The Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres have been under-the-radar rivalries for the Habs since some of their playoff matchups in the 1990s. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and Ottawa Senators rivalries get all the shine, but the Sabres have also constantly been a foe. This season, it continued in one of the most exciting games we've seen when the Canadiens and Sabres battled on Remembrance Day.
The first meeting of the season didn't start as chaotic as it ended. Josh Anderson and Tage Thompson swapped goals in the first period, but the teams had a five-goal second period. Cole Caufield took the lead on the powerplay, but Dylan Cozens and Peyton Krebs took a 3-2 lead. Nick Suzuki then scored two goals in the final minute to put the Habs up 4-3.
The Sabres regained the lead in the third period with two quick goals from Rasmus Dahlin and JJ Peterka, but the Canadiens scored three more unanswered in the second half of the period to take a thrilling 7-5 victory. It was a disastrous day for the Canadiens' goaltenders, as Primeau allowed five goals on 14 shots, then Montembeault stopped just four shots for the win.
The Canadiens hold a slim lead in the record for regulation games but have dropped more when counting overtime and shootout losses. Montreal holds a 148-144-31-9 record all-time, which includes seven playoff matchups. The Canadiens have won four of those playoff series but lost the most recently in the 1998 Conference Semi-Finals.
Canadiens-Sabres Playoff History
The Canadiens and Sabres rivalry was part of the historic 1993 Stanley Cup run for Montreal. Patrick Roy took the hockey world by storm that season with his record-breaking amount of overtime victories, and the Conference semi-finals were no different. Montreal won the first game 4-3, then won Games 2-4 by the same score in overtime. It was one of the closely-contested sweeps in the 1990s.
The 1993 series win was the third consecutive round win for the Canadiens over the Sabres. Montreal also won the 1990 and 1991 series against the Sabres, which were both six-game victories in the first round.