The Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens open their Eastern Conference Second Round series Wednesday at KeyBank Center, with both teams carrying enough familiarity to know this matchup has already been tight. They split four regular-season meetings, last played on Jan. 31 and each scored 13 goals.
That balance is why neither side spent much time talking about history. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said the series would come down to puck management and winning battles for possession, while Tage Thompson called Montreal a good team and said the regular season no longer matters once the playoffs start. The Canadiens, who arrived in Buffalo on Tuesday after staying in Tampa Bay until then, did not hold a morning skate Wednesday after beating the Lightning 2-1 in Game 7 on Sunday.
Montreal got a boost from Noah Dobson in that Game 7 win. Dobson returned from an upper-body injury, played 18:37 and finished with four hits and two blocked shots, down from a regular-season average of 22:29 in ice time. Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said Dobson had been a huge part of the team all season and praised the defender for calm puck movement and hard defensive play.
For Buffalo, the layoff has been longer. The Sabres had been idle since winning Game 6 at the Boston Bruins on May 1, and Ruff has made the series sound like a test of simple playoff habits rather than a tactical puzzle. He said this time of year is about the willingness to compete on pucks, win the battle on the wall, get it to the net and handle the 50/50 work around the crease. He added that teams do not get this far without that kind of effort and desire.
Montreal is also tracking the condition of Sam Carrick, who has been recovering from an upper-body injury sustained March 31. Ruff said Monday that Carrick had made significant improvement, and Carrick was on the ice for practice Tuesday before taking part in an optional morning skate Wednesday. The first game of the series will tell whether the Canadiens can keep that momentum after a seven-game opening round, or whether Buffalo’s extra rest and home ice take hold early in the matchup. The winner advances to the conference final.
Ruff and Montreal forward Mike Matheson framed the series the same way: the hard part is not reaching this stage, but rising again once it begins. Matheson said the team was excited to get here but has to reach another level quickly, and that its goals are higher than simply surviving the first round.
