Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis doesn't believe his team played poorly in Wednesday night's Game 1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, but he's hopeful the experience allowed his players to learn something about the Atlantic Division champions.
St. Louis, who's guiding the Habs in the NHL playoffs for a second straight year after 107 postseason appearances as a player, pointed out what makes the Sabres so tough to deal with.
"Buffalo is not a team you're just going to dominate for the whole game," St. Louis told reporters. "It's a game of momentum. When you lose momentum, first, you have to get it back as fast as you can. Second, you can't get hurt too badly when that happens."
Buffalo scored its goals nine minutes apart in the first period and six minutes apart in the second period while building a 4-1 lead in the 4-2 victory. It prefers to play a free-flowing brand of hockey that makes it difficult to contain the club's deep, high-powered offense.
The Sabres have played 60 games since their remarkable turnaround began with a Dec. 9 triumph over the Edmonton Oilers. Not only have they won 44 of those contests, but there were very few instances where an opponent completely overwhelmed the Blue and Gold.
In fact, there are really only two examples: a 5-1 defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 3 and a 6-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on April 4.
So, that means 58 of the 60 times (96.7%) Buffalo has taken the ice over the past five months, it's either won the game or it was still up for grabs deep into the third period. St. Louis is right, the odds of just crushing the current iteration of the Sabres from start to finish are incredibly low.
The Canadiens, who showed a willingness to match the Sabres' up-tempo style, will need to limit the stretches where Lindy Ruff's group starts to completely take over a game with its active defense and strong offensive-zone cycle if they're going to find success in this series.
"I'm confident we can play any style," St. Louis said. "I'm confident we can play the game that is in front of us. And I'm confident we can learn from this one and be better."
Game 2 is scheduled for Friday night (7 p.m. ET) at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo.
Buffalo Sabres' unsung heroes create tougher Round 2 matchup for the Montreal Canadiens
The Sabres roster had two Achilles heels throughout the regular season: their fourth forward line and their third defense pair.
Those longstanding problems haven't caused many issues early in the 2026 NHL Playoffs, though. In fact, they've at times become a strength for the Eastern Conference contenders.
Buffalo's fourth line of Tyson Kozak, Jordan Greenway and Beck Malenstyn really helped set the tone in Game 1 against the Habs with a few high-energy shifts featuring plenty of hits early on. The group has played well together since about midway through the first-round series against the Boston Bruins.
Greenway then delivered a crucial goal early in the second period to put the Sabres ahead 3-1. The Canadiens had scored late in the first and were pushing to tie it up before the veteran winger beat Montreal netminder Jakub Dobes with a shot high glove side.
"I thought by far his best game," Ruff said about the veteran winger. "Great on the walls, really strong on the puck. I thought his physicality was good. The goal, great shot through the defenseman. That 10-foot range to the walls and the puck battles, he was excellent."
Meanwhile, there were legitimate concerns about the bottom-pair tandem of Logan Stanley and Conor Timmins as the Stanley Cup Playoffs neared.
Stanley endured some initial struggles while making the transition to Buffalo after arriving in a deadline trade with the Winnipeg Jets in March. There were also concerns about how his lack of skating speed would impact his ability to play Buffalo's faster brand of hockey.
Timmins missed an extended period of time (mid-December through late March) with a lower-body injury, and it took him time to get back up to full speed during the stretch run of the regular season.
That duo has been solid in the playoffs. Buffalo has played level with opponents (1-1) in 55 minutes of 5-on-5 play with Stanley and Timmins on the ice together, and it's also generated 53.1% of the scoring chances over that time, according to Natural Stat Trick.
In addition, the Sabres haven't given up a goal in 11 shorthanded minutes played by Stanley, per NST. (They've allowed two in Timmins' 16 minutes on the penalty kill.)
Buffalo skyrocketed up the standings because Ruff had three different forward lines and two defense pairs that were all playing high-end hockey. It didn't have a top-tier superstar forward racking up 100-plus points, but the ample depth felt unbeatable at times.
If the Sabres keep getting strong production from the bottom of the lineup too, the recent suggestion that they've emerged as a true Stanley Cup threat will begin picking up steam.
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