And now there are eight.
The Montreal Canadiens are the only team from Canada still standing. They were the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup in 1993.
The Buffalo Sabres stand in their way in the second round. The Sabres present an entirely different profile than the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Whereas Tampa was experienced, the Sabres are making their first appearance in 15 years in the playoffs. Whereas Tampa had some of the best forwards in hockey, the Sabres feature depth. Whereas Tampa brought a cup-winning goalie, the Sabres are using someone who didn’t even start the first series against the Boston Bruins in Alex Lyon.
However, the biggest difference was the Canadiens goaltender. Jakub Dobes was outstanding in the first round, but he had a difficult night in Game 1. Dobes allowed four goals in the first nine shots. Perhaps he was mentally fatigued against the Sabres.
Buffalo won the opener 4-2.
Wilde Horses
It was so much more wide open than the Tampa series right from the opening minutes. Lane Hutson had an entire lane from the blue line to the goal only three minutes into the game. Soon after, it was Philip Danault with a clear look from five feet.
The zone time that Montreal was able to establish had a high quality to it. There were gaps in the defence all over the Buffalo zone. The passes were connecting. The points were open. The slot was open. It portended to be much more high scoring than the Lightning defensive system.
Again, in the first period, on a two-on-one Jake Evans hit the post. The Canadiens had absolutely no puck luck in the opening frame.
That is until the power play went to work, and did it look effective. The first unit was throwing it around. They finally connected when Juraj Slafkovsky forced the issue by going to the net. It led to the pass to a wide-open Nick Suzuki at the other side of the net.
The key was the drive to the net. Owen Power didn’t have a choice when Slafkovsky stopped being static and changed the moment with aggression. At the other side of the net, Suzuki knew exactly what Slafkovsky was going to do. It was a big goal in the final minute.
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The Canadiens tried to keep momentum going in the second period. They had a tough 20 minutes with only one good moment, but what a moment for Kirby Dach. He took it to goal and shot, then when he was down and seemingly out, almost behind the net, Dach chipped it over Alex Lyon for 4-2 Buffalo.
The best forward on the Canadiens was Ivan Demidov. He’s figuring it out in the postseason. It’s a great development. As the head coach said, nothing replaces the actual reps for experience. You can’t teach how to handle it, or create a perception of what it takes, until you actually play in the playoffs.
The only thing missing for Demidov is someone at centre that he has chemistry with to turn these sparkling moments into goals.
Wilde Goats
The Canadiens allowed two odd-man rushes in the first six minutes of the game. They managed to not get victimized by that in the first series. It was one of the keys to their success. However, early on, it was Lane Hutson falling. That left Noah Dobson to face Zach Benson and Josh Doan.
Dobson didn’t play it well. His job was to take away the pass, but he slid too early. Benson had no trouble sliding it over to Doan for an easy marker. Two minutes later, another two-on-one was allowed, and it was fortunate that an open net was missed.
A bigger problem started to reveal itself as the Sabres built a 3-1 lead. Jakub Dobes, who had been so strong in the first round, looked quite unsettled. On the second goal, he was over-aggressive. He was having a hard time keeping himself still. That led to a loss of balance on the second goal.
On the third goal, Dobes simply missed an easy save with this glove. Anytime a shot goes through the glove, hitting it just a little bit but not being caught, this is a bad goal. Jordan Greenway had one goal the entire season, so that one particularly stung. At the moment the third goal was scored, Dobes was a minus 1.65 in Goals Saved Above Expected.
By the time the second period had ended, the Sabres had four goals. Those four goals came on the first nine shots for Buffalo. The Sabres also hit two posts between the third and fourth goals. From a goalie that got inside the heads of the Lightning, to a goalie with a minus-2.45 GSAE after the fourth goal.
A second weakness that was exposed early is the lack of second line centre on the Canadiens. The Sabres depth meant that every line kept on coming, and there were too many matchups that didn’t favour Montreal. The Canadiens’ second line spends too much time in its own zone. This has been an issue statistically all season long.
Zach Benson and Josh Doan could have a massive series with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch getting the more difficult matchups. It may be another series that Head Coach Martin St. Louis is forced to move Slafkovsky over to the second line to even out the lineup.
This wouldn’t have to be done if the second line could carry the play territorially better without the Slovak. This is something for management to work on in the off-season. They can’t and won’t wait for Michael Hage to complete his third season at the college level.
For now, there will be suggestions like Alex Newhook, or Oliver Kapanen back in, or Dach, but that’s just a shuffling of the deck chairs. The solution is more talent down the middle. If the huge trade that didn’t get done on deadline day was Robert Thomas, his being a Canadiens player now would have lifted the club massively. They would be the favourites to win the east, if they had Thomas.
Wilde Cards
The Laval Rocket are still alive in their best-of-five East Conference semifinal with the Toronto Marlies. It certainly didn’t look like they would survive after a 6-2 blowout suffered in Game 3, but they came right back to win Game 4 in Toronto.
Goals were scored by Alex Belzile, Laurent Dauphin and two from Samuel Blais in a 4-0 verdict. Kaapo Kahkonen made 18 saves in the shutout.
One sour note is that it appears David Reinbacher is injured again. He had limited minutes in Game 3, then in Game 4, after limited minutes for two periods, he wasn’t even at the bench for the third period. The Rocket have refused to give out any details on the matter.
Game 5 decides it all, and the Rocket will be short-handed on the blue line. They do have the option of bringing in Bryce Pickford from the Western Hockey League. Pickford was just eliminated from the playoffs when his Medicine Hat Tigers fell in six games to the Prince Albert Raiders in the East Conference final. The only issue appears to be injuries again. Pickford was playing through an injury in the playoffs.
It could also be that the organization doesn’t want to bring in Pickford for such a high pressure game as his first.
Game 5 is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday. The winner goes on to face the Cleveland Monsters who dispatched of the Syracuse Crunch in four games.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you on after each Canadiens game.
