Round 2 preview | 4 storylines for Sabres vs. Canadiens

The matchup is set, and the Buffalo Sabres are about to take on the Montreal Canadiens in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

After a regular-season series with four tightly contested games and two wins apiece, the Atlantic Division rivals will settle things in best-of-seven hockey, beginning with Game 1 on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at KeyBank Center.

• Sabres-Canadiens schedule and broadcast info

Here are some players and storylines to watch as the series gets underway.

Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky

Like the Sabres, the Canadiens overcame any lack of playoff experience to win Round 1 against the Lightning. It was a remarkably close seven-game series; every game was decided by one goal, and four needed overtime. The Game 7 winner saw forward Alex Newhook swat a bouncing puck off Andrei Vasilevskiy late in the third period.

Montreal’s strength all year was star fowards Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, who reunited on the top line late in the season and combined for 110 goals, but those guys had a fairly quiet series, offensively.

It wasn’t until Game 7 that any of them (Suzuki) scored an even-strength goal, and the trio was outshot and out-chanced in 55 minutes together. Slafkovsky had a Game 1 hat trick on the power play but didn’t record a point after that; Caufield’s four points (1+3) all came on the man advantage.

No. 1 defenseman Lane Hutson stood out with six points (2+4) while averaging 27:23 per game, up from 23:46 during the regular season. And Montreal just got second-pair stalwart Noah Dobson back from injury for Game 7.

“It's the same with everybody: You have to take away time and space, stay on top of them, be hard on them,” said captain Rasmus Dahlin. “… Because when they get time, it doesn't take much for them to score a goal, they have so much skill. So, we have to play a solid defensive game in this series to be able to win, that's for sure.”

Suzuki being a Selke Trophy candidate, his line matched up mostly with Tampa Bay’s top guys: Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli. Lindy Ruff generally doesn’t lock his team into line matchups, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Sabres approach Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky – and how much that trio plays together, after Montreal coach Martin St. Louis separated them for parts of Round 1.

Hot goalies

Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes played the entire series versus Tampa Bay, posting a .923 save percentage and 2.03 goals-against average. He came up especially large with a .961 mark in Games 5-7, including 28 saves in Sunday’s finale – Dobes had a busy night, with Montreal registering just nine shots at the other end.

Per MoneyPuck, Dobes ranks fifth in the NHL these playoffs with 4.4 goals saved above expected. Fourth on that list? Buffalo’s Alex Lyon, who took over the net late in Game 2 and went 3-1 with a .955 save percentage.

The Sabres already beat one great goalie in Boston’s Jeremy Swayman, and they did well to disrupt the Vezina Trophy finalist in his crease, dig for loose pucks and screen him with big bodies in front. Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch did some great net-front work in the series, like on Mattias Samuelsson’s Game 6 goal:

“We knew it was going to be hard, so we had to stay on top of [Swayman] all series long,” Dahlin said. “We had to be annoying, bump into him a couple times. We had to make it hard on him, and I think we did a good job with that.”

Dobes beat Lyon in both head-to-head matchups this season, posting a .943 save percentage to Lyon’s .902.

The season series

Much like Montreal’s first round, the regular-season series between the Sabres and Canadiens was super tight: Both sides won two games and scored 13 goals, and each game was decided by two with a late empty netter.

Special teams played a major role in the four matchups. Buffalo went 3-for-11 on the power play and also got a shorthanded goal from Beck Malenstyn, while Montreal went 3-for-10. The Sabres’ power play looked better as Round 1 went on; the Canadiens’ went 1-for-17 in Games 3-7 after a hot start.

The highlight, of course, was January’s 2005-06 reunion night at KeyBank Center, where the Sabres won a fast-paced, back-and-forth, 5-3 slugfest. Thompson took over that night with a hat trick plus two assists.

While the regular-season matchups featured plenty of rush offense and open ice, things could have a different feel in the playoffs, as seen in the Sabres’ and Canadiens’ first-round games.

“I think teams, once they get to the playoffs, there’s a huge focus on not giving up big opportunities,” Ruff said. “… Yeah, in that series, (Boston’s David) Pastrnak got behind us a couple of times, but we stayed away from a lot of the rush opportunities. They’re gonna do their best to stay away from it.”

The Sabres allowed 10.7 rush shots per 60 minutes in Round 1, the fewest of any playoff team (Stathletes).

Home-ice advantages

KeyBank Center and Bell Centre might have been the NHL’s two loudest buildings in Round 1. The Sabres have the drum, the Canadiens have a franchise legend carry a torch, and both buildings reach max volume before the opening puck drop. But that didn’t exactly translate to results, as both teams went 1-2 in front of their fans.

The Sabres’ winning the Atlantic Division means another series with home-ice advantage, and they hope to better take advantage of that in Round 2.

“I think sometimes your home fans can drive you to maybe a crazier level of play, maybe even a reckless level of play. You’re in your own building, you want to entertain sometimes,” Ruff said. “But we need to get our home game in a better place. We know that we’re gonna have to win games in this building.”

When Buffalo last visited Montreal in January, the Sabres led 3-0 and held all the momentum before the Canadiens scored two quick ones in the second period. Ruff used his timeout to settle things down, he explained postgame, and Buffalo held on for a 4-2 win. The Sabres have proven themselves on the road, most recently winning all three in Boston, but weathering the Bell Centre playoff storm will be a new challenge.

“I don’t know if you can control it. I think you manage the puck well and don’t give them the start they want,” Ruff continued. “… It’s one of the great places to play hockey in Canada, to be there for a game, whether you’re the home team or the read team… I know I couldn’t wait, when I started my career, to play in Montreal, because of just the history of that place.”