Canadiens Highlights: Comeback Kings Crush Sabres

The Montreal Canadiens faced the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, in Game 5 of their evenly-matched second-round series.

A hectic first period gave way to a dominant effort from the Habs, not to mention a well-deserved 6-3 win.

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dive into the highlights!

The Way She Goes

Buffalo opened the scoring thanks to a pair of fortuitous bounces, leading to Jason Zucker’s first goal of the playoffs, but it must be said that Alexandre Texier had an opportunity to clear the zone prior to the goal, making it another early, unforced error.

As Was Foretold By The Elders

As we discussed ad nauseam prior to Game 5, the first line has done a much better job producing solid underlying numbers at 5v5, but their lack of goals is simply unacceptable at this point in the playoffs.

It may seem harsh, but such is life in professional sports.

The good news is that Cole Caufield scored his first 5v5 goal of spring on Thursday night, quickly responding to the lucky bounce from the Sabres to tie the game at 1-1.

Unsurprisingly, fellow first liners Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky provided the assists.

Luck Returns

While the Canadiens were unlucky to go down 1-0 early in the first period, they cannot claim the luck only went Buffalo’s way.

Alexandre Texier tied the game at 2-2, with yet another incredibly fortuitous bounce. It was his third goal of the playoffs, with assists awarded to Alexandre Carrier and Phillip Danault. As has been the case all year, Canadiens hockey included a heavy dose of excitement, with a side order of chaotic defending.

Bananarama

Speaking of chaos, the Sabres re-established their lead shortly afterwards, with what can only be described as an incredibly weak goal on Jakub Dobes.

To Dobes’ credit, he’s clearly been the team’s most valuable player in the playoffs, but there’s no doubt the entire team groaned when Kostas Helenius scored with a weak wrist shot from far out.

It was just one bad goal, but it was also a goal in three consecutive shots from the Sabres. Dobes rebounded well in the later part of the frame, but it was clearly a rough start for the 24-year-old netminder.

To Be Faaaaaaaaaaair

Dobes settled down nicely as the game unfolded, and provided excellent goaltending while the Sabres pressed in the second period.

The Phenom

As per tradition, it did not take long for the lead to dissipate.

This time around, it was phenom Lane Hutson who did all the heavy lifting, setting up veteran Josh Anderson with an easy goal, his third of the playoffs.

No matter how often I am lucky to witness Hutson’s magic, his ability to draw all the attention continues to amaze me. If there was a metric for creating time and space for teammates in the offensive zone, I am certain Hutson would be among the league leaders.

I’d venture as far as suggesting he’d probably be No. 1, with a bullet, but I digress.

Adversity On The Menu

It wouldn’t be a true Canadiens hockey game without an unreasonable dose of adversity. That’s when the Habs are at their best.

Ideally, they wouldn’t have to be in a situation where their backs are against the wall before finding their rhythm, but few things in sports are ideal.

All that matters is that the Canadiens tend to play well when the game is on the line, as evidenced by Ivan Demidov‘s nice rush, which resulted in Jake Evans’ first springtime goal.

Opening The Floodgates

From that point on, the Sabres continued to implode, but it was mostly because the Canadiens refused to step on the brake.

Rather than nursing their lead, they went all out, and it resulted in a flood of goals.

Suzuki advanced the lead to 5-3 with a powerplay goal, though Slafkovsky deserves credit for offering a great assist.

Rookie Impact

Demidov, a player who has legitimately had a hard time generating scoring chances in recent games, enjoyed his best game of the playoffs, adding a goal to his assist midway through the third period.

Game 5 was truly a case of the Canadiens firing on all cylinders from an offensive standpoint, which bodes quite well for the upcoming match up(s) versus the Sabres.

Game 6 between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres is scheduled for Saturday, May 16, at 8 pm ET.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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