by Tyler Prater, Guest Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
LEXINGTON, KY — This upcoming week the Habs play back-to-back Friday and Saturday, both games against the Sabres, with the first game at Buffalo and the next in Montreal. The Canadiens will be coming off a four-day break after their 5-0 loss to the New York Rangers. The Habs will have a two-day break before returning to practice on Wednesday morning.
Montreal Canadiens
Sunday’s loss aside, Montreal is off to a strong start (16-6-1) and in first place in the Atlantic Division. They go into the week with a 8-2-0 record in their last 10 games and should be well-prepared for the Sabres when they meet on Friday night.
Players to watch:
Max Pacioretty. Pacioretty has had an inconsistent start to the season with 10 goals, 8 assists for 18 points with a plus-13 rating. Lately he’s doing everything right to help the Habs and has been especially hot with four goals and three assists in the last seven games. With the momentum he has, keep an eye on him to be a big contributor this weekend.
David Desharnais. So far this season Desharnais has 11 points with a plus-9 rating. Look for him to set-up offensive chances in the two games against Buffalo.
Dale Weise. Weise is playing a selfless game and has been rewarded with four goals already matching his season high.
Strengths:
The Canadiens come into the week with a strong record of 16 wins in 23 games, looking to regain momentum especially against a struggling team like Buffalo (6-13-2). Along with their great record, the Habs are also 54.6 per cent on faceoffs contributing to puck possession, a key factor to any game. Another positive factor is the Habs’ penalty kill at 84.3 per cent (9th in the NHL.)
Weaknesses:
Montreal’s power play isn’t very good at 12.7 per cent (26th in the NHL) but there should be plenty of chances to raise the percentage against the Sabres, who average 13.3 penalty minutes per game (28th.) Another area the Habs will have to focus is their shots against currently averaging 30.6 per game (19th) while only getting an average of 27.5 shots per game (27th).
Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo have had a slow start to the year (6-13-2) residing in eighth place in the Atlantic Division. They will be coming off a game against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday in Buffalo.
Players to watch:
Tyler Ennis. Ennis has six goals (tied for team highest) and seven assists on the year.
Zemgus Girgensons. Girgensons also has six goals and four assists this season and coming off a great week with multi-goal games.
Drew Stafford. With eight assists on the year, Stafford has excelled as Buffalo’s set-up man.
Strengths:
The Sabres are coming off a good week, which included two wins against San Jose and Washington. In a three-game win streak the Sabres have scored 12 goals.
Weaknesses:
The Sabres have a low goals per game average, at 1.62 (30th) which is good news against the talents of Carey Price and Dustin Tokarski. The Sabres’ allow a hefty 3.29 goals against on average.
Matchup
Friday November 28 | Buffalo, NY.
Sabres 3-6-2 (home)
Canadiens 7-3-1 (away)
Saturday November 29 | Montreal, QC.
Canadiens 9-3-0 (home)
Sabres 3-7-0 (away)
Season series
November 5, 2014 MTL 2 BUF 1 SO Recap – Canadiens vs Sabres: Panic Averted with Shootout Win
These type of games against opponents like the Sabres are ones that really scare me for sure.
Habs last game against the Rangers was a real let-down in my opinion.
The consistency of the Habs is starting to worry me as they are up & down with no real direction in some ckases.
The play in the first periods must pick-up as playing catch-up is hard to do night in & night out.
I am hoping the Habs can stay focused in the up & coming back-to-back games with the Sabres .
Sabres are on a sort of a role right now & their confidence is on a high. Habs must take these two games as they would with say the Bruins this is not just crucial for the four points but for the over-all confidence of the team down the stretch.
I am interested in your opinion on this matter .
Hi Mark. Thanks for the comment.
I completely agree with your statement that games like the upcoming ones against opponents like the Sabres are scary. It’s easy to take struggling teams for granted and can quickly end up in an embarrassing loss. It is very important for the Habs to play both games as they would against any powerful team, with a sense of urgency.
Any loss is going to be a let down especially when its 5-0 but the loss against the Rangers shouldn’t be viewed as too much of a bad thing. I like to see it as more of a learning moment for the Habs as well as a wake-up call that being in first place does not make them invincible. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes and are able to build off of them to be better prepared for Friday and Saturday night.
As for the consistency of the Habs, I had a coach that described it best in the sense that any great team is not a light switch where they can turn on and off their abilities depending on who they play but that they are constantly “on”and treat every game as though it was a playoff game. When it comes down to it, every game has to be played with a playoff mentality because every game truly is a playoff for points in order to make it to postseason play.
The Sabres are on a bit of a streak right now and have a lot of momentum going their way. I agree that it is important for the Habs to stay focused and this weekend’s games are crucial, not just for team confidence but also to show the Habs can bounce back after a hard loss as well as being able to keep their focus and play with that playoff mentality where every game matters. I believe this weekend will be a good determining factor for how the rest of the Habs’ season will go, whether they will come out and not hold anything back or play soft and be complacent. Two hard-fought wins against the Sabres will give the Habs back some momentum and put them back on the right track going into December.
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