Home isn’t so sweet for Canadiens in 6-1 loss to Sabres

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Buffalo goalie Devon Levi, who grew up in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, will get victory in his first sport at Bell Centre in entrance of household and pals.

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Stu Cowan  •  Montreal Gazette

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It’s too dangerous the Canadiens can’t keep on the highway.

Taking part in their first sport on the Bell Centre since Dec. 16, the Canadiens acquired pounded 6-1 by the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night time.

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Tage Thompson scored twice for the Sabres, whereas Casey Mittelstadt, Jeff Skinner, Jack Quinn and Rasmus Dahlin (empty-netter) added singles.

Joel Armia scored the one objective for the Canadiens short-handed.

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The Canadiens now have a 16-17-5 file. They’re 7-10-2 on the Bell Centre and 9-7-3 on the highway, the place they performed their earlier seven video games over the vacations and went 3-3-1.

The Sabres improved to 16-19-4 and are just one level behind the Canadiens for sixth place within the Atlantic Division. The one staff behind the Canadiens and Sabres is the Ottawa Senators at 14-20-0 after shedding 4-1 to the Kraken Thursday night time in Seattle.

“Dwelling file must be good,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki mentioned after the sport. “We undoubtedly play effectively on the highway, however we acquired to seek out higher methods to win at house. Groups are psyched as much as play right here with the constructing and the group. We undoubtedly need to be higher at house.”

Yep.

The Canadiens additionally need to be higher at penalty-killing.

After a scoreless first interval, Armia appeared to open the scoring at 2:06 of the second interval. However after a coach’s problem video evaluation, the objective didn’t depend due to goaltender interference by Michael Pezzetta.

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The Sabres then took a 2-0 lead when Middlestadt and Skinner scored power-play targets at 5:33 and 6:59 of the second interval. The Sabres got here into the sport ranked twenty ninth within the NHL on the ability play and went 2-for-4 towards the Canadiens, who now rank thirty first in penalty-killing at 72.1 per cent. The Senators are the one staff that’s worse.

“Typically it’s simply particular person errors that form of value us,” Canadiens defenceman David Savard mentioned concerning the PK. “I don’t assume it’s our system or something. I feel we simply acquired to determine a strategy to kill these. All people’s acquired to do their job and we’ll be advantageous if we do this.”

Armia did rating his fifth objective of the season and his second short-handed at 13:19 of the second interval to make the rating 2-1. It was an incredible particular person effort as Armia stole the puck from defenceman Dahlin after which scored on a depraved wrist shot excessive to the glove facet. It was his first level in eight video games.

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The Sabres blew the Canadiens away with 4 unanswered targets within the third interval. With the rating 4-1, Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis pulled goalie Jake Allen for an additional attacker and Dahlin rapidly scored into the empty web with 5:29 left on the clock earlier than Thompson offered the ultimate dagger with 1:28 remaining on a pleasant setup from Skinner.

Skinner completed the sport with a objective and three assists and since becoming a member of the Sabres for the 2018-19 season he has 15-14-29 totals in 16 video games towards the Canadiens. Thompson had an help to go together with his two targets, giving him 7-6-13 totals in 11 video games towards Montreal.

St. Louis summed up the sport very effectively in his post-game information convention when he mentioned: “We had a reasonably good first (interval). That’s about it.”

It was an evening Sabres goalie Devon Levi will always remember. The 22-year-old who grew up in Dollard-des-Ormeaux on Montreal’s West Island and performed midget hockey for the Lac St. Louis Lions earlier than going to Northeastern College, was enjoying his first sport on the Bell Centre in entrance of household and pals and made 32 saves for the win. His childhood idol was Carey Value.

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It was an evening the Canadiens’ Allen wish to neglect, permitting 5 targets on 37 pictures with out getting a lot assist from his teammates. Allen has just one win in his final 10 begins (1-8-1), throughout which the Canadiens have scored 18 targets mixed. Allen’s season file is now 4-8-2 with a 3.52 goals-against common and a .900 save proportion because the Canadiens proceed go to with a crowded three-goalie system, together with Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau.

It was one other robust night time for Canadiens ahead Brendan Gallagher, who had two pictures in 15:32 of ice time and completed with a minus-2 differential. Gallagher has now gone 24 video games with no objective and has solely 4 assists throughout that span with no factors within the final seven video games. He’s additionally a team-worst minus-19. Josh Anderson is second-worst at minus-11.

Suzuki mentioned the Canadiens have been excited to be again house, however it didn’t present on the ice.

“The blokes had excessive vitality earlier than the sport,” the captain mentioned. “We stored it shut, however they pulled away within the third.

“You’re going to have these video games each infrequently through the season,” Suzuki added. “It’s robust to have that occur tonight, however we acquired to bounce again. We acquired an enormous sport subsequent sport towards a very good staff, so we acquired to place that previously.”

The Canadiens shall be again in motion Saturday towards the New York Rangers (7 p.m., SNE, Citytv, TVA Sports activities, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Sadly, it’s on the Bell Centre.

scowan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StuCowan1

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