The Montreal Canadiens suffered a deflating 4-2 loss on Wednesday night to the Buffalo Sabres and will be trying to bounce back on Friday night. If they can return to Montreal with a win, it will be a huge boost for them in this series as they return home.
When looking ahead to the game, it will need to be a collective effort from everyone on the roster to get the win. However, these are three players in particular who are probably feeling a little more pressure to deliver for the Canadiens.
Cole Caufield
The Canadiens' star forward has seemingly been on these lists almost the entire playoffs, as Cole Caufield has struggled to find the scoring touch. During the regular season, it felt like he could score from anywhere on the ice, with 51 goals during the regular season.
Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case in the playoffs, with only one goal through seven games, and that goal came on the power play in Game 4.
One of the notable trends during the playoffs is that not only is Caufield not scoring, but he isn't shooting as much with two or fewer shots on goal in seven of the eight playoff games this season. For the Canadiens, and teammates like Nick Suzuki, the focus should be getting Caufield in some high-danger areas to get shots on goal and hopefully break through with a goal.
It feels like it is only going to take one goal to snap Caufield out of this slump, and once that happens, he will be back to being the player fans saw during the regular season.
Mike Matheson
The Buffalo Sabres' power play has been horrendous going back to the beginning of April, but it found success in Game 1 against the Canadiens. It was the first time they had two power play goals in a game since March 31st.
The power play goals were the deciding factor in Game 1, and the Canadiens can't afford to let that be the case in Game 2. When looking ahead to this game, the pressure seemingly falls on Mike Matheson, who has been a key part of the penalty kill and led the Canadiens with over five minutes of penalty kill ice time in Game 1.
The pressure is certainly on Matheson as he will need to lead the penalty kill unit and make sure the Sabres don't add to their power play goal total in this series.
Jakub Dobes
There is no denying that Jakub Dobes was exceptional in the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning and matched his counterpart, Andrei Vasilevskiy, in terms of performance. However, in Game 1 against the Sabres, Dobes did not look like the same goalie and certainly should raise a little concern for the Canadiens.
One of the reasons that the Canadiens reached this point of the series was the improved performance in the crease, with Dobes being the key driver in that. In seven games against the Lightning, Dobes didn't allow more than three goals in a game while carrying a save percentage of .923.
In Game 1 against the Sabres, Dobes allowed four goals on only 16 shots, with some soft goals that he was not allowing in the series against the Lightning. The worst might have been in the second period with Jordan Greenway shooting a shot from the faceoff circle that Dobes seemed to track, but it bounced off his glove and past him for the goal.
It may not be time to completely panic about the young goalie, but if he struggles again in Game 2, Martin St. Louis might have the tough decision to wrestle with about making a switch in net.
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