MONTREAL — This felt ominous for the Montreal Canadiens as soon as Juraj Slafkovsky lost his balance and went crashing into the boards in the neutral zone in the 18th second of play.
It felt disastrous for them by the time they were pulling a fourth unanswered goal out of Jakub Dobes’ net with 7:01 to go in the second period.
Everything that happened in between Rasmus Dahlin’s game-opening goal — which came 14 seconds after Slafkovsky took a header at the red line — and Konsta Helenius’ backbreaking one to make it 5-3 Buffalo Sabres will either fuel nightmares or resolve for the Canadiens, and we won’t find out what the true effect was until Monday’s Game 7 is well underway.
But the Canadiens blew Game 6.
They had the Sabres pinned to the canvas and allowed them to kick out of the three-count before quickly submitting to a rollover.
“We didn’t play a good game,” Martin St. Louis said more than three times after the Canadiens erased Dahlin’s opening marker with three goals on four shots to chase goaltender Alex Lyon 10:14 into the first only to lose 8-3 with Dobes watching the final 10:03 from the bench.
Captain Nick Suzuki more candidly referred to it as “probably the worst” game the Canadiens have played of their 13 in these playoffs and couldn’t quite conjure a logical explanation for it.
And even if Suzuki could, it wouldn’t have any bearing on what comes next for him and his teammates.
“I feel like we’ve been good at bouncing forward,” said St. Louis, “and that’s what we intend to do.”
The coach was asked by The Athletic’s Arpon Basu for the origins of that expression and intimated he coined it himself.
“I just feel (with the expression) ‘bounce back,’ you come back to where you were,” St. Louis explained. “(With) ‘bounce forward,’ you’re actually (going) further than where you were. Physics.”
When you think of the type of perspective the Canadiens must have to make Monday’s game their 11th straight successful response to a loss, that’s it in a nutshell.
Playing as well as they had through the first five games might not be enough against a galvanized Sabres team that extended its ninth life on Saturday. And as St. Louis would say, playing even better wouldn’t guarantee anything, either, though it would dramatically raise the Canadiens’ percentages.
Playing like they did on Saturday would give them no chance at all.
Slafkovsky’s opening sequence was more than just ominous; it was emblematic of their performance. It only started with that crash into the boards. It was followed by his failed clearing attempt after the Sabres gained the offensive zone and finished by his bite on Dahlin’s fake before the puck went off Alex Carrier’s stick and into the net.
The Canadiens still got three quick goals from Arber Xhekaj, Ivan Demidov and Jake Evans to seize momentum.
But Mike Matheson took a four-minute penalty less than two minutes after Lyon gave way to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and everything devolved from there.
“It wasn’t long we were in control,” said St. Louis.
But the Canadiens still had a one-goal lead going into the first intermission.
To see Zach Benson erase it exactly one minute into the second period was to know this wasn’t going to end well for the Canadiens.
By the time Helenius made it 5-3 Sabres — just 1:05 after Jack Quinn made it 4-3 on the power play — it was all but confirmed Buffalo was regaining home-ice advantage.
You can’t help but wonder if they’d give it back if they could.
They’re 5-1 on the road and 2-4 at KeyBank Center in these playoffs, and now they’re tasked with keeping the Canadiens from getting to 6-2 on the road after falling to 2-4 at Bell Centre.
The motivation for Montreal goes beyond just survival — and a chance to play the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.
“We can’t let that be our last game here,” said Suzuki, “so we’ve got to do everything we can to forget about it and be ready for Game 7.”
The Canadiens did that in Round 1 versus the Tampa Bay Lightning, with the only difference being they played their best in a 1-0 loss in Game 6 before playing nearly as bad as they did on Saturday in Game 7 at Benchmark International Arena.
“We definitely expect more from us for this Game 7,” said Lane Hutson. “The way we played in that one probably won’t advance us, but we’re excited to show what we can do.”
The Sabres showed what they could do after a similarly bad performance in Game 5 to the one the Canadiens had on this night.
Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, who are Buffalo’s best players, were arguably their worst players this past Thursday.
But they bounced forward with nine points between them Saturday.
Suzuki and Cole Caufield weren’t quite as bad as Slafkovsky was on Saturday, but all three carried the Canadiens this season and will need to be at their best to save it Monday.
Dobes has followed every bounce backwards with one forward, including in Game 5, when he allowed goals on three of the Sabres first four shots before stopping 31 consecutive shots. Prior to that, he erased four playoff losses with wins, posting a 1.49 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage in those games.
A new opportunity awaits the Canadiens’ goaltender and his teammates.
Between now and then, the main goal will be, as Hutson put it, “to flush (Game 6), dig deep and play for each other, and have another chance at playing at home in front of these fans.”
