For the second time in five days, the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens went to overtime at the Bell Centre, and for the second time, the Canadiens won it. Cole Caufield with an absolute stunner of a shot upstairs on a breakaway led the Canadiens to a 4-3 win.
Wilde Horses
It was the first game of the season for Oliver Kapanen. He looked solid. The last time Kapanen looked as talented as he did on Saturday was about game 60 last season, before he hit the wall for the rest of the season and the playoffs.
Kapanen had that trademark intelligence. He was on a two-on-one looking confident with Kirby Dach. With Kapanen, Dach looked good for the first time this season.
If Kapanen finds his better game, it would be a giant boost for the Canadiens who are looking for a 12th forward that doesn’t bring the team down. Another night and another goal for Bolduc. On the power play, it was Bolduc in the bumper position, and he deflected a point shot from Nick Suzuki for a tally.
The top line was in outstanding form. They scored on strong work from the first-forechecker Juraj Slafkovsky. He managed to get behind the net right after the defender on the dump-in. He chipped it to Cold Caufield who scored his fourth goal of the season. Once again, it was from an angle most players wouldn’t even attempt to shoot.
Even after a 51-goal season, goalies still aren’t prepared for Caufield to shoot from anywhere. Caufield understands that he’s got a great chance when the goalie isn’t prepared. He’s pretty good, too, when they are prepared.
Caufield won it on a breakaway away from centre in overtime. He looked shot all the way and sniped it so quickly in and out of the top corner, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen didn’t even move.
The Suzuki line had its best contest of the season. The Expected Goals total was stunning. They had a 99.3 per cent share. Suzuki is one of the best players in this league. It’s a rare night that he is outdone by his opposite, even though he faces the best centres in hockey.
Get daily National news
Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.
Injuries are always bad, there’s no argument to that, but, strangely, injuries can also lead to some accidental discoveries. The day-to-day injury of Mike Matheson has led to the returning Kaiden Guhle lining up with Alexandre Carrier.
The result is both of these defenders are playing their best hockey. They look right together. They compliment each other. They understand each other. They have great chemistry. Midweek, Guhle played 25:25 in one of this highest ice times on record for a game.
He was the game’s first star. Guhle has returned to action looking like he didn’t have surgery at all; nor miss training camp. With Carrier, they dominate the game. They rarely get into trouble. Carrier doesn’t get hit as much either.
Their best moment of the night was on the penalty kill in a tied game with one minute remaining. Both boxed out beautifully to keep the shots to the outside. They are becoming a shutdown pair.
Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson also look good together. Both pairs had a 60 per cent share in Expected Goals.
The only reason the Canadiens have these two outstanding pairs going right now is the Canadiens were destroyed by the Carolina Hurricanes when Dobson and Matheson were together. It was that awful night that was step one in this positive change.
Wilde Goats
It’s been interesting to watch the Canadiens try to bring another defender into the fold since trading Jayden Struble. It has not gone as well as planned. The Canadiens felt that they could trade Struble because Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher are ready to go.
Engstrom auditioned first, and he was abysmal. In one contest, two goals went off his body when he wasn’t boxing out, and he had very little awareness of the danger. Engstrom continued to make terrible decisions when he had plenty of time and space.
Saturday night, they tried Reinbacher. He was a mess on the first Sabres goal. He retrieved the puck just inside his own blue line. He felt so panicky he threw the puck up ice only about ten feet, without looking who happened to be there. Sadly, for Reinbacher, it was two Sabres.
Buffalo, immediately, came back on the counter-attack, and the Canadiens were caught believing they had possession. Reinbacher then compounded the first error by making another one just as bad.
He didn’t take his man at all, basically, standing in front of the net by himself looking around. The result was a Josh Norris goal. Reinbacher is a much better player than this, but he was anxious, and his decision making completely left him.
The rest of the evening Reinbacher was acceptable, and the coaching staff thought he was reliable enough because with five minutes left, in a 3-3 game, Reinbacher was on the ice. That’s as big a vote of confidence that a player in his first game at home in the NHL can get.
Wilde Cards
It hasn’t been a great start to the season for Montreal. They are near the bottom of the standings in the Atlantic Division. However, they shouldn’t fret. Underneath the surface, the Canadiens have metrics that show they are playing extremely well.
Using analytics, such as Corsi and Expected Goals, the tale of the tape is excellent. The Canadiens made the playoffs the last two seasons with shockingly bad Corsi. They were 28th in 2025 and 23rd in 2026. They made the playoffs on the back of good goaltending.
This season, it’s the complete opposite. The Canadiens are one of the best teams in the league in advanced metrics. They have won the Corsi and Expected Goals battle all season long, except in the Carolina Hurricanes game when they were dominated.
Overall, Montreal this year is fifth in Corsi. The Canadiens are playing more in the other team’s end than they have in a decade and a half. The longer the season goes, the more this statistic matters. The last three winners of the cup were first, fourth, and second in Corsi.
The issue is goaltending where the Canadiens have had a terrible time so far. Montreal is 29th of 32 teams in Goals Saved Above Expected this season. Jakub Dobes will find his game. When he does, the excellence in Corsi will show up as wins on the scoreboard.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sportswriter, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
