Buffalo gets a chance to press its edge again tonight, with Game 2 of the playoff series scheduled for 7:00 PM ET at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, after the Sabres opened with a 5-2 record and the Canadiens came in at 4-4. The matchup has already tilted on pace and pressure, and Buffalo will try to make that stick in front of its home crowd.
The Sabres looked the better side 5-v-5 in Game 1, and Montreal seemed surprised by the ferociousness of Buffalo’s forecheck. The Canadiens will try to evade that pressure by moving the puck even quicker, but that is easier said than done against a Buffalo team that has led the postseason in creating chances off turnovers. Buffalo’s task is simple enough to say and hard to do: keep shooting lanes clean and avoid the kind of silly penalties that can hand Montreal the kind of opening its power play can make terrifying at times.
That test puts a spotlight on Buffalo’s forward depth, starting with Tage Thompson between Alex Tuch and Krebs, and extending through a lineup that includes Zucker, McLeod and Quinn; Benson, Norris and Doan; and Greenway, Kozak and Malenstyn. The Sabres also listed Samuelsson and Dahlin, Byram and Power, and Stanley and Timmins on the blue line. Wednesday already showed how dangerous the pieces can be when they click. McLeod finally broke his scoring duck with a power play goal, Quinn had half a dozen shot attempts, most of them high quality, and the line of Zucker, McLeod and Quinn was long overdue for an even-strength breakout. After Benson, Norris and Doan gave Montreal fits on Wednesday, that group is likely to draw plenty of defensive attention again.
Montreal, though, has enough counterpunch to keep Buffalo honest. The Canadiens’ forward group listed Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky; Alex Newhook, Jake Evans and Ivan Demidov; Alexandre Texier, Phillip Danault and Josh Anderson; and Zack Bolduc, Joe Veleno and Kirby Dach, with Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier, Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle, and Arber Xhekaj and Noah Dobson on defense. Marty St. Louis also learned he cannot sleep on the Greenway, Kozak and Malenstyn line, which has a way of turning shifts into trouble. Montreal has just come through a seven-game series with the Lightning, and fatigue may be part of the picture, but Buffalo cannot assume that will decide anything on its own. The Sabres still have to prove that the forecheck that bothered Montreal in Game 1 can travel through the full game again, the same way it did when Buffalo beat Boston 4-3 in a playoff win fueled by Tage Thompson.
Game 2 is where a short series starts to harden. If Buffalo wins the races, keeps its discipline and keeps forcing Montreal into hurried decisions, the Sabres can make the Canadiens spend the night reacting instead of skating forward.
