Quick Hits: Canadiens vs. Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres hosted the Montreal Canadiens this season, in their second game of their three-game homestand.
Don’t let me down play this, the Montreal Canadiens entered tonight as the best team in the National Hockey League with a record of 7-0-0 and 14 points.
The Canadiens started off red-hot, as many would have expected.
Dale Weise and Brendan Gallagher scored the first two goals for Montreal, before Buffalo answered with two of their own.
Matt Moulson and Ryan O’Reilly were the cool dudes who decided to score goals. Thanks for playing, guys.
After O’Reilly’s tying goal, the Sabres decided to take the rest of the night off. How thoughtful of them!
Buffalo Sabres legend Torrey Mitchell (who was wonderful on faceoffs 13 for 20 – 65%) scored the game-winning goal at 13:31 of the second period.
Then, Andrei Markov decided to score a goal, his first of the season.
In the third period, goaltending and defense remained optional for the Buffalo Sabres.
Brendan Gallagher scored his 2nd of the game (3rd of the season) to put Montreal up 5-2.
At 11:11, Max Pacioretty most likely didn’t make a wish, but he did score a goal. That’s another for the bad guys. 6-2 Montreal.
The bleeding stopped after Dale Weise scored his 2nd goal of the night (3rd of the season).
This mercy killing hockey game ended up being 7-2. The defense was not good, the goaltending was worse.
It was hard not to uncontrollably laugh as the game continued on. Good thing about this game? It is over and there is another game tomorrow, so we can forget how terrible this one was.
Hooray, hockey!
See y’all tomorrow, hopefully the Devils don’t play the trap still and we can enjoy some hockeying at the First Niagara Center.
Here is what you probably came for, the Quick Hits™ (I will definitely sue you if you use this):
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- Sam Reinhart, not a bust.
Matt Moulson from Reinhart and Franson, 2-1 Montreal pic.twitter.com/mnfHFMYmaB
— steph (@myregularface) October 24, 2015
Damn, kid. I have no words. Someone text me, and I’ll give you my address. I can’t get my jaw off the floor. Sam Reinhart: such awareness, great pass, much goal.
- Offense showing signs of life.
So follow me on this one. I started writing this when the Sabres had scored two goals and were still in this game. Then, Montreal was like “LOL ok guys, so we are p good lets stop being loser asses”. Sabres stopped scoring goals here and Montreal scored 5 more times.
Zemgus Girgensons was 18% on faceoffs tonight (3 for 17). Noooooo, Zemgus.
How about that Sam Reinhart pass though? Ahh, the memories! *gets hit by a bus*
- Break time for Johnson.
Chad Johnson is a backup goaltender. Repeat it with me, friends. CHAD JOHNSON IS A BACKUP GOALTENDER.
And…..breathe.
Ok, we’re better now but Chad Johnson is still the starting goaltender (until Minion Linus Ullmark never loses a game in his National Hockey League career and is the greatest player ever).
Johnson has now started 6 straight games and has not played particularly well.
Granted, his performance hinges on goals scored for plus the defense has a growing tendency to be not good.
Johnson currently boasts (used very lightly) a 3.06 goals allowed per game and a .879 save percentage.
Yuck. I need a juice box.
- Montreal also p good.
Per @EliasSports: @CanadiensMTL are 2nd team in NHL history to begin a season w/ 8 straight wins, all in regulation. Other: BUF in 1975-76.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 24, 2015
Speaking of the Sabres and winning streaks, the 2005-06 Buffalo Sabres were the last team to start a season off this well (10-0-0), but they won 3 games in shootout.
Clearly, Montreal is living up to the offseason hype (but I still don’t like Michel Therrien).
- Minions
Maybe tomorrow we will see the somewhat-anticipated National Hockey League debut of goaltender Linus Ullmark.
Ullmark, a sixth-round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Level Draft, has torn up hockey overseas with MODO in the Swedish Hockey League.
At the start of the season, Ullmark making any impact at the NHL level would’ve seemed highly improbable. Ullmark is coming back from double hip surgery in the offseason and most recently a 43 save loss on Wednesday night against the Utica Comets.
Ullmark is the bright, shiny star on the depth chart this season, but will he be able to make an impact in the absence of Robin Lehner and ineffectiveness of Chad Johnson?
Only time will tell, but I damn sure hope we get our first look at him on Saturday night.
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