BUFFALO — During this second round series, the Buffalo Sabres have looked every bit of the team that roared through the NHL in the two games they’ve won against the Montréal Canadiens, but in the now three losses they’ve bore too much of a resemblance to the one that opened up the season and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Division.
In Thursday night’s pivotal Game 5, the jump the Sabres had at the start faded long before 60 minutes were up and the Canadiens rolled to a 6-3 win to take a 3-2 series lead. For the first time in the playoffs, the Sabres’ backs are against the wall.
A wild first period saw the teams combining five goals and the Sabres ultimately left the first period with a 3-2 lead. Jason Zucker got his first of the playoffs just two minutes into the game. It was 4:31 later, however, that a Conor Timmins turnover quickly got worked around by the Canadiens top line and finished by Cole Caufield to make it 1-1.
It was 1:14 later that Josh Doan’s one-timer eluded Jakub Dobeš to make it 2-1, but nine seconds later, Lane Hutson’s shot from the outside went off Alexandre Texier’s boot and past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to make it 2-2.
It was 2:21 after that when Konsta Helenius’s turnaround shot glanced of Hutson’s skate and through Dobeš’s five-hole for a 3-2 lead. Five goals in the opening 10 minutes of the game is a hell of a thing.
The three Sabres goals came on their first four shots. Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis could’ve pulled Dobeš but in that moment it’s basically a 1-0 game. Sticking by his guy proved to be the right call, but the Sabres shyness in putting more heat on him while he battled through the start allowed him and the Canadiens time to settle down.
“I told him thank you for leaving me and trying to prove myself,” Dobeš said. “That’s a big part, to have your trust of your coach, and I will never disrespect it. I appreciate it and the only thing I was trying to do (was) just give some momentum back to the team and try to keep it tight and it worked out.”
Tage Thompson nearly helped make that decision a poor one early in the second period when he had a breakaway chance and tried to outwait Dobeš driving to the wide side of the net. But in doing so, Thompson cut down on his own angle and by the time he let his shot go, he was unable to lift it and Dobeš made a pad save.
Minutes later, after Zucker iced the puck, Josh Anderson finished a Hutson pass after a faceoff win to make it 3-3 and momentum in the game swung for good.
“I actually thought the start of the second period was pretty good,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Thompson had the in alone to make the score 4-2, and then I thought they had a pretty good push there for seven or eight minutes where we didn’t execute as well as we needed to execute. I thought some of our puck play, we were missing passes. We were going north in a hurry early in the game, and then the second period, we just slowed it down.”
The Sabres mistakes weren’t limited to just their skaters, Luukkonen made one of his own when an Ivan Demidov shot near side squeezed under his arm and landed behind him in the crease where Jake Evans finished it off to make it 4-3 Montréal.
“I was kind of expecting him to go under, but he got on top of there,” Luukkonen said. “It’s no excuse to let it drop there. One of those details that costs you games. It shouldn’t be happening.”
After playing so well in Game 4, Evans’ goal against Luukkonen was the last one he’d allow as he was replaced by Alex Lyon to start the third period. Ruff didn’t put blame on Luukkonen for the first two goals, felt like everyone would agree they’d like a save on Anderson’s tying goal and the fourth goal against was a bridge too far in the playoffs.
“If I would’ve made a decision (to pull him sooner), would it have made a difference,” Ruff said. “Possibly. But all year, we haven’t made it about our goaltender, and we’re not going to make it about our goaltender now.”
Ruff made it a point after Game 4 to highlight the penalties and the way players in the postseason will exaggerate alleged infractions against them. It’s coaching gamesmanship and it’s a classic thing that happens in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Ruff got his wish as the officials essentially put the whistles away. But on the small handful of calls that went against Buffalo, the Canadiens made them pay for them in the second and third periods.
Thompson’s cross-check to Jake Evans late in the second became a power play goal by Nick Suzuki 10 seconds later to make it 5-3. A cross-check by Rasmus Dahlin early in the third period was capitalized by Demidov’s first goal of the playoffs high in the slot on the power play to make it 6-3 and kill any dreams of a Sabres comeback.
“Yeah, they kind of rolled over us pretty heavy there in the second,” Dahlin said. “They’re just quick on the puck the whole time, and just kept it down low in our end, and it’s hard to find the rhythm when the other team is doing that, so that’s what you got to learn from them.”
What makes those penalties an even sorer point is they’re by the team leaders again. In two chances, the Canadiens scored two goals because of it. It’s a rough way to live, particularly when those leaders are having a tough go in the series to begin with. Although Thompson and Dahlin have produced in the second round, Tuch hasn’t been a threat at all against the Canadiens. After how great he played against Boston, his absence on the score sheet against Montréal is more than noticeable.
“Offense has been hard to come by for me,” Tuch said. “I think I’ve had a couple opportunities in the last few games. Tonight was nothing until really late, honestly. I have to bear down. I have to be better. I can’t be playing the way I’m playing right now. It’s got to be will and determination. But I’ve got to move past it. I have to move on for the next game, and I have to be better for the guys in this room.”
Being that this is the Sabres first time in the playoffs and now the first time they’re facing elimination, the expectation that we’d hear the usual clichés about being in that situation was not met at all. Perhaps that was a bit silly to think they’d behave like any ole playoff team when they’ve never played that role before, but the outward face of being unbothered is both how they’ve always been and still deeply unusual given the circumstances.
The way they’ve handled losses all season long has been to face up to what they did wrong that night and look ahead to the next day to work through correcting the mistakes they’ve made and going from there. There’s the argument that they’ve had their backs against the wall since December, but at some point during that roll they were no longer in that position.
Now they’re very much in that place, but with the bizarre advantage of sorts that they’ve gone 4-1 on the road in the playoffs. Bell Centre isn’t exactly a cushy place to play as a visitor, but the Sabres have won there already in Game 4 and will have to do it again on Saturday night or see their playoff dream ride come to an end.
“I thought we did a good job of resetting from Game 3 to 4,” Tuch said. “We’re going to need to do that again. We’re going to have to come out and have a good start. I thought we had a really good start in their building. Like I said, we’ve got to play hard, we’ve got to frustrate them. We’ve just got to go out there and out-compete them.”
Something to keep an eye on for Game 6: Owen Power.
Power lost an edge late in the third period and slid feet-first into the end boards. He got up slowly and hobbled to the bench by himself before going back to the locker room. He returned and played a couple shifts after that, but it’s something to be mindful of before Saturday. Have a look:
If Power is worse for wear, the prospects for success moving ahead get bleak quickly as he’s been outstanding in the postseason.