Montreal Canadiens Joel Armia Dominates Buffalo Sabres In Overtime Loss

The Montreal Canadiens took on the Buffalo Sabres for the first time this season. It was yet another back and forth battle for the Habs who are becoming the comeback Canadiens.

The Montreal Canadiens took on the Buffalo Sabres in their third contest of the season. The Canadiens first two games delivered plenty of excitement with both games being decided in a shootout. The third game of the season did not put anyone to sleep, either.

The first period started well for the Habs as they were able to hem the Sabres into their own zone for extended periods of time. The Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher line had sustained pressure and so did the Max Domi, Artturi Lehkonen, Nick Suzuki trio. They were not able to take the lead, nor did they even turn the pressure into many scoring chances.

Then, the Canadiens new enforcer apparently, Tomas Tatar was headed to the penalty box for interference. This put him in the team lead in penalty minutes with six in three games. Of course, the Sabres capitalized on their chance, with Victor Olofsson who has been a notable goal scorer as long as Tatar has been an enforcer, beat Keith Kinkaid with a one-timer on the power play to take a 1-0 lead.

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The second half of the first period was the Joel Armia show. A great forecheck while shorthanded (it wasn’t Tatar in the box this time) forced Rasmus Dahlin to turn the puck over just outside his own zone. Nate Thompson grabbed the loose puck and realized the only two Sabres back were forwards Jack Eichel and Olofsson. Olofsson might be a sniper all of a sudden but he is not a Selke candidate. Armia drive behind both of them to the net, was feathered a perfect pass from Thompson and showed some impressive patience to stickhandle around Carter Hutton before tying the game.

The Canadiens were on the power play in the final minute of the period and once again it was Armia who took advantage. This time his pass didn’t come from Thompson. It didn’t come a Montreal Canadiens teammate at all. It was a nice little feed from Sabres defender Rasmus Ristolainen.

Nick Suzuki did disrupt Ristolainen enough behind the net to get an assist on the goal. That assist was the first NHL point awarded too Suzuki. He will score lots of more points in his career and almost all of them will be nicer than the effort he had to give on this one. Thanks Ristolainen!

The second period started the exact same way as the first. Habs dominated possession, created a few chances but didn’t get a lot on net. Then noted enforcer Tomas Tatar headed back to the box and the Sabres scored on the power play. It’s 2019, when are the Canadiens going to stop dressing enforcers like Tatar!?

A notable lineup shuffle occurred in the second period as rookie Nick Suzuki found himself bumped down to the fourth line with Nate Thompson and Paul Byron. Jordan Weal was previously in the spot but was moved up to play on a line with Artturi Lehkonen and Max Domi.

There were not a lot of positives to draw from the rest of the period. Eichel would eventually score again to give the Sabres a lead heading into the third period. At least I have Eichel in my hockey pool, I guess.

For those keeping track at home, the score after two was:

Joel Armia, 2

Team that drafted Joel Armia and then traded him so they could get Evander Kane: 3

The third period started furiously once again for the Canadiens. If you recall the game against the Maple Leafs, it was 3-1 heading into the third period and went to overtime tied at 5. That means a goal was scored every three minutes or so in the third period.

Well, in the first three minutes of last night’s third period, Jeff Skinner sniped a beauty goal after Lehkonen failed to clear the puck out of his zone. Less than a minute after the Sabres went ahead 4-2, Jesperi Kotkaniemi blasted a one-timer past Hutton on a feed from none other than Joel Armia.

The Canadiens kept pressing with Tatar getting two exceptional chances to tie the game but could capitalize and make up for his two foolish penalties from earlier in the game. At least he stayed out of the box for a whole period, I suppose?

No, Tatar couldn’t tie things up but Big Ben Chiarot, one half of the ChiaPet pairing with Jeff Petry was able to notch his first as a Hab. He blasted a point shot through traffic, evading a screened Hutton and knotting things up at four.

Keith Kinkaid made his first start in goal for the Canadiens. He was okay throughout the game, but would definitely want the second Eichel goal back. However, he made an exceptional save on a one-timer by Skinner from in close with just a couple minutes left in regulation.

Phillip Danault took a tripping penalty with just 35 seconds left in regulation time. He’s Tomas Tatar’s linemate, so maybe it was actually noted goon Tomas Tatar who was the guilty party?

The Sabres were not able to capitalize immediately, so for the third time in three games, the Canadiens were off to extra time. After completing a three-goal comeback against the Maple Leafs in the third period, the Canadiens came back from down by two in the final frame to guarantee a 0 stays in the middle of their record.

The Habs killed off the penalty! Technically. About two seconds after Danault stepped out of the box, Marcus Johansson hammered home a one-timer and gave the Sabres the victory.

Hey, the Habs just played three road games, trailed by at least two in all of them and came away with four out of a possible six points. Not too shabby if you ask me.