Sabres Humbled By Undefeated Montreal

There’s a reason the Montreal Canadiens are undefeated.

The Buffalo Sabres had plenty of fight Friday night at the First Niagara Center, but the Canadiens are talented in waves and it showed.  Montreal took advantage of a poor performance by the Sabres penalty kill and an even worse job by goaltender Chad Johnson and skated away with a 7-2 victory.

After stepping in for an injured Robin Lehner and playing mostly well through five starts, Johnson looked rough in net Friday night, allowing at least four goals that should’ve been stopped.

Johnson got no help from a dismal penalty killing unit that entered the game ranked 28^th in the league and surrendered two more to Montreal.

Matt Moulson and Ryan O’Reilly scored for Buffalo, who had the game tied 2-2 more than midway through the second period before former Sabres forward Torrey Mitchell put Montreal up for good.

The Canadiens would add four more unanswered tallies.

Stat of the Game: Want to know what true top blue-line defensemen look like? Andrei Markov scored a goal and four assists while P.K. Subban added three assists.

Sabres MVP: Cody Franson had two assists, made some nice plays defensively and had, by far the best game of his short Sabres career.

Sabres LVP: Johnson looked like career-backup Chad Johnson tonight, with at least four of the six Montreal goals being shots he should have stopped.  It was, by a mile his worst performance of the season.

Three Things To Like:

♦ Seven games in and it’s sounding like a broken record, but man is Jack Eichel going to be a star in this league.

Check out these moves on consecutive shifts near the end of the first period.

♦  Sam Reinhart had a supreme backhanded pass on Matt Moulson’s power play goal.  Even with being last year’s second overall pick, he’s flying a bit under the radar because of Eichel.  Reinhart is improving every game and could develop into a force sooner than later.

♦  They continue to have bumps in the road, but I’m impressed with the young defensemen tandem of Jake McCabe and Mark Pysyk.  When Zack Bogosian eventually returns, I hope it’s Mark Weber that hits waivers as opposed to McCabe going back down to Rochester.

Three Things To Not Like:
♦  What’s going on with Zegmus Girgensons? He’s seemed a bit loss and a lot ineffective playing as one of the Sabres bottom six forwards. He missed a gimme in the third period.

♦  Speaking of the bottom six forwards, the fourth line of Johan Larsson, Nicholas Deslauriers and Jamie McGinn couldn’t have been less an offensive factor if they tried. Deslauriers was a minus-three on the night (so was Josh Gorges).

♦  If Brian Gionta wants to stay on the Eichel line he needs to finish plays.  Gionta could’ve easily had at least two goals on the night.

Wrap-Up: Montreal’s waves of proven talent proved to be too much, but I liked the way the Sabres competed with them, at least for the first two periods.  Buffalo trailed after two, 4-2 but that was more on Johnson than the team. I thought Buffalo skated shift-for-shift with one of the league’s elite teams and held their own until late in the game when they appeared to throw in the towel. Buffalo really needs to be concerned about is their abysmal penalty kill; a unit that entered the game allowing four goals in 16 opportunities at home and surrendered two more Friday.

What’s Next: Buffalo gets no time to hang their heads as they finish up a three-game home stand Saturday night against New Jersey. Linus Ullmark is expected to get his first NHL start in net. After a horrific job by Johnson tonight, it’ll be interesting to see what Ullmark can do.