The Buffalo Sabres are looking to rebound after blowing a two goal lead with two and a half minutes left in the third period to ultimately give the Nashville Predators a 4-3 overtime win. The Sabres were understandably upset over the game on Sunday night and come Monday morning, they said all the right things to the media about the loss:
"It was a bad situation," said goaltender Ryan Miller. "You completely own up to that, get a point and move forward. If we start hanging our heads and beating ourselves up, it's going to spin into something else and that doesn't need to happen. It's a long season. We're down to the crunch time of it and everything is magnified."
Now the Sabres have to face a team they haven't had much success against in the past season, the Montreal Canadiens. The Sabres are 2-3 against Montreal this season, but have won the last two games in either a shootout or overtime. The Sabres need all of the points they can get at this junction in the season as they are three points behind the New York Rangers for seventh and three points ahead of the Hurricanes for ninth.
The Canadiens are coming off an 8-1 over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday and P.K. Subban registered his first hat trick of his career. Four different Canadiens scored for Montreal along with Subban's hat trick. Minnesota goaltender Jose Theodore was pulled after allowing five goals on 19 shots.
A player to watch for in Montreal is Benoit Pouliot. Pouliot has scored three goals in four games against the Sabres this season and has four goals in eight games in his career against the team. Pouliot is the only player on both teams to score more than three goals in the season series. Pouliot had three assists in the Minnesota win on Sunday.
Game time is 7:30 pm and can be seen on MSG. The Sabres and their fans will be scoreboard watching as well as the Rangers and the Hurricanes will both be in action as well.