Buffalo N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres came into Wednesday night's game in Montreal after two days of rest, looking to snap a three-game losing streak against the Canadiens.
Montreal, on the other hand, came in on a three-game winning streak with something to prove after the Sabres had beaten them in three previous meetings.
After the hire of Martin St. Louis as head coach, the Canadiens have lost three games and won three games, but look like a much different team.
Wednesday marked the season's final meeting between the two teams, with the Sabres hoping to sweep Montreal for the first time since the 1983-84 season.
The game started off rough for the Sabres, who looked very slow out of the gate. Nick Suzuki capitalized on the opportunity by scoring the game's first goal for the Canadiens. Suzuki added another goal in the second period on a penalty shot.
While the Sabres did push back in the second and third periods, it wasn't enough. Cole Caufield eventually scored the third goal for Montreal in the third period, followed by Jake Evans scoring the empty-net goal to make it 4-0.
Related
Overall, the game was a disaster from start-to-finish for the Sabres, with turnovers by the dozen and no real high-danger chances.
Here are this game's three observations:
1.) Turnovers galore
Pick your poison on what to talk about for Wednesday’s game, but one astronomical number to come from this game is 31 giveaways. 20 of those turnovers came in the first period alone.
Surprisingly, only one of these turnovers led directly to a goal, but these numbers are game killers and often guarantee a loss. Simply put, you can’t win if you don’t have the puck.
The Sabers did force the Canadiens to commit 34 turnovers of their own, but Buffalo just couldn’t do anything with the puck once they got it back. With a combination of speed, hunger, and a bit of puck luck, the Canadiens got out of every mistake they made unscathed.
Long story short, the Sabres need to have better puck control going into St. Louis, or we could see the same kind of game, if not worse, because the Blues won’t give the Sabres as many chances as the Canadiens did.
2.) Lets get physical
Possibly the only positive spin on this game was the Sabres got angry.
This game saw huge hits from Mattias Samuelsson, Casey Fitzgerald, and even Rasmus Dahlin. In recent years when teams would be rolling the Sabres like Montreal was this game, the team rarely ever had a response or some form of retaliation.
In the first period of this game, even before Montreal was all over the team, Fitzgerald and Samuelsson both had their own big hits on key Canadiens players in hopes of sending a message, or at the very least get under their skin. At the end of the first is when Dahlin got involved, throwing a huge hip check on Josh Anderson.
This continued throughout the night, and even led to a fight between Fitzgerald and Brendan Gallagher.
The physicality didn’t lead to as many positive results as goals or opportunities, but at least they went down swinging.
3.) Simplicity is key
A lot of the turnovers the Sabres committed on Wednesday were from over complicated passes that led to no one. Whether it was a drop pass that resulted in a 3-on-2 rush or a poor breakout pass that leads to a high-danger shot, Buffalo was trying to force too much fancy hockey.
At points this season, we’ve seen amazing passing plays from the likes of Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch, which is welcomed. However, when the same pass isn’t working repeatedly, it’s time to switch up the game plan.
They need to build up some confidence with more straightforward passes when coming into the game and build on them to bigger and better things.
----------
The Sabres certainly need to clean up their passing play heading into the next game against the Blues. St. Louis is second in the central division with 66 points and a record of 30-14-6. This is the first of two games of the season between the two teams.
Sabres pregame coverage starts at 7 p.m. EST with Pat Malacaro and Paul Hamilton, with puck drop set for 8 p.m. EST on the home of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.
