The Montreal Canadiens once again find themselves in a series tied at two and heading on the road for Game 5. In the first playoff series, the Canadiens dropped Game 4 to the Lightning and had to head to Tampa Bay for Game 5, and would end up with a big win to take a 3-2 series lead.
They will be looking to get another 3-2 series lead on Thursday night after losing 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres on home ice in Game 4. When looking ahead to the game against the Sabres, these are some of the questions that the Canadiens will be wrestling with.
Will Jakub Dobes let the flukey goal rattle him?
Jakub Dobes has been excellent in these playoffs and delivered stellar performances when the Canadiens have needed it. He had a shutout over three periods in Game 6 against the Lightning before they lost in overtime and stopped 28 of 29 shots in a pivotal Game 7 to win the series.
On Tuesday night, Dobes looked a little shaky for most of the night, and it only got worse after he let a one-in-a-million goal get behind him. The play occurred in the second period, where Tage Thompson went to dump the puck in during a power play. However, the puck hit a weird part of the glass and would bounce towards Dobes and go in behind him for the goal.
The Canadiens are going to need Dobes to bounce back, as the Sabres likely are going to try to press him early. It will be interesting to see if he can settle in and get back to playing excellent hockey like he showed at times in the playoffs.
Can the Canadiens penalty kill shut down the Sabres?
It is hard to believe that this is even a question, as the Buffalo Sabres' power play was horrible up to this series. However, they are now 5-of-16 in four games (although one was that flukey goal by Tage Thompson), but the power play goals in Game 1 and Game 4 ultimately were the deciding factor in the outcome and gave the Sabres their two wins.
In Game 5, the pressure will really be on Mike Matheson as he is a key part of their penalty kill. In the last game, he would play almost four minutes of short-handed ice time and was on the ice for both power play goals by the Sabres.
Is it time for Brendan Gallagher to return to the lineup?
The Canadiens' fourth line of Kirby Dach, Joe Veleno, and Zachary Bolduc really struggled against the Sabres in Game 4. According to Natural Stat Trick, this line had a Corsi For % of 33.3% and was on the ice for the only 5v5 goal the Sabres had in the game, and did all of that in less than four minutes of ice time.
Similar to the last series against the Lightning, Martin St. Louis might want to turn to a veteran to help turn things around in Brendan Gallagher. The forward would be a healthy scratch for the first four games against the Lightning, and returned in Game 5 and immediately made an impact with a goal.
He would play the final three games of that series before being replaced by Veleno at the beginning of the Sabres series. It is a move that worked once before and the Canadiens' head coach might want to try it again.
Can Alex Newhook extend his goal streak to four games?
Alex Newhook has arguably been the Canadiens' best player in this series against the Buffalo Sabres, as he has had a goal in the past three games after scoring one in Game 4. At a time when the Canadiens have not gotten much from players like Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky in 5v5 situations, Newhook has picked up the scoring slack.
If Newhook does score again tonight, he will be the 25th Montreal Canadiens player to have a goal streak in the playoffs of four or more games. He will be the first player since Alex Kovalev to reach this mark when he scored a goal in four straight games during the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canadiens suffered a frustrating loss in Game 4 but with a win on Thursday night, they have a chance to clinch the series in front of their fans on Saturday night in Game 6.
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