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Season Gets Darker | RECAP: MTL @ BUF

Rick Stephens

Montreal Canadiens vs Buffalo Sabres, Game Recap: Habs, Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Interviews, NHL, Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 22, Away Game 11 | Friday November 26, 2021
KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY

CANADIENS

Montreal

1-4

SABRES

Buffalo
Sam Montembeault (Photo by Ben Green/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

 Tyler Toffoli – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

Artturi Lehkonen – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher

Ryan Poehling – Joel Armia

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Jeff Petry

Sami Niku – David Savard

Alexander Romanov – Chris Wideman

Mattias Norlinder

Goaltenders

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

Scratches

Cedric Paquette, Michael Pezzetta

Injuries

Joel Edmundson (lower-body), Brett Kulak (lower-body), Mike Hoffman (upper body), Mathieu Perreault (eye),  Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Game Report

Are the Montreal Canadiens the new Buffalo Sabres?

The Habs continue to slide deeper after losing for the second time this season to the league’s perennial doormats. And it was the Sabres who simply outworked the visitors. To add insult to injury, Canadiens castoff Dustin Tokarski picked up the win for Buffalo facing his former team for the very first time.

The Canadiens are now 30th in the NHL having won just five times in 22 games played. Montreal has won just once in 11 games on the road.

After a decent first period, the downfall came in the second period. Kyle Okposo scored a shorthanded goal towards the end of a four-minute Canadiens power-play. That made the score 3-1 for Buffalo and it was over. Montreal managed just one shot on goal in the four-minute advantage.

According to TSN’s StatsCentre, the Canadiens rank fifth among the teams with the worst goal differential in losses through the first 22 games of a team’s season (since 1991.) Montreal’s 12 points through the first 22 games is also the fewest in franchise history.

It was painful to listen to the players in the post-game media availability. They are proud but very frustrated. The head coach, clearly in over his head, is bewildered that his approach has been a complete failure.

Marc Bergevin and Geoff Molson have presided over a house of cards fortified only by Carey Price. With their future Hall-of-Famer out of action, we are witnessing the fruits of their incompetence. Bergevin and Molson have built the worst edition of the Canadiens ever.

When will they be held accountable?

Up Next

The Canadiens complete their three-game road trip in Pittsburgh where they face the Penguins on Saturday night.

Plus

▲  Josh Anderson, Tyler Toffoli, Ryan Poehling

Minus

▼  Jeff Petry, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, David Savard

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Ducharme: 11F 7D | PREVIEW: MTL @ BUF

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   SABRES
26 Shots 39
51 Face-off % 49
0-for-2 Power Play 0-for-1
2 Penalty Minutes 4
18 Hits 7
43 Corsi For 61
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (5-15-2) 1 0 0 – – 1
Sabres (8-10-2) 1 2 1 – – 4
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Anderson (5)
  • BUF: Thompson (9), Eakin (3), Okposo (6)-SHG, Thompson (10)
  • MTL: Montembeault (L) (1-4-1)
  • BUF: Tokarski (W) (4-4-2)

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Tage Thompson  BUF
  2. Cody Eakin  BUF
  3. Victor Olofsson  BUF

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “We have pucks on our sticks and we have room in front of us and then just bad execution… and then you turn the puck over… We shoot ourselves in the foot. We self-destruct on those kind of plays.”

Ben Chiarot

  • “You don’t really have a choice to lose your confidence – we got a game tomorrow night so you got to be able to go out there and play with confidence and play your game, can’t sit around and pout, just move on to the next one.”

Josh Anderson

  • “It’s frustrating…good 1st period we’re in the game and then our 2nd period we just got outworked — that’s all we’ve been talking about. I don’t have an answer for you, like, I don’t know what to say, I really don’t.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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