3 takeaways from the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres

The Montreal Canadiens were coming off an exciting seven-game series with the Tampa Bay Lightning and were looking to keep the momentum going against the Buffalo Sabres. Even though the Sabres were the higher seed, the Canadiens have had success against them during the regular season after going 2-2-0 in their four meetings.

Unfortunately, Game 1 did not go their way as the Sabres jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period. Nick Suzuki added a power play goal before the end of the period, but that would be as close as they would get with the Sabres scoring two in the second period to push their lead to 4-1 en route to a 4-2 win to open the series.

These are some of the takeaways from Game 1 for the Montreal Canadiens against the Buffalo Sabres.

Martin St. Louis with some interesting line decisions going into this game

Entering this game, there was somewhat of an expectation that there would be lineup changes, and that certainly happened with Joe Veleno and Arber Xhekaj in for Brendan Gallagher and Jayden Struble.

On the surface, those are logical changes as Gallagher is better suited for a team like the Lightning, and Xhekaj was great prior to Noah Dobson returning and bumping him from the lineup.

Where the surprises came in was that St. Louis elected to break up his best line of the Lightning series in Zachary Bolduc, Alexandre Texier, and Kirby Dach. In Game 1, Bolduc and Dach were with Joe Veleno, while Texier was playing with Phillip Danault and Josh Anderson.

The results were the Veleno line having a Corsi For % of 25% and the Texier line not much better at 46.67% in 5v5 situations, according to Natural Stat Trick.

It would be surprising if St. Louis doesn't go back to the line of Bolduc, Dach and Texier for Game 2.

Kirby Dach with an incredible goal in the second period

Late in the second period, the game already started to feel out of reach as the Sabres had a 4-1 lead at this point. If the Canadiens were going to get back into it, they were going to need a remarkable play to help regain some of the momentum.

Kirby Dach made a play that felt like it could do that on a goal that was 100% effort and one of the top goals of the playoffs.

The play began with Dach bringing the puck into the zone and with a Sabres' defenseman in his feet, shooting from the faceoff dot. Alex Lyon wouldn't be able to control the rebound, and Dach didn't give up on the play with a diving backhand shot that snuck right over Lyon's shoulder for the goal.

Dach now has three goals in his past six games and is making plays regardless of the line he is on.

Rough night for Jakub Dobes

One of the reasons the Canadiens are still playing hockey is because of Jakub Dobes' performance in the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was almost unbeatable and carried the Canadiens at times seemingly by himself.

However, in Game 1, he struggled to see the puck as the Sabres had four goals on only 16 shots and that total could have been higher as Jack Quinn hit the post on three of his shots in this game.

There isn't any reason to panic quite yet, as Dobes was that good in the series against the Lightning. It could have just been a tough night, but he will be under the microscope in Game 2, especially early in the game, to see if he can bounce back.

The Canadiens will be back on ice for Game 2 in Buffalo before the series shifts to Montreal on Sunday for Game 3.

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