MONTREAL \u2014 The Montreal Canadiens\u2019 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night can easily be broken down into two distinct parts.<\/p>\n
First came the game\u2019s opening period, which saw Buffalo storm out to a 2-0 lead, including a goal in the game\u2019s first minute and another coming with Montreal playing with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe didn\u2019t do a good enough job forechecking through the neutral zone,\u201d said Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki. \u201cWe gave up a lot of odd-man rushes, a 2-on-1 to start the game. That can\u2019t happen. It was more so on us than whatever they were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I hated about our game was our forechecking in the first,\u201d added Montreal head coach Martin St. Louis. \u201cIt hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adjustments were admittedly made between the first and second periods, which flipped the proverbial switch for Montreal.<\/p>\n
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Despite giving up a goal to Zach Benson 2:25 into the second period, Montreal dominated possession throughout the middle frame, outshooting the Sabres 15-3.<\/p>\n
Montreal would be rewarded with a pair of goals, Suzuki first feeding linemate Cole Caufield for a one-timer to cut the deficit to two.<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s captain scored a goal of his own later in the period, converting on a Zachary Bolduc rebound to bring the team even closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just started defending them a lot better,\u201d said Suzuki. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame that it took us to get down 3-0 to start doing that. It\u2019s a big part of the reason we lost. I thought after they scored their third goal, we pretty much carried the play and could have tied it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Nevertheless, although the Canadiens outshot the Sabres 34-17 on the night, that game-tying goal never came. This was much to the chagrin of Montreal\u2019s Phillip Danault, who felt his team deserved at least one point for their effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game is getting tighter,\u201d said Danault. \u201cEveryone\u2019s pushing for a playoff spot. It won\u2019t be easy. It will always be a good challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the loss, their second in regulation time to Buffalo in a span of eight days, Montreal\u2019s lead over the Sabres in the Atlantic Division can best be described as tenuous.<\/p>\n
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Buffalo now sits just two points back of Montreal for third place in the division, with Buffalo still holding one game in hand on their cross-border rivals.<\/p>\n
With the teams set to meet one final time this season on Jan. 31 in Buffalo, the Canadiens, to a man, understand they\u2019ll need to play a certain style of play to come out on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to be calculating in how you forecheck them,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cYou look at who beat them (in regulation), I think, the last two times: Florida and Carolina. Florida forechecks hard, Carolina plays man-on-man.<\/p>\n
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“You can\u2019t forecheck space against that team. As soon as you double up in space, you\u2019re going to get eaten alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jordan Stoopler, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 The Montreal Canadiens\u2019 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night can easily be broken down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[229,52687,265,971,62,5,412,264,21,5147,4,975,1808,534,4023,1484],"class_list":{"0":"post-423474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-buffalo-storm","10":"tag-canadiens","11":"tag-cole-caufield","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-martin-st-louis","15":"tag-montreal","16":"tag-montreal-canadiens","17":"tag-montrealcanadiens","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-nick-suzuki","20":"tag-phillip-danault","21":"tag-st-louis","22":"tag-zach-benson","23":"tag-zachary-bolduc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115944173293361169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}