Six questions for Game 6: Habs seek a special Saturday night in Montreal

The Montreal Canadiens have a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday night when they host the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of their second-round series.

“It means a lot,” said Canadiens forward Joe Veleno. “Saturday night at the Bell Centre, you couldn’t write it any better to close out a series. I think the boys know that and we’re all ready for it.”

Montreal last hosted a playoff game on a Saturday night in 2021, which was during the COVID-shortened season with limited attendance allowed. The last time a full Bell Centre enjoyed a Saturday playoff game was way back in 2015.

“It’s going to be unreal,” said defenceman Alexandre Carrier. “Saturday night, I think it’s our first one this playoffs, so it’s going to be fun. I expect nothing less. We have the best fans in the league so it’s going to be pretty cool.”

The excitement level may hit a new level if the Canadiens can eliminate the Sabres.

“The city’s already pretty crazy,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said following Thursday’s 6-3 win at the Keybank Center in Buffalo. “We saw against Tampa, it takes a lot to close out a team and we have another opportunity to do that. I’m sure the crowd will be into it before the game starts. It’s going to be rocking. We’re ready for that and excited for the opportunity to close it out.”

The Canadiens won more games on Saturday (14) than any other day during the regular season.

Here are six key questions for Game 6:

1 - What did the Canadiens learn from their last Game 6?

The Canadiens were in this exact same situation last round, coming home with a 3-2 series lead, but could not put away the Tampa Bay Lightning, who forced Game 7 with a 1-0 overtime win. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 30 shots he faced and was named the first star of that game.

The youngest team in the playoffs learned a valuable lesson about what it takes to score a knockout punch in a hard-fought series.

“It takes a lot,” said coach Martin St. Louis. “Game 6 against Tampa, we probably played one of our best games of the series and didn’t win. It probably takes your best and more.”

“I honestly thought it was one of our better games,” said Veleno. “We gotta come ready from the start of the game to the end. They will come out with desperation and we’re going to get their best so we gotta make sure we’re ready.”

The Canadiens have to avoid getting caught up in the hoopla. The anticipation will be building throughout the day ahead of an 8 pm start, which is later than any other game in this series.

St. Louis did not want to even think about what his walk to the rink will be like.

“We’re just focused on each and every day,” he said. “We’re not worried about the day before. We’re not worried about what’s ahead. Let’s just take care of today. If you take care of today, you don’t get, you know, anxious or too excited. I feel like you just stay present where your feet are and take care of that.”

2 - How will the Sabres handle facing elimination?

The Sabres, who are the second youngest team in the playoffs, will be facing elimination for the first time. This is uncharted territory for a group that finished first in the Atlantic Division in the regular season.

“This is a completely different challenge being involved in an elimination game where now every mistake could mean the end for you,” said coach Lindy Ruff.

“We have to play on our toes. We got to play to win. [We] can’t be afraid.”

In a departure from Buffalo’s regular routine, Ruff told his players to meet at the airport on Friday rather than come to the rink for a meeting.

“I know the pressure they’re feeling,” he said. “I know how much they care. I just feel a day away from the rink, not coming here, is a good thing. We don’t need to watch video today. We don’t need to talk about the game. We need to move on. There’s only one game that counts now and that is the game tomorrow. In all likelihood we may not even skate tomorrow. We’ll save everything we got for tomorrow night. That’s my initial thoughts right now.”

The Sabres blew leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 during a disheartening defeat at home in Game 5. So, how will Ruff refocus his group and keep them believing?

“I look at it right now, what is there, five teams left? To be sitting here talking to you guys, I think this is a wonderful place to be and I’ll tell the team the same thing,” Ruff revealed. “We get to go to Montreal [for] Game 6 in the middle of May to move on to a Game 7. I think we’ll all be evaluated on what this game looks like, just bring your best.”

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3 - How will the goalie matchup play out?

It’s unclear who the Sabres will start in goal on Saturday. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen picked up the win in Montreal in Game 4, but was pulled from Game 5 after allowing five goals on 23 shots in the first two periods.

Alex Lyon allowed one goal on just three shots in the third period. Lyon also allowed nine goals while taking the losses in Game 2 and Game 3.

There’s no question who will start for the Canadiens. Jakub Dobes has been the starter since the playoffs started although, for a moment on Thursday, his control of the crease was in serious jeopardy.

Dobes was beaten by three of Buffalo’s first four shots, which led St. Louis to contemplate a pull. Ultimately, St. Louis kept faith in Dobes after consulting with interim goalie coach Marco Marciano.

“I tell him, ‘Thank you for letting me [stay in] and trying to prove myself,’” Dobes said after the game.

“Really happy that [teammates] stepped up when we needed and obviously I’m really proud of myself too, not giving up and keep making saves.”

Dobes stopped the final 32 shots he faced on Thursday.

“It says a lot, I think, to be able to really dig in after maybe one goal he didn’t like,” said Carrier. “We had confidence in him. We had his back and he got ours all season.”

Ruff felt the Sabres stopped getting pucks to the net after the third goal went in.

“We thought we let him off the hook,” the Sabres coach said. “We came out of the corner a couple times and we had clear lanes to shoot pucks and we deferred to a better play ... We had the puck going to the net early, we got rewarded for it. We didn’t quite stick with it. Probably there were four, five opportunities to get a puck there quicker last night that could’ve kept them in chaos.”

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4 - Can the Sabres top line find its form?

Tage Thompson could have swung Game 5 in Buffalo’s favour, but failed to score on a breakaway early in the second period.

“When you look at the game being 3-2 and Thompson walks in alone, it could’ve been a difference maker,” Ruff lamented.

Thompson later took a costly penalty, which led to Montreal’s fifth goal.

Buffalo’s top line has failed to make a big impact in the series. Thompson has two goals and two assists, but is also minus-nine in the five games. Meanwhile, Alex Tuch has yet to hit the scoresheet in the series and is minus-eight.

“Offence has been hard to come by for me,” Tuch told reporters after Thursday’s game. “I gotta bear down. I gotta be better. I can’t play the way I’m playing right now.”

5 - Can Cole Caufield continue his Saturday night success?

Asked what it will be like to play in Montreal on Saturday night, Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov smiled.

“Oh, better to ask No. 13,” he said.

That would be Caufield, who seemed to score on every Saturday night during the regular season. Of his 51 goals, 21 came on Saturday.

This series started with Caufield on the hot seat. He was held off the board in the first two games and had scored just once through nine playoff games, but now Caufield’s scored in three straight. And on Thursday the Rocket Richard Trophy runner-up scored his first even-strength goal of the playoffs.

“It’s nice to contribute 5-on-5 as a line,” said Suzuki. “Cole and [Juraj Slafkovsky] were pretty fired up about that, but we know we can still be a little better and keep playing the right way.”

6 - Are the floodgates about to open for Demidov?

On Thursday night, Demidov finally scored his first career Stanley Cup playoff goal in his 17th postseason game.

“So tough to describe,” the Calder Trophy finalist said. “Best feeling in the world I think.”

St. Louis shared a moment with Demidov at the bench after the goal.

“I know what he’s going through,” St. Louis said. “To have been part of his, I wouldn’t say process, but part of his trying to get out of that and feel good about himself, to finally see him have that feeling, it’s fun. You’re happy for him, because they have high expectations. They prepare. They put a lot into it knowing that there’s nothing guaranteed. You’re just going to put your best foot forward. You don’t know if it’s [going to happen] tonight and I was happy for him that it was last night.”

Demidov certainly earned it. He registered a team high five shots on net and picked up an assist when one of his shots snuck past Luukkonen before being tapped in by Jake Evans.

Now that he’s finally on the board in the playoffs, Demidov was asked if his confidence is higher.

“I mean, I feel pretty confident,” the 20-year-old said with a grin.

Defending Demidov, who has hit the scoresheet in four of five games in the series, and the rest of the Canadiens will be even more challenging for the Sabres if Owen Power is unavailable. The defenceman sustained an injury after an awkward fall into the boards at the end of Game 5.

“He said he’s feeling pretty good, better than he thought he would feel,” Ruff relayed. “So that’s encouraging.”