The Montreal Canadiens are benefitting from the Buffalo Sabres slide

The race for a wild-card spot is going to be tight, and the Montreal Canadiens are getting some help from the Buffalo Sabres in that department.

There were several surprises to the beginning of the 2018/19 NHL season. One of which revolved around the Buffalo Sabres as it looked as if the team’s excruciating rebuild was starting to pay off. By the US Thanksgiving milestone, five of the eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference belonged to Atlantic Division teams with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Sabres in the top three while the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens were in the wild-card spots.

Montreal was overwhelming teams with an annoyingly quick forecheck which garnered a lot of scoring at 5-on-5 while Carey Price, returning to his old self, bailed the team out when in need of a huge save. The standings are a bit different, yet the Habs are still on the light side.

The Lightning and Leafs haven’t changed spots while the Bruins have jumped to third. Pittsburgh battled back from an uncharacteristic start to their season which bumped the bumped the New York Islanders to the wild-card. But the biggest cliff dive belongs to the Sabres.

Going 3-6-1 in their last ten including losses to the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, and St. Louis Blues have Buffalo on the outside looking in. The team was without Jack Eichel for a bit of this but given the Sabres won two of the three games he missed, he can hardly be blamed. Mistakes throughout, especially in the third period, has cost them changing the narrative from an era-defining season to a question of whether they can stay afloat.

For the sake of the Montreal Canadiens and their own battle to return to the post-season, hopefully, it’s the latter.

Montreal may be in a playoff spot, but it’s nowhere close to being locked down. The Sabres are only a point behind the Habs with a game in hand while the Hurricanes are two points away.

From the look of things, the four-way clash for the rest of the season will be between the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, and Carolina Hurricanes.

The Habs won’t be seeing any of them in action until March. Talk about cutting it down to the wire. If the situation in the standings remains the same by then, those games, and most importantly those victories, will be crucial. It also comes down to beating the teams who have no hope of coming back such as Detroit, Florida, and New Jersey.

Getting a win over the Colorado Avalanche was huge and those kind of results are going to go a long way for the Montreal Canadiens. At the same time, the out of town scoreboard will be something to pay attention to. So fasten your seatbelts Habs fans because the next wave of the regular season begins now.