<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres’ Zach Benson (6) reacts to a goal by teammate Tage Thompson against Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) during second period, second round, game 4, NHL playoff hockey game in Montreal on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
Graham Hughes\/AP<\/p>\n
Vegas Golden Knights center Tomas Hertl (48) and left wing Brandon Saad (20) celebrate after Hertl’s goal against Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal (1) during the third period in Game 5 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus<\/p>\n
Steve Marcus\/AP<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres’ Zach Benson (6) reacts after scoring against Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) during third period, second round, Game 4, NHL playoff hockey action in Montreal on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
Graham Hughes\/AP<\/p>\n
While John Tortorella has only been coaching the Vegas Golden Knights for a little over six weeks, they are his sixth different NHL team and he is coming up on his 22nd anniversary of hoisting the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Through all that, he still wonders something about playoff hockey.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what\u2019s better: experience or youth, when you have no clue what\u2019s going on?\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cThey don\u2019t understand the pressures of it because they don\u2019t know. Or the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tortorella’s team showed the value of experience, taking a 3-2 series lead over the mostly new-to-this Anaheim Ducks by winning in overtime on Tuesday night. On the flip side, the less-seasoned Buffalo Sabres beat the Canadiens in Montreal to even up their best-of-seven series at 2-2.<\/p>\n
Next up are two more chances to test Tortorella’s question.<\/p>\n
Montreal Canadiens at Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n
When\/Where to Watch: Game 5, Thursday, 7 p.m. EDT (TNT, TruTV)<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Just when it looked like the Sabres were in trouble, they scored the opening goal less than seven minutes into Game 4 and endured a back-and-forth night full of replay reviews and penalties. Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff wasn’t thrilled with some opposing players \u201cgoing down easy\u201d and wished for more embellishment calls, but he’s proud of how his young group handled it.<\/p>\n “We battled through all that,” Ruff said Wednesday. \u201cWe got to make sure we\u2019re in there but at the same time not taking anything stupid and putting our team at a disadvantage. It\u2019s a fine line right now, but I think there\u2019s a way to juggle around it.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Canadiens got a taste of playoff hockey a year ago, losing in five games to Washington in the first round. A few players are left (and Phillip Danault returned) from 2021, when they went on an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final before falling short against Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n Captain Nick Suzuki, one of those players, chalked up the latest defeat to a bad bounce and already seems ready for Game 5.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew we had to go to Buffalo anyway,\u201d Suzuki said. “We\u2019re a good road team. We’ve shown that all year, so we’ve go do it again and bring it back home.\u201d<\/p>\n A few Sabres players have been in the NHL postseason, but the organization is here for the first time since 2011 after ending the longest drought in league history. The newcomers have been some of Buffalo’s best players, and it seems like they are enjoying the ride.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAs a kid, this is what you dream of, playing playoff hockey,\u201d said Josh Doan, who leads the team in scoring this series with six points. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing you trade it in the world for, getting the opportunity to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Vegas Golden Knights at Anaheim Ducks<\/p>\n When\/Where to Watch: Game 6, Thursday, 9:30 p.m. EDT (TNT, TruTV)<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Tortorella would love for experience to win out because the Golden Knights are \u201cfull of it.\u201d And they know it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a pretty comfortable group in there, and there\u2019s a lot of players in there who\u2019ve been through it and had a lot of success and won,\u201d Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson said. \u201cWe\u2019re an older team, and it\u2019s that feeling that no moment is too big.\u201d<\/p>\n Anaheim has plenty of veteran guys to rely on, including Cup winners Alex Killorn and John Carlson and players like Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba who have gone on deep runs. But the Ducks’ core is about youth, speed and not getting intimidated by the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pretty excited to see what we all got,” 23-year-old center Mason McTavish said. \u201dIt\u2019s our first time with our backs against the wall. I\u2019m excited for us to kind of show everybody what we got.”<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Coach Joel Quenneville, who has three Cup rings from his time as head coach in Chicago, has been around long enough that Tuesday night reminded him of a similar Game 5 \u2014 11 years ago … at Anaheim. That was when he was with the Blackhawks, who erased exactly this deficit on the way to their third championship in six years.<\/p>\n \u201c(We have) a lot of younger guys that they\u2019ve been fine the whole playoffs and nothing seems to change their demeanor or their approach,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cWe\u2019ll come back home and focus on the next game and know we\u2019re right in the thick of things.”<\/p>\n As for the notion that a young team needs to learn how to lose before it can win, Quenneville quipped, \u201cI\u2019m not ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, AP Sports Writer Mark Anderson in Las Vegas and the Canadian Press contributed.<\/p>\n AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup and <\/a>https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a>\n<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres’ Zach Benson (6) reacts to a goal by teammate Tage Thompson against Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4855,163,165,164,1717,10370,1719,47007,109626,67387,67383,1721,9900,101274,5341,131533,5337,5340,87552,108125,52842],"class_list":["post-314208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-alex-killorn","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-chris-kreider","tag-jacob-trouba","tag-joel-quenneville","tag-john-carlson","tag-john-tortorella","tag-josh-doan","tag-lindy-ruff","tag-mason-mctavish","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-nick-suzuki","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-phillip-danault","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-product-40798-ap-nevada-sports-only","tag-product-40803-ap-new-york-state-sports-only","tag-rasmus-andersson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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