Sabres Turn Power Play Problems Into Canadiens’ Nightmare

The Buffalo Sabres spent weeks dragging around a powerless power play — then turned it into the defining storyline of Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens.

Buffalo’s 4-2 win Wednesday night at KeyBank Center was about control. The Sabres dictated the pace early, forced Montreal into undisciplined mistakes, and punished the Canadiens every time the game tilted toward special teams.

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After entering the second round buried under criticism for a power play that had gone ice cold late in the regular season and through much of the first round, Buffalo suddenly looked dangerous again with the extra attacker — and that completely changed the tone of the series opener.

Montreal never looked fully settled in the opening period, and a large part of that came from the Canadiens repeatedly putting themselves on the wrong side of the whistle. Buffalo attacked with speed off the rush, pressured Montreal’s defense into hurried decisions, and capitalized on loose puck battles that forced the Canadiens into scrambling situations.

The Sabres quickly made those mistakes costly.

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Josh Doan opened the scoring early in the first period, giving Buffalo immediate momentum before the Canadiens had a chance to establish any structure. From there, the game began tilting heavily toward special teams. Ryan McLeod doubled Buffalo’s lead on the power play midway through the opening frame, finishing off a sequence that showcased far better puck retrievals and cleaner movement than the Sabres had shown at any point late in the Boston series.

Instead of overhandling pucks along the perimeter or settling for one-and-done possessions, Buffalo attacked decisively. The Sabres won loose pucks, created second opportunities, and finally looked confident operating with space.

As Josh Doan put it afterward, “it was hit-or-miss throughout the end of year,” but Buffalo emphasized recovering pucks and avoiding “one-and-dones” on the power play — something the Sabres…