
After the two losses in eight days to the Sabres, the Canadiens get a final chance to play the team that has taken away the third seed in the section. While the first of those losses was a dominant game from Buffalo, the most recent one was a different story. Montreal took too long to get involved in the action and trailed by three in the first 22:25, but were the much better team in the final two periods and nearly turned that into a comeback. Outside of the start, it was another overall quality game from the Habs, and that’s now five in a row they’ve put together, even if the 3-2 record doesn’t reflect that.
Tale of the Tape
Canadiens
Statistics
Sabres
30-17-7
Record
31-17-5
49.5% (18th)
Expected-goal share
49.2% (21st)
3.43 (4th)
Goals per game
3.40 (6th)
3.26 (23rd)
Goals against per game
3.02 (14th)
23.6% (7th)
PP%
19.5% (18th)
77.1% (27th)
PK%
83.1% (7th)
1-2-0
Head-to-Head Record
2-1-0
Cole Caufield (30)
Most goals
Tage Thompson (28)
Lane Hutson (46)
Most assists
Rasmus Dahlin (32)
Nick Suzuki (62)
Most points
Tage Thompson (55)
Better evidence of the Canadiens’ recent play is seen in the record of Jakub Dobeš, who has won all five of his starts in January and hasn’t allowed more than three goals in his last four. With the Minnesota Wild, Vegas Golden Knights, and Avalanche being his last three opponents, those are well-earned results. He wasn’t in net for any of those aforementioned games versus division opponents, but left no room for debate about being in for the final game of the series with the Sabres.
While Dobeš has been doing great work in Montreal’s zone, Cole Caufield has been filling the opposite net. He comes into tonight’s game with 11 goals in the 15 games played in January, two of them being game-winners. He had a six-game goal-scoring streak snapped versus Colorado, handing the scoring duties to his centreman instead, but you can expect him to get several dangerous looks in the game tonight.
Three other members of Montreal’s top six have at least five goals in January, but there’s a surprising member on that list as well: Alexandre Carrier. It’s not a coincidence that his offensive run came after the return of Kaiden Guhle, balancing out the defence corps with another defensively responsible player and giving the blue-liners more confidence to try things offensively. Defencemen have combined for 13 goals in January. Despite the fact that is has been a tough schedule featuring several of the league’s top clubs, only Guhle, who needed a few games to get back into game shape, has a negative goal differential in the month as the blue line has been proving its quality.
This is arguably the best the Canadiens have played as a team all season long, and with Dobeš in net they have their best chance to take advantage of that effort. The goal tonight is evening up the season series with the Sabres at two wins apiece, getting a four-point swing in their favour after two went the other way in the last few weeks.
