{"id":571720,"date":"2026-05-10T18:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/571720\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T18:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:51:15","slug":"canadiens-preview-golden-opportunity-in-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/571720\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Preview: Golden Opportunity In Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> (5-4) will face the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> (5-3) in Game 3 of their second-round series on Sunday, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.<\/p>\n

The Habs dropped the first game of the series, but the scoreline was a flattering towards the Sabres, who were outshot by Martin St-Louis<\/a>\u2019 team by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

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The numbers suggested Montreal<\/a> would be in a great position to bounce back in Game 2, and though underlying statistics don\u2019t always reveal the future, in this case, it was an accurate prediction.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens started Game 2 with the type of intensity that was absent from most first periods throughout the year, powered by an impressive two-goal effort from Newfoundlander Alex Newhook<\/a>. It took them roughly one minute to establish a lead, and they never looked back, emerging from Buffalo with a 5-1 win, and a tied series.<\/p>\n

Simply put, the momentum is now firmly in the Canadiens\u2019 corner, especially now that the series has made its way to Montreal, where the Bell Centre faithful serve as the ultimate motivator.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019ll need it, given the play of the first line.<\/p>\n

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Nick Suzuki<\/a> continues to produce, as per tradition, but the offence from the other top forwards on the team, Cole Caufield<\/a> and Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a>, has slowed to a trickle. Caufield has not registered a point since April 26, versus the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>, whereas Slafkovsky has only offered one assist since his playoff-opening hat-trick on April 19.<\/p>\n

This would usually be a recipe for disaster, but Montreal\u2019s depth has done a borderline miraculous job of providing offence when the team needs it most.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s Newhook, Kirby Dach<\/a>, Alexandre Texier<\/a>, Zachary Bolduc<\/a>, or Josh Anderson<\/a>, among others, there always seems to be one player willing to carry the torch while the first line attempts to find its rhythm.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is not a sustainable situation, but if Caufield and Slafkovsky do return to their scoring ways, having primary, secondary, and tertiary scoring available would be a game changer for the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

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Potential Lineup Changes<\/p>\n

St-Louis does not like changing his lineup after a win, therefore we can assume the lines and defensive pairing will remain intact.<\/p>\n

If the team does announce any changes, we will update the article with the accurate information.<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup<\/p>\n

Cole Caufield<\/a> \u2013 Nick Suzuki<\/a> \u2013 Juraj Slafkovsky<\/p>\n

Alex Newhook \u2013 Jake Evans<\/a> \u2013 Ivan Demidov<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexandre Texier \u2013 Phillip Danault<\/a> \u2013 Josh Anderson<\/p>\n

Zachary Bolduc \u2013 Kirby Dach \u2014 Joe Veleno<\/a><\/p>\n

Mike Matheson<\/a> \u2013 Alexandre Carrier<\/a><\/p>\n

Kaiden Guhle<\/a> \u2013 Lane Hutson<\/a><\/p>\n

Arber Xhekaj<\/a> \u2013 Noah Dobson<\/a><\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes<\/a><\/p>\n

Jacob Fowler<\/a><\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres Projected Lineup<\/p>\n

Peyton Krebs<\/a> \u2013 Tage Thompson<\/a> \u2013 Alex Tuch<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jason Zucker<\/a> \u2013 Ryan McLeod<\/a> \u2013 Jack Quinn<\/a><\/p>\n

Zach Benson<\/a> \u2013 Josh Norris<\/a> \u2013 Josh Doan<\/a><\/p>\n

Jordan Greenway<\/a> \u2013 Tyson Kozak<\/a> \u2013 Beck Malenstyn<\/a><\/p>\n

Rasmus Dahlin<\/a> \u2013 Mattias Samuelsson<\/a><\/p>\n

Bowen Byram<\/a> \u2013 Owen Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Stanley<\/a> \u2013 Connor Timmins<\/p>\n

Alex Lyon<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/a><\/p>\n

How To Watch The Habs Vs. The Sabres<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens versus the Buffalo Sabres, Sunday, May 10, 2026, will be aired<\/a> on CBC, Sportsnet, and TVA Sports. An instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Sportsnaut<\/a> as soon as the final whistle blows.<\/p>\n

Additional NHL Playoff Analysis<\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens (5-4) will face the Buffalo Sabres (5-3) in Game 3 of their second-round series on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[4114,633,6452,1603,2002,407,11080,2031,1107,229,5133,971,5,638,4022,3567,639,909,11079,4528,11074,783,3663,5345,976,1748,4687,502,4492,412,3034,1192,21,4,975,778,810,11077,1808,4011,4466,1108,1712,92,11078,7800,4023,1484],"class_list":["post-571720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-buffalo-sabres","tag-alex-lyon","tag-alex-newhook","tag-alex-tuch","tag-alexandre-carrier","tag-alexandre-texier","tag-arber-xhekaj","tag-beck-malenstyn","tag-bowen-byram","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-buffalosabres","tag-cole-caufield","tag-hockey","tag-ivan-demidov","tag-jack-quinn","tag-jacob-fowler","tag-jake-evans","tag-jakub-dobes","tag-jason-zucker","tag-joe-veleno","tag-jordan-greenway","tag-josh-anderson","tag-josh-doan","tag-josh-norris","tag-juraj-slafkovsky","tag-kaiden-guhle","tag-kirby-dach","tag-lane-hutson","tag-logan-stanley","tag-martin-st-louis","tag-mattias-samuelsson","tag-mike-matheson","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-nick-suzuki","tag-noah-dobson","tag-owen-power","tag-peyton-krebs","tag-phillip-danault","tag-rasmus-dahlin","tag-ryan-mcleod","tag-sabres","tag-tage-thompson","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tyson-kozak","tag-ukko-pekka-luukkonen","tag-zach-benson","tag-zachary-bolduc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571720","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=571720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}