Sabres Outgunned by Canadiens, 6-3
BUFFALO, N.Y. – “I missed the first 10 minutes of this game. There’s already 5 goals scored? What the hell happened?” That’s what a Twitter post shared on TNT’s coverage of Thursday’s game five between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres said. At that point in the match, it was a score of 3-2 in favor of the Sabres, but the Canadiens would take over from there.
Four unanswered goals would be scored over the next two periods, and Habs fans would describe the silence of the Buffalo crowd by dubbing the arena the KeyBank Library. By the end of the match the arena in downtown Buffalo looked as if it were a Covid-era game at the Bell Centre. Faint “Olé” chants could be heard from the Montreal faithful that had made the 6.5 hour drive, as the Canadiens took a 6-3 victory, and put Buffalo on the ropes going back to the Bell Centre on Saturday.
Baldwinsville’s own Alex Tuch, right wing for the Sabres, has been eerily quiet all series. Especially strange given his seven points in the six game series against Boston in round 1. When asked in a post-game interview about Buffalo’s now 2-4 record in the KeyBank Center this postseason, he said, “Yeah it’s not good enough… I thought we had a pretty good start actually too.”
Over the five games that have been played in this Montreal-Buffalo series, Tuch has logged a dismal +/- of -8, and not scored a single point. This compared to his +8 in round one, and it seems like the Habs have been shutting down the CNY native.
“I gotta bear down, I gotta be better,” Tuch said succinctly, puzzledly scratching his beard in his post-game interviews. “I can’t play the way I’m playing right now.”
“I think he’s lost just a little bit of confidence, trying a little bit too hard to make that extra play,” was what head coach Lindy Ruff had to say post-game about Tuch’s performance, or lack thereof, during this series.
He’s not the only Sabre that’s been seeing ghosts this series. Tage Thompson, the Sabres’ leading point-getter in the regular season, has logged a similarly stressing +/- of -9, and has marked only four points in round two.
Meanwhile on the other side of the ice, the first line of the Canadiens has seemingly been brought back to life. After being silent for most of the playoffs to this point, the top three of Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Cole Caufield have finally found their touch again, scoring seven points between the three of them in game five.
A series in which scoring has been lopsided, 21 goals so far for the Habs, only 13 for the Sabres, will have its sixth edition Saturday night as the Sabres look to redeem themselves at one of the hardest arenas to play against, the Bell Centre. They’ve stolen one so far from the Habs in the great white north, so the possibility is there. But much like their game 4 victory over Montreal, it may come down to bounces and chances whenever they can get them.