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<\/p>\nWith an average age of 25.8, Montreal could become the youngest team in 33 years to advance to the third round.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obstacles in life come at different times, and for us right now, it just came in the last 24 hours and (we) got to find a way to bounce forward,\u201d St. Louis said Sunday at Montreal Metropolitan Airport before the Canadiens took flight to Western New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be strong mentally, you have to have a short memory on that side, you need to understand why we didn\u2019t have a good game and you have to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadiens have shown that ability throughout the past two months. Montreal has yet to lose consecutive games this post-season, and hasn\u2019t dropped two straight contests since mid-March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can for sure lean on (that),\u201d captain Nick Suzuki said post-game. \u201cWe\u2019re a team that is really resilient. We\u2019ve been in this situation already in the first round, so we have experience, and we just got to win one game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillip Danault said the pain from Montreal\u2019s Game 6 collapse, a wild game that saw both teams switch goalies, still lingered when he woke up Sunday.<\/p>\n
But the veteran centre\u2019s focus quickly shifted to matching the Sabres\u2019 desperation in Game 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery loss is hard to sleep on,\u201d he said. \u201cThis morning you wake up and that one stings a little bit more, but sometimes it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be our best game by far of the two series combined,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s our turn to be desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing Game 7 on the road may actually work in Montreal\u2019s favour in this series, especially after Suzuki admitted that players were overcomplicating things to impress the home crowd.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens have a 5-2 record on the road this post-season, compared to 2-4 at the Bell Centre. The Sabres, meanwhile, are 5-1 as visitors and 2-4 in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
Asked about the apparent home-ice disadvantage after Game 6, coach Lindy Ruff joked the Sabres were \u201cin the process of seeing if we can play (in Montreal) on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruff later said the Sabres would change their routine in Buffalo. One possibility? Staying at a hotel rather than returning home, to make the situation feel like a road game. He added it\u2019s unlikely his team would skate between games \u2014 a winning formula in Game 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go into Game 7 \u2014 just like I said for Game 6 \u2014 elimination game, there\u2019s a lot of pressure. They feel it,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI\u2019m gonna say 90 per cent chance you won\u2019t see us at the rink for the next day and a half, until game time.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Louis, meanwhile, wouldn\u2019t play into the narrative that heading on the road is a bonus, even though the Canadiens posted the second-best away record this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s an advantage or a disadvantage,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think we\u2019re a good team. Our home record in the playoffs hasn\u2019t been as good, but I think we\u2019ve been a good team this year at home and on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadiens have already pulled out a Game 7 victory on the road once these playoffs, stealing a 2-1 decision over the Tampa Bay Lightning two weeks ago despite totalling just nine shots \u2014 a league record for fewest in a post-season win.<\/p>\n
As much as they can lean on that experience Monday, the Canadiens know they\u2019ll need a better effort to knock out the Sabres.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t win every Game 7 like that. We need a better start, a good 60 minutes as a team,\u201d Danault said. \u201cIf you play badly and you have nine shots, you\u2019re not going to win. So you have to bring your best game \u2014 and more than nine shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With an average age of 25.8, Montreal could become the youngest team in 33 years to advance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2338,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-676275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-montreal","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}