Rick Stevens

But Caden Gooley was not in the lineup on this night, and apparently that was planned as kind of easing him back into action.

Sam Montembeau, a good night for him, recorded the loss, though, despite making 39 saves and then gave up that goal to Connor McMichael in overtime with less than a minute left in overtime.

There's a bit of restructuring going on.

And the teams that fans normally expect the Canadians to beat and the teams that you might expect to be at the bottom of the standings, like Detroit, like Buffalo, are...

are not in those spots this year.

And Buffalo's had an excellent season.

They went on, I think, an 11-game winning streak.

But they've been really good.

And this game featured two of the youngest teams in the NHL.

Difference is Sabres...

um in their forward positions uh they're speedy just like the canadians but they're also big uh and one of their uh big speedy forwards tage thompson had a hat trick in this game um canadians this was this was mostly all buffalo um

Power plays played a big part.

There were four power play goals scored, two by each team, which was positive for Montreal because they had entered the game where their power play had been struggling.

They were on a 3-for-30 run in the previous 10 games.

It was Jacob Fowler in this game, 22 saves.

Again, wouldn't put it on Jacob Fowler.

It's just a...

Buffalo, they're going to be a team that the Canadians are going to have to come up with a bit of a better game plan than Marty had for this one because the Sabres looked to be in full control.

And it must have pleased former Canadians GM Mark Bergevin, who has recently taken the position as associate GM of Buffalo.

And as you said, Buffalo's going to be up on the docket a couple more times this month.