‘Plays into our hands’: Canadiens confident in road game, bounce-back ability

The Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres held media availabilities at their hotels on Monday.

The Buffalo Sabres decided to stay in a hotel on Sunday night despite being the home team in Monday’s Game 7 against the Montreal Canadiens.

“We’re going to try to do everything we possibly can, try something different,” coach Lindy Ruff told reporters. “It’s like changing the lineup sometimes. Sometimes you just feel, ‘Man, if I just change it, maybe something better, you can find something better.’ I’ve always been on the side of, let’s give it a try [rather] than just keep trying to pound a round peg in a square hole.”

The Sabres treated Sunday night like a typical road night with a dinner available to the players at the hotel.

“I didn’t even know they were doing that but whatever you want, I guess,” said Canadiens winger Alex Newhook with a shrug.

“It’s something a little different,” Sabres defenceman Bowen Byram told reporters. “Obviously we haven’t had our best efforts on home ice so just trying to change something up to change some of our fortune, I guess.”

Both teams are 2-1 on the road in the series with lopsided wins in the last two games.

Montreal is 5-2 on the road in the playoffs, including a Game 7 win in Tampa last round. The Canadiens tied for the second-best points percentage (.683) on the road during the regular season.

“We’ve been a good road team all year,” Newhook said. “We’re confident being here. We’ve been a good road team and I think that kind of goes with the brand. When you simplify it a bit and raise the standards and expectations on physicality and emphasis on playing a deep game, I think [that] plays into our hands so we’re confident being on the road, and just gotta get another win.”

Buffalo is 5-1 on the road in the playoffs, but just 2-4 inside KeyBank Center. The Sabres were the fourth-best home team (.695 points percentage) in the regular season.

“I can’t explain it,” Ruff said. “The reason we tried to change it up last night is there’s a lot of distractions now. You got a lot of friends, a lot of family, just tried to get away from that and just be with the group, be with each other and wrap our arms around this opportunity.”

Home teams own a 118-84 (.584) advantage all-time in NHL Game 7s.

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The Sabres are changing up the pre-game routine with usual anthem singer Cami Clune announcing she will not be on the microphone before Game 7.

Doug Allen, whose 30-year run as the team’s anthem singer came to an end during the COVID pandemic, is listed as the singer for Monday night.

Instead of the traditional blue and gold, Ruff wore the team’s retro ‘goathead’ logo to his morning media briefing.

The Sabres are 1-6 in Game 7 in franchise history with the only win coming while wearing the ‘goathead’ in the first round against the Ottawa Senators in 1997. Derek Plante scored in overtime to help the Sabres advance to face the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Are you ready Legion of Doom?” legendary play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret declared that night, referencing Philadelphia’s top line. “Here come the Buffalo Sabres!”

That iconic call has inspired Buffalo’s rally towels for Game 7.

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Ruff declined to name a starter but all three goalies skated in the morning and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was the first one off the ice. Luukkonen picked up the win in Games 4 and 6, but was pulled in Game 5.

Jakob Dobes is set for a 14th straight start in the playoffs and the Canadiens goalie is looking to respond to his worst outing. Dobes allowed six goals on 33 shots before being pulled in the third period on Saturday.

“I’m not worried about Dobs,” coach Martin St. Louis said succinctly when asked about the goalie’s mindset.

“He’s been great for us all year,” said Newhook. “He’s a confident guy. We didn’t do a lot to help him out last game and we’re very confident he’ll be at his best tonight.”

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The Canadiens did not have any players on the ice on Monday morning, which means any lineup news will have to wait until warm-up.

“I got guys available,” said St. Louis. “I got options.”

St. Louis did confirm that forward Joe Veleno is available to play after taking a big hit late in Game 6.

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If the Sabres stick with the same personnel on Monday night, they will have five players with previous Game 7 experience in the lineup, but only two (Alex Tuch, Ryan McLeod) who have won a Game 7.

Ruff is urging his players to embrace the moment.

“If we were in training camp this year and we’re on the first day and we wanted to talk about playing a game in the middle of May on an 85-degree day in Buffalo in Game 7 to move on, we’d all sign on the dotted line,” the Sabres coach said.

If the Canadiens stick with the same lineup, they will have nine players with multiple Game 7s under their belt. That number goes up to 10 if veteran winger Brendan Gallagher draws in.

The Canadiens just won a Game 7 in the first round against the Lightning although they didn’t play particularly well in getting outshot 29-9 in Tampa.

“We didn’t probably play our best, but Doby played great for us,” said defenceman Kaiden Guhle. “Might’ve been gripping our sticks a little bit too tight that game and same thing with Game 6 [on Saturday]. Just go play. I mean, if you told us in September we’d be in the second round in Game 7 in Buffalo we’d be pretty happy so just go play and have fun and leave it all out there.”

What did the team learn from the experience in Tampa?

“It’s about finding a way,” said St. Louis. “It’s not about being perfect. It’s about finding a way.”

St. Louis’ teams went 6-2 in Game 7 during his Hall-of-Fame career.

“You don’t get a do-over so you just leave it out there,” St. Louis advised when asked about the proper Game 7 mentality.

Newhook scored the decisive goal in the third period of the Game 7 in Tampa Bay.

“Game 7s are a fun part of hockey and I think everyone in our room is going to embrace that,” Newhook said. “We’re excited to get back to that moment and embrace it and just get a win on the road.”

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The Canadiens blew a 3-1 lead en route to an 8-3 loss in Game 6 on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

“We looked at some stuff, but it’s more just flush it,” said Guhle. “It’s our worst game we’ve played in a really long time for whatever reason. I think a lot of guys wanted that game back and you can’t do that so it’s just bounce forward.”

St. Louis has been using the phrase “bounce forward” all season long and his players have responded well to defeats all season long. In fact, Montreal has not dropped consecutive games since March 14-15.

“It’s a standard expectation thing,” Newhook said. “All year we’ve been good after a loss so another reason for us to be confident tonight. You look at what went wrong last game, take the emotion out of it, we know we gotta be better. We’ll improve on what we need to be better at and give ourselves the best chance to win.”

The Canadiens are, understandably, looking for a better defensive effort.

“Just being alert is huge,” Newhook said. “Staying on top of their guys. They like to play on the rush and send a lot of guys throughout the game so staying on top of them is huge and not giving them that advantage off the rush. And all the other small details of being physical, stick details, being alert all those things come into play.”

The penalty kill can also be better after surrendering four goals to the Sabres on Saturday.

“We looked at it this morning,” said Guhle. “I’m not going to tell you what we need to do, but we looked at this morning. We got some things up our sleeve that we’re going to try out.”