CANADIENS
Montreal

7-2

SABRES
Buffalo

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Semin
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Flynn – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov – Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Gilbert[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Condon
Price

Scratches: Greg Pateryn, Jarred Tinordi, Paul Byron
Injured reserve:
Suspended: Zack Kassian

Game Report

It’s a fun time to be a Habs fan right now. The Canadiens winning streak stands at eight, records are being set and the team is being compared to championship teams of the past.

Many fans are already looking ahead to June. “Cancel the season and award the Cup now,” wrote one on Twitter. Some in the media joined in saying that the Canadiens are unstoppable now that the power-play has been fixed (Montreal scored twice with the man advantage against the Sabres.)

But why shouldn’t there be exuberance from the entire community about the start to the season? After eight games, the Habs have a perfect 8-0-0 record.  But how many fans and media would be surprised to be reminded that the 2014-15 version of the team were 7-1-0 after eight games?

Just two points better.

An additional two points at the end of the year wouldn’t have changed the Canadiens position in the standings last season.

Let’s be clear, there are demonstrable improvements in the Canadiens lineup and performance this season. The fourth line is one of the best in hockey. Shots on goal and possession numbers are much improved. And the Habs are getting much better starts (they haven’t yet allowed a first period goal) and are not sitting back in the third period.

But how those improvements will translate into points is yet to be seen. With 76 games left to be played in the regular season, much remains unknown. Enjoy the ride but let’s be careful about jumping too far ahead.

Similarly, there has also been universal praise for the goaltending of Mike Condon along with collective relief that Dustin Tokarski isn’t on the roster. Some are calling the rookie “Price-lite.” A broadcaster said that if he couldn’t see the jersey number, he couldn’t tell the two Canadiens goaltenders apart.

Frankly, that’s nonsense.  Despite the win against Buffalo, Mike Condon had a shaky outing. He was giving up rebounds, swimming in his crease and losing the net. Condon was inconsistent playing too deep at times while being overly-aggressive during other parts of the game.

No question that Condon made a few good saves but he was very un-Price-like.

As far as Condon being a huge upgrade over Dustin Tokarski, can we definitively answer that question yet? At this time last year, Tokarski had made one start in a game against the Washington Capitals. Tokarski was named first star, making 29 saves on 30 shots for the win.

This should not be confused with an argument being made for one goaltender or another, simply a plea to temper the rhetoric at this early stage in the season.

One player who does deserve all of the superlatives is Andrei Markov. He has been the Canadiens best defenceman so far.  Markov had a career-best five point game against the Sabres. Markov currently leads the NHL with a rank of plus-14 and is in the top three defenceman in the league with nine points.

The Canadiens are back in action on Saturday night at the Bell Centre when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs.

▲     Andrei Markov, Brendan Gallagher, Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec, Dale Weise, Alexei Emelin, P.K. Subban, Torrey Mitchell

▼     Nathan Beaulieu, Alex Semin

1. Andrei Markov  MTL
2. Brendan Gallagher  MTL
3. P.K. Subban MTL

• “He played a great hockey game. “[Andrei Markov] and P.K. (Subban), they control the game. They were solid defensively, really effective offensively. That was a hell of a performance by those two.“

Brendan Gallagher

• “It’s always good to win. We just have a one-game-at-a-time mentality. It won’t change. Take this for what it is, we have another game [Saturday] night and we move on to that one.“

P.K. Subban

• “I always compare [Andrei Markov], the way he sees the game and sees the ice, to a guy like Nicklas Lidstrom. They’re very similar. They can go a whole night and maybe you don’t see him out there and you look at the stat sheet, a plus player and a couple points and between 25-29 minutes. He’s just happy to do his job quietly and that’s something that I’ve tried to do. … He had five points tonight but the way he played is the way he’s going to continue to play every night.“

Andrei Markov

• “Our group of forwards has been awesome all season long. They work hard, and it’s nice to see that. We just have to support them back, and try to feed them.”

Sabres coach Dan Bylsma

• “It snowballs in the third period. It’s disappointing, because I think we fought our way back in that game. Certainly, at that time we had some opportunities to go ahead and don’t take them.“

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Andrei Markov (1-4—5) is 3rd @CanadiensMTL d-man to record 500 PTS (109-392—501). Others: Robinson (197-686—883) and Lapointe (166-406—572).

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 24, 2015

Eight games in, ZERO goals against in the first period. #Habs were atrocious in the first last season.

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) October 23, 2015

https://twitter.com/TaylorOliviaMc/status/657758079459586049

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