Game 4 takeaways | Helenius’ confidence, penalty kill’s success and more

MONTREAL – There’s a not-so-subtle confidence about Konsta Helenius. He’s always got a bit of a smirk. When asked if he was surprised about being added to the Buffalo Sabres’ playoff roster, the 20-year-old responded, “I’m not surprised, because it was a good year for me.”

So, it checks out that Helenius looked unfazed as he made his NHL playoff debut – his 10th game with the Sabres – in Tuesday’s Game 4 win at a deafening Bell Centre. The 2024 first-round pick finished with six shot attempts, three golden scoring chances, one shot block and a 4-for-6 faceoff record in 12:53 of ice time.

“I thought he played an excellent game from start to finish,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “… Thought he skated well, competed hard. He gave us a heck of a game.”

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On his third shift, Helenius carried through the neutral zone, received a pass down low and drove to the net with authority. Review determined that Jack Quinn had buried the rebound for a 2-0 lead; another review corrected that Helenius had interfered with Jakub Dobes, brushing past the Montreal goalie’s stick as he crossed the crease.

Despite the ruling, it was a great three-zone play from the rookie to set things up in the first place.

“I mean, he’s not saving that goal with his stick, but I don’t know,” Helenius reacted postgame.

“Dobes always is swinging his stick,” added a skeptical Ruff. “He initiated the contact with Helenius with his stick coming across the crease, and I thought Helenius did a great job of trying to avoid the goaltender. … A great play by the kid and just a tough review on us.”

And with Buffalo ahead 3-2 in the third period, Helenius and linemate Jason Zucker twice broke free on identical 2-on-1 rushes. Helenius was robbed by Dobes on the first one and by the post on the second. The latter play came with just under three minutes remaining and the Canadiens about to deploy their six best players for a final push – Ruff’s trusting Helenius on the ice there spoke volumes.

“It’s a great feeling that coach trusts me,” Helenius said. “I played those types of situations in the AHL but not the NHL yet, so it was great: straight to playoffs and play big minutes. It means a lot.”

Explaining his confidence in such a pressure-packed environment, Helenius made the Stanley Cup Playoffs sound – and at times, look – pretty simple.

“I mean, it’s same hockey game. Been playing that, what, 15 years?” he said. “Just a little bit harder, but same hockey, so just tried to play my game and trust myself.”

Observed Mattias Samuelsson: “He’s not shy, fits right in, funny dude. I don’t think he lacks confidence at all, in a good way.”

In all likelihood, Helenius will get another opportunity in Thursday’s pivotal Game 5 at KeyBank Center. First, some more notes to wrap up the Game 4 win.

Buffalo’s penalty kill: busy, but excellent

Between Games 3 and 4, Ruff implored his players to be more disciplined and stop giving the lethal Canadiens power play so many chances. Well, the Sabres committed eight minor penalties in Tuesday’s win: six minutes for high sticking, four each for roughing and interference, two for cross-checking.

Some calls were questionable – Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle went down rather easily twice in the first period – but with four officials on the ice and 21,000 more in the crowd, Buffalo couldn’t get away with much.

“Whether you like it or not,” Ruff said, “there are some light penalties getting called both ways. You’ve got to keep your stick off people. It’s the time of year where a player’s gonna do his best to make, whatever call it is, seem like it’s almost the end of the world. … You can tell I don’t like all the calls, but I’ve been there and I’ve lived all those calls in the past, and it’s something that we have to be better with.”

Ruff doubled down at his Wednesday morning media availability: “I think they’re going down easy.”

Outstanding penalty killing helped the Sabres overcome those calls. They killed off six of seven shorthanded situations, including a high-sticking double-minor with a 2-2 tie early in the third – Zach Benson scored the game winner minutes later.

Conor Timmins (7:42 SH TOI) and Samuelsson (7:13) were their usual, dependable selves on the kill. The only goal against, from Cole Caufield in the first period, came off a rebound after consecutive Timmins blocks. Those two defensemen combined for four shorthanded blocks and 11 overall in the win.

“Our kill’s been unbelievable all year long,” Tage Thompson said. “This is probably one of the better power plays that we’ve seen, but they’ve done an unbelievable job, and guys like Sammy are a big piece of that, putting their body on the line, blocking shots, selling out.”

Of course, the guy in net did his part as well. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made nine shorthanded saves and 28 total in his return to action. When pair of Caufield one-timers threatened to extend Montreal’s second-period lead, Luukkonen pushed to his right and denied the 51-goal scorer.

“He makes big saves when we need them all the time, has been all year,” Samuelsson said. “Just knowing he’s back there makes your job as a D-man a lot easier, knowing (if) you make a mistake, he’s there to make a big save. Really happy for him – he got in there, played unreal, got the win.”

Strong night at the dot

The Sabres won just 39.4 percent of their faceoffs in Games 1-3, including 38.8 percent in the offensive zone. In Game 4, those numbers improved to 52.5 and 58.3 percent. Josh Norris had one of his best faceoff nights of these playoffs, winning 10 of 16 (62.5%), and Thompson and Ryan McLeod were both 50 percent or better.

Benson's power-play game winner actually started with Thompson losing a faceoff in the offensive zone, but Thompson and two others chased the puck into the corner and won and extended wall battle to maintain possession.

Schenn steps in

Veteran defenseman Luke Schenn entered the lineup for Game 4, skating 7:04 (2:40 shorthanded) and blocking two shots. He took just three shifts in the third period, none in the final 13 minutes with Buffalo leading, but Schenn brought the predictable presence to the back end that the Sabres were hoping for.

“The guy’s got a couple Stanley Cups; he knows what it’s about,” Ruff said. “I think he understands controlling emotions. And I think what he could offer us, we really felt, was penalty killing and just that veteran leadership in a tough building.”

As they’ve often done this season with two right-shot defensemen in the lineup, the Sabres rotated their pairs throughout the game. Schenn, for example, saw 5-on-5 ice with four different partners, but never his (unofficial) third-pair partner Timmins.

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