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Sabres at Canadiens recap: Buffalo shutout, swept in Montreal

For the first fifty minutes of the game, neither the Buffalo Sabres nor the Montreal Canadiens could gain an advantage despite the Habs outshooting Buffalo and having five power plays to Buffalo’s one.

However, in the final ten minutes, both Max Pacioretty and Danny Briere would score, and the Canadiens would complete their season sweep of the Sabres with a 2-0 victory.

It was another ho-hum game for the Sabres, though their defense and goaltender Matt Hackett played well though numerous penalty kill opportunities. There was a scary moment when Tyler Myers was helped to the dressing room after crashing the Montreal net, but Myers returned to action.

Ted Nolan wasn’t happy after the game with his team’s propensity for taking penalties, saying, “Our penalty kill was good to a point but there’s only a certain amount of bad, bad penalties you can kill off. It’s frustrating. The players that are here, maybe only have nine games, 10 games left with us because you can’t be taking those types of penalties and expect to stick around.”

A team that struggles so much to score can ill afford to be taking penalties, even though their penalty kill isn’t terrible. Luckily, the Canadiens only had one shot on three second period power plays, but still. The Sabres offense has only scored 11 goals in their last 10 games.

The Sabres will finish their road trip up on Thursday in Nashville to face the Predators.

Three Questions

1. How will Myers look in his first game back from injury?
Tyler Myers played fairly well in his return despite suffering an upper body injury slamming into the Montreal net on a 2-on-1. He only had one shot himself, but was the third best defenseman in terms of possession numbers last night.

2. How will Matt Hackett look in his second start?
Hackett made 35 saves on the night and had a shutout going for the first 50 minutes of the game, but needs to keep working on his rebound control.

3. Can the Sabres get their first victory over the Canadiens all season?
Nope. The Sabres have been swept by the Habs this season.

Three Stars

1. Carey Price – 24 save shutout
2. Thomas Vanek – 1 assist on four shots
3. Matt Hackett – 33 saves

Comment of the Game

The first thought I had when we signed Ville Leino

was that he would be great on our 4th line.

Prescient.

Highlights