GDT Montreal Canadiens vs Buffalo Sabres 7:30pm ET 11/8/18

[Andrew Amerk]

Two of the hottest scorers in the NHL will face off when the Montreal Canadiens host the Buffalo Sabres at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Max Domi of the Canadiens and Jeff Skinner of the Sabres each have eight goals since Oct. 20, tying Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks for the most in the league in that span.

Both squads were lottery teams last season, but they found themselves holding down the two wild cards in the Eastern Conference entering games Wednesday. The Canadiens (8-5-2) are in the first wild-card position while the Sabres (7-6-2) were in the second spot.

Both teams are coming off losses to the New York Rangers. Montreal lost 5-3 to the Rangers on Tuesday and Buffalo dropped a 3-1 decision Sunday.

The Canadiens will be looking for forwards Domi and Tomas Tatar to continue to show hot hands. Domi scored his team-leading ninth goal (tied with Brendan Gallagher) while Tatar had two goals, including his first 23 seconds into the game in the loss to the Rangers.

The Canadiens, playing the second half of a back-to-back against the Rangers, couldn't hold a 3-1 lead in the third period at Madison Square Garden.

Domi has already equaled his goal output from last season with the Arizona Coyotes. He was obtained in a trade that sent Alex Galchenyuk to the Coyotes.

Montreal lost forward Joel Armia after a knee-on-knee hit with Rangers defensemen Brendan Smith in the second period Tuesday.

Like the Canadiens with Domi, the Sabres are benefiting from an offseason acquistition with Skinner, obtained in a trade for prospect Cliff Pu and three draft picks from the Carolina Hurricanes. He has scored his eight goals since he was put on a line with Jack Eichel and Jason Pominville.

Skinner got off to a slow start with no points in his first four games, but has been on fire. He has 16 points in his past 11 games.

"The adjustment has gone pretty smoothly here," Skinner told The Buffalo News on Wednesday. "The first three, four games didn't work out the way I wanted them to personally and not as a team, either. But individuals tend to feel their success like the team. All the guys here have been very welcoming and it's been a really smooth transition for me away from the rink as at the rink. And I'm happy we're going pretty well as a team."

Skinner had six 20-goal seasons for the Hurricanes.

"I can't believe how strong he is on his stick and on his feet," Sabres coach Phil Housley said, according to The Buffalo News. "He doesn't get bounced off pucks. The one thing that's intriguing is the way he's stripping pucks from behind. He never dies on a play and is always trying to find a way to get that puck back, whether it's on the forecheck or reloading back into our own zone."

The Sabres have won one of their past five games, a 9-2 blowout of the Ottawa Senators at home on Saturday. They are 1-2-2 in that span.

(Normal GDT rules are suspended for this game, per my call, since it is against the Habs. Prison rules apply today.) 

Edited November 8, 2018 by Andrew Amerk

[IKnowPhysics]

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[WildCard]

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[Andrew Amerk]

11 minutes ago, IKnowPhysics said:

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Mittelstadt 

Ullmark

Skinner

Tage

Wowie

Ichel (sp?)

Nelson 

[Huckleberry]

I don't like we had so much time off , but we better come out flying.

[French Collection]

The Habs are not as good as their record, let's show them.

[LTS]

I'm so glad they are back... I hated waiting to watch the Sabres play.

Here we go now.

[Stoner]

The title should make it clear the game's in Munreal. Otherwise, nice job!

Edited November 8, 2018 by PASabreFan

[Cityo'Rasmii]

Set the tone with a fast start

Let's go Buffalo

[Gatorman0519]

We are certainly a much improved team but not winning enough.  The middle lines need to step up. 

[That Aud Smell]

Let's Go, Buffalo!

3 hours ago, French Collection said:

The Habs are not as good as their record, let's show them.

#7 team in overall Corsi and Fenwick. #21 in PDO. Those numbers tend to suggest that they're a (very) good and somewhat unlucky team.

[LGR4GM]

 

[sabills]

8 hours ago, WildCard said:

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                    M     U      S    T              W    I    N

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And so on and so forth

17 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

 

lol wut

[Marions Piazza]

I saw it reported that Dahlin is on the 3rd pairing with Baloo...i dont get it

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Here we go ...

MUST WIN!!

GO SABRES!!

[Samson's Flow]

I'm not sure - do you guys think we need to win this game?!?

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, Marions Piazza said:

I saw it reported that Dahlin is on the 3rd pairing with Baloo...i dont get it

I wish this promotion/demotion thing would go away.

Rasmus has played much of the past month on the “3rd” pairing with Nelson. He’s never played less than 17:28 in that stretch.

He is averaging 18:11 a game, which is quite a bit considering he doesn’t kill penalties.

 

On a related note, Scandella has picked up his game since being teamed with Bogo. That pair has been pretty reliable and have reduced the need to over-rely on Risto. Risto, unfortunately, hasn’t responded as we might hope.

If he does, Risto/McCabe/Bogosian/Scandella might start to compare nicely with the “two strong second pairs” formula of the McKee/Warrener/Smehlik/Zhitnik and Tallinder/Lydman/McKee/Campbell eras.

Too bad we didn’t have a Numminen/Patrick to go with Dahlin.

Edited November 8, 2018 by dudacek

[CallawaySabres]

It will be Buffalo, Montreal, and Islanders fighting for the 8th spot when all is said and done. They really need to get 2 points tonight and anything less is a failure. It's time for these guys to turn the corner but I have a bad feeling it's going to be a Calgary type game once again.

[woods-racer]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I wish this promotion/demotion thing would go away.

Rasmus has played much of the past month on the “3rd” pairing with Nelson. He’s never played less than 17:28 in that stretch.

He is averaging 18:11 a game, which is quite bit considering he doesn’t kill penalties.

 

On a related note, Scandella has picked up his game since being teamed with Bogo. That pair has been pretty reliable and have reduced the need to over-rely on Risto. Risto, unfortunately, hasn’t responded as we might hope.

If he does, Risto/McCabe/Bogosian/Scandella might start to compare nicely with the “two strong second pairs” formula of the McKee/Warrener/Smehlik/Zhitnik and Tallinder/Lydman/McKee/Campbell eras.

Too bad we didn’t have a Numminen/Patrick to go with Dahlin.

To the bold.

Very true. His partners have been a set back I believe more than a crutch to his development .

[Mustache of God]

This game is a true test of the team tonight. A divisional rival who hold the wildcard spot above ours? They've had a million days off, they better come out flying. 

I'm hoping this team can hold down a wild card spot through the first half of the season. Then Reinhart activates and we push into the top 3 teams in the division.

[grinreaper]

A little humor from the linked article (I guess it's the Derek Roy affect):

 

The striker now touches wood for the rest of his career and wants above all to stay healthy.This Thursday, Pominville and the Sabers will face the Canadiens in Montreal for a meeting that is always so special for the principal.

 

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.rds.ca/hockey/lnh/antichambre-l-experience-payante-de-jason-pominville-1.6452024

[dudacek]

30 minutes ago, woods-racer said:

To the bold.

Very true. His partners have been a set back I believe more than a crutch to his development .

I don’t think Dahlin’s partners have had much of an effect on his personal development.

My point with Patrick and particularly Numminen was that those guys were good. Adding a player like that with Rasmus would conceivably give us three strong, balanced pairings, all capable of tough minutes.

Related, it’s time for the kid to start pushing the envelope offensively and for his teammates to start looking for him more. Loved the stick-banging for the puck in New York.

Edited November 8, 2018 by dudacek

[woods-racer]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I don’t think Dahlin’s partners have had much of an effect on his personal development.

My point with Patrick and particularly Numminen was that those guys were good. Adding a player like that with Rasmus would conceivably give us three strong, balanced pairings, all capable of tough minutes.

Related, it’s time for the kid to start pushing the envelope offensively and for his teammates to start looking for him more. Loved the stick-banging for the puck in New York.

Not in the long run, his talent will come through no matter who he plays with.

But, he has played with marginal NHL caliper players for the majority of his time on the ice (Nelson, Baloo). Patrick and Numminen where good, I assumed though you meant as they aged and had lost a *step* would be very beneficial to a young player for their ability as an on ice coach more than their on ice performance.

Having Patrick and/or Numminen in their prime would lift any of our 3rd pairing defensemen, let alone Dahlin.

[WildCard]

 

[Brawndo]

EROD moved to Center?