Takeaways: Sabres are their own worst enemy in yet another loss to Montreal
Buffalo is 24-29-5 after its second straight loss and fell to 0-3 against Montreal this season. The Sabres have been outscored, 17-8, in the three games.
Hockey is a game of mistakes and, boy, did the Buffalo Sabres make them Saturday night.
A particularly frustrating 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in KeyBank Center was marked by the fact the Sabres had possession of the puck on the first two Montreal goals and gave it away. Same on an empty net goal. And Buffalo was burned for the game-winner in the final seconds of the second period when it couldn't get a hold of the puck.
The Habs gladly accepted charity and capitalized on several neat puck plays of their own to improve to 3-0 against the Sabres this year.
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (26) and Sabres center Peyton Krebs (19) pressure Montreal Canadiens right wing
Cole Caufield (13) in the second period of their NHL hockey game at KeyBank Center on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Joed Viera/Buffalo News
"We've been talking about odd-numbered rushes since Day 1. We've been talking about how we manage the puck since Day 1," said disgruntled coach Lindy Ruff. "We didn't manage the puck well enough, didn't manage the game well. Sometimes you're going to have to win (by) letting them make the mistake. It's a 2-1 game. Don't make your own mistake."
The game started to fall apart late in the second period after the Sabres had several chances to take a 3-1 lead. But Montreal tied it, 2-2, on Josh Anderson's goal at 13:33 as he took a back pass in front of Zach Benson on the tail end of a 3-on-2 break and beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
The Sabres were on a power play a minute later but that ended when JJ Peterka killed it on a bizarre interference penalty as he swept away a Montreal player's stick that had been dropped to the ice.
"Realistically, all he was trying to do was move it out of the way. That's really all he was trying to do," Ruff said. "It wasn't that the guy was going for it. He was shooting it away. He was trying to move it out of the way so we could make the next play, not realizing that you're going to get called for it."
But in this bizarre season, those kind of things go against the Sabres. Buffalo is 24-29-5 after its second straight loss and fell to 0-3 against Montreal this season. The Sabres have been outscored, 17-8, in the three games.
The Canadiens (29-26-5) won their fourth straight and pulled within three points of Detroit for the final Eastern Conference wild card. The Sabres remain last in the East, 10 points behind Montreal and 13 in arrears of Detroit.
"If you have a division team, you can't lose three out of three games," said captain Rasmus Dahlin. "That's just how it is. It's not good enough. It's brutal."
Here are some other takeaways on the game:
1. The decisive goal
Giving up a goal in the last minute of a period is always considered a no-no. The Sabres gave up Alex Newhook's deflection with 2.6 seconds left in the second period to put the Habs up for keeps, 3-2. Newhook burst down the slot ahead of Jiri Kulich to tip home Mike Matheson's shot, but the play was the outgrowth of a 4-on-4 as Beck Malenstyn and Jayden Struble were both sent to the penalty box after a scrum behind the Montreal net with 36 seconds left.The Sabres inexplicably played as if they were shorthanded and killing a penalty, rather than skating at even strength. Alex Tuch had his stick on the wrong side of his body and didn't block the shot and Kulich simply didn't stay with Newhook.
"It stinks. Probably could have been a little bit more aggressive," Tuch said. "I should have got my stick in the (shot) lane I guess."
"It was way too passive. It's not how we play," Dahlin said. "We were just trying to kill time when we were 4 on 4. It doesn't make sense. Wasn't good enough."
Ruff acknowledged his team simply fell asleep defensively.
"It started down low coming off their defenseman down low on the goal line. Compete in the corner," Ruff said. "It went up top and we didn't get pursuit by our top forward on that side. The pass in the middle, Tuch should have been going out at him, stick on puck and taking his time away. We gave up a goal with two seconds left. It just killed us."
2. PK problems
Montreal was 1 for 4 on its power play and that makes the Canadiens 6 for 16 in their three games against the Sabres this season. Their goal Saturday was by Cole Caufield at 1:13 of the second period off a 2-on-1 feed by Patrik Laine.The play actually started at the Montreal blue line as Jordan Greenway was trying to move into the zone on a 3-on-2 but fumbled the puck and Montreal went back the other way. Mattias Samuelsson, the last man back, couldn't block the cross-ice pass to Caufield.
"We gave up a PK goal that was pretty easily avoidable," Greenway said. "Frustrating for sure."
3. Old school
You used to get home-and-home series all the time when teams played division rivals six or eight times. Not so anymore. The Sabres and Habs meet again Monday in Bell Centre and it's Buffalo's only home-and-home set of the season.
Saturday's game was pretty contentious at times, with lots of scrums around the net and both teams not hesitating to get all five players into activity. Monday might be even nastier. Late in the third period Saturday, Greenway suddenly whirled in front of the net to confront Jakub Dobes and gave the Montreal goaltender a crosscheck to the midsection.
"He was just talking ridiculousness," Greenway said. "I just wanted him to know we're playing him on Monday and we're going to be coming. Hopefully he relays it to their guys."
4. Notable
• The Sabres were denied their first seven-game win streak at home since 1999. Luukkonen's loss prevented him from posting the first six-game run by a Buffalo goalie since Carter Hutton in 2018.• Tuch has goals in three straight games for the first time since Nov. 4-17, 2023. It's the fifth time he's scored in three straight with Buffalo.
• Forward Jason Zucker, the club's third-leading scorer, missed his second straight game with a leg injury after blocking a shot in the third period of last Saturday's game against the New York Rangers.