3 Keys to Sabres Forcing Game 7 Against Canadiens

After breaking their playoff drought, winning the Atlantic Division, and defeating the Boston Bruins in six games in Round 1, the Buffalo Sabres now find themselves down 3–2 in the second round against the Montreal Canadiens, and one loss away from falling short of the Eastern Conference Final.

The Sabres have their backs against the wall and need to win two straight in order to move on, something they’ve managed to do multiple times throughout the season. Here are three keys the Sabres need to execute in order to force a Game 7 against the Canadiens.

Stars Need to Show Up. Period.

The players who absolutely need to show up in Game 6 are the stars. The Sabres need Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, and Rasmus Dahlin to play pivotal roles. You could even include Bowen Byram in that group, as he hasn’t looked great through the first five games of the series.

Thompson and Tuch are a combined minus-17 through five games, and both are a major reason the Canadiens hold the series lead heading into Game 6, and they just simply have to be better.

Starting with Tuch: they need significantly more from him. All of the following analytics are from Natural Stat Trick. He has yet to record an expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) above 50% in the series and sits at 97 chances for (CF) and 97 chances against (CA) when he’s on the ice, not exactly a recipe for success. On top of that, he hasn’t recorded a single point in the series. He hasn’t been the effective forechecker he was all season and hasn’t made his mark on games the way he did in Round 1. The Sabres need him to find another gear if they want to force a Game 7.

As for Thompson, he hasn’t been as poor as Tuch, but the two‑way game he thrived on during the regular season has slipped in this series. He has 105 CF compared to 84 CA, which is a much better ratio, but you’d still like to see the chances against come down. He’s had an up‑and‑down series with two goals and two assists, but fans are wondering when the regular‑season version of Thompson will show up. Game 6 is the perfect opportunity.

At the end of the day, the team will only go as far as their stars take them. Even with Josh Doan, Zach Benson, and Owen Power, among others, playing exceptional hockey, the players who truly change the trajectory of a series are the stars. The Sabres need them to make a statement in Game 6 to force a Game 7.

Remember Game 1 of Round 1, when the Sabres were down 2–0 with eight minutes left, and Thompson put the team on his back and carried them to a comeback win? That’s the Thompson the Sabres need the rest of the way.

Dahlin has had an up‑and‑down series as well, some strong plays mixed with some questionable penalties. Byram, on the other hand, has been the complete opposite of his Round 1 performance, where he looked like a man on a mission. He scored in three straight games in the first round, but in Round 2, he’s done little besides take penalties.

Limit Turnovers and Defensive Breakdowns In Own Zone

The Sabres have had a rough series in their own zone against the Canadiens. There have been far too many turnovers, too much space given to Montreal’s forwards, and too many situations where the goaltenders have been left out to dry.

A couple of plays from Game 5 stand out, most notably when Conor Timmins had the puck behind his own goal line and attempted to drop it into the middle for Josh Norris. The pass was behind Norris; he couldn’t corral it, and the Canadiens scored immediately afterward.

Plays like that simply cannot happen. Giving the Canadiens life, especially while leading, is how you lose games, and ultimately, how you lose a series. If the Sabres want to force a Game 7, they must clean up their defensive play.

And it’s not just one or two players. It’s most of the team. You can exclude guys like Doan, Benson, Power, Mattias Samuelsson, and even Peyton Krebs, but beyond that, the group has been sub‑par.

Whether it’s poor backchecking, blown assignments, or three players chasing the puck carrier and leaving someone wide open, the mistakes have been far too frequent. These are simple, correctable issues, but they need to be fixed immediately.

Lindy Ruff Needs to Outcoach Martin St. Louis

One of the most overlooked aspects of playoff hockey is coaching. Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis has outcoached Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff through the first five games of the series, and that absolutely needs to change.

A perfect example came during the ten‑minute review of a Sabres goal in Game 4. St. Louis essentially used the stoppage as a timeout, giving Montreal a chance to regroup and reset. It worked. Up to that point, the Sabres were controlling play, but once the review ended and the goal was overturned, the Canadiens took over for most of the first and second periods.

Ruff also has the option to shake up the lines, because outside of one or two combinations, things simply haven’t worked. The top line of Krebs–Thompson–Tuch has struggled badly and likely needs to be broken up. Unless Ruff believes the strong play of the Jason Zucker–Konsta Helenius–Jack Quinn line and the Benson–Norris–Doan line is enough reason to keep the top unit together, a change feels necessary.

A quote from Ruff after their 6-3 Game 5 loss also stood out: “There are too many distractions on home ice.” That’s a concerning admission. It suggests the team isn’t mentally prepared to play at home, and their playoff record at KeyBank Center backs that up, with only two home wins so far.

If the Sabres execute these three keys, I genuinely believe this series will return to Buffalo for a Game 7 on Monday night. But first, they face a massive challenge: taking care of business in a hostile Bell Centre on Saturday night.