Canadiens beat Sabres 7-2 to improve to 8-0

Price has started seven of Montreal’s opening nine games, posting a 7-0-0 record (1.29 GAA, .961 SV%, 2 SO) to equal the longest personal winning streak of his career last accomplished from November 19 – December. 7, 2013. They weren’t just winning at that point, they were demolishing teams, winning six games by at least three goals, including a 9-2 blowout of a New York Rangers team that went on to play in the Stanley Cup Final that year. But when asked how he saw Pacioretty’s goal, the Leafs goaltender bristled and said, “I got a piece of it”. “It’s great to have eight wins, but tomorrow is another challenge”.

The Canadiens are a victory away from tying the National Hockey League record set by Toronto in 1993-94 and matched by Buffalo in 2006-07. Maybe you put them in a situation where you have a couple of veteran players with each guy. Mike Condon made 34 saves, and P.K. Subban and Tomas Plekanec each had three assists.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Adam Henrique scored twice and added an assist and the New Jersey Devils won their fourth straight with a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. But 7-0 with a goal differential of +16 – half of what they generated over 82 games previous year? Early in the game, they looked to be the best match against the speedy Buffalo youth, so I’m not sure what the thinking was there. Despite his remarkable ability to inspire disdain in even (perhaps especially) his teams’ most die-hard fans, with the exception of his 2012-13 campaign (when he still managed a point per game), almost every team Semin’s ever played for had a better SAT%, SCF% and HDSCF% with him on the ice than without.

Montreal won for first time in four tries against Buffalo dating to November 28, 2014.

Montreal Canadiens’ Alexei Emelin, left, collides with Toronto… Subban and Weise worked a 2-on-1 against Jake McCabe that ended with Weise’s one-timer past Johnson. Meaning that they’re getting excellent goaltending, and are either very lucky with their shots or are just getting very good scoring chances. The Habs now find themselves with a 22.9 power-play conversion rate, good for eighth in the National Hockey League. Trading players like Joffrey Lupul, James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak, Dion Phaneuf or goalies James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier could result in valuable additions to a championship roster. Jonathan Bernier, too, was still smarting that the puck didn’t ping off his shoulder, instead rolling off it and into the back of the net.

The Sabres got on the board off a no-look backhand pass from Sam Reinhart. There hasn’t been much of a mix up with the lines, they’re taking more shots, putting more pucks on net, and are becoming a faster team.

Less than a minute into overtime, Kessel took the puck toward the Nashville net on the left side. “It’s nice, but we feel like our game the past few games has maybe been slipping a little bit and we’ve got to get back on track with dominating the possession game”, said captain Max Pacioretty. “You can just see the improvements they’ve made from a year ago”.

As it turns out, the Canadiens didn’t just fail to generate shot attempts, they also failed to generate quality shot attempts.

In back-to-back starts to open the season, Bernier both times was beaten on the first shot he faced.

Blue Jackets 4, Avalanche 3: Ryan Murray and Brandon Dubinsky scored goals early in the third period, and Columbus earned its first win in nine games.

Wingers Brad Richardson and Mikkel Boedker scored third-period goals 1:18 apart to send the Senators to their fourth straight loss.