BUFFALO — This looked like it was going the wrong way for the Montreal Canadiens from the second their most surefooted defenceman tripped over himself and coughed up the puck for a three-on-one, and that happened before Game 1 of this second-round series against the Buffalo Sabres was even five minutes old.
Then, nine minutes after Lane Hutson’s improbable bobble gave Josh Doan a tap-in goal, the Canadiens faced their first two-goal deficit of the playoffs when a puck they contained between their four penalty killers in the slot slipped free and got moved quickly to Ryan McLeod on the goal line.
Coach Martin St. Louis spoke earlier in the day about how nice it would be not to be chasing the series right off the hop.
After the game, he couldn’t help but lament the Canadiens losing 4-2 and never quite catching up to those speedy Sabres.
“It was hard to start off with some misfortune,” St. Louis said.
A couple of good bounces in a third period would’ve erased that, but the Canadiens didn’t get them.
They tilted the ice over the last 20 minutes, notched 11 shots and earned five high-danger chances, but couldn’t find the back of Alex Lyon’s net.
What happened over the middle 20 minutes proved just as costly as the start.
The Canadiens were so good at limiting the Tampa Bay Lightning’s dangerous rush game in Round 1, but they fed the Sabres’ lethal rush game to start Round 2 and found themselves down 4-1 less than halfway through the second period.
“That’s a fast, skilled team that can hurt you off the rush,” said Kirby Dach. “We found that out pretty early.”
Nick Suzuki said the Canadiens knew “probably two days ago.”
“You really have to manage the puck well through the neutral zone,” said St. Louis. “I thought, for the most part, we did. But we had to manage the puck in the o-zone, too. (In a lot of) 50-50 battles, you gotta be on the right side of (the puck) because if you lose those, it’s a three-on-two (or) four-on-three. Their Ds come, so we have to do better there.”
By the time the Canadiens did, they had already given up eight rush chances (according to SportLogiq) and were down by three goals.
Dach got them back to within striking distance late in the second period, and Suzuki, who scored on a late first-period power play, said the third was there for the taking.
“I felt like we had the puck the whole time,” the captain said.
Suzuki had to have enjoyed that considering how little he, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky had it in seven games against the Lightning.
It was fair to suggest that lack of time with the puck was a factor in the three of them not turning all that possession in Wednesday’s third period into goals.
“They hadn’t had this kind of space for two weeks,” said St. Louis.
But the coach was happy his top players finally got it — and got enough puck touches to start building something that can pay off as early as Friday’s Game 2 (7 p.m. ET on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+).
It was still a missed opportunity in Game 1.
Even Sabres coach Lindy Ruff felt it was, admitting his team was more generous than he hoped they’d be.
“I know we can be a lot better,” Ruff said. “I thought a lot of our puck decisions weren’t up to par. There’s a couple situations in the game we gave them momentum…”
The Sabres offered a fair bit of it up right after McLeod scored to make it 2-0.
Before that, Hutson hit the post. After it, Jake Evans hit the post, too, and baited Rasmus Dahlin into a needless penalty that led to Suzuki’s goal in the final minute of the first.
The Canadiens should’ve had more momentum before the final minute of the third, especially from their top guns.
“Give them some credit,” added Ruff. “They’re a good team. They just beat a really good team. Slafkovsky’s a hell of a player, and then they’ve got a 50-goal scorer (in Caufield)… Maybe they will generate a little bit.”
The Canadiens need them to — and not just on the power play.
They also need more saves, even if Jakub Dobes, who was brilliant against the Lightning, wasn’t particularly fallible against the Sabres.
He didn’t have a chance on the first two goals, and Bowen Byram’s power-play marker to make it 4-1 Buffalo was perfectly placed.
But the one from Jordan Greenway, which proved to be the winner, slipped right through Dobes’ glove, and that was Buffalo’s eighth shot of the game.
For the Canadiens to limit the Sabres to just 16 shots and still give up four goals was a disappointment.
Dobes needed to make at least one more save, the Canadiens needed to give up one less power-play goal and one less odd-man rush, and they needed to capitalize on their chances.
But this game looked like it was going to go that way as soon as Hutson uncharacteristically tripped over himself.
He’ll regain his footing.
The Canadiens believe they will, too.
“I’m confident that we can play any style,” said St. Louis. “I’m confident that we can play the game that’s in front of us. And I’m confident that we can learn from this one and be better.”