The only remaining series in the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens. Game 6 of the best-of-7 series with Montreal leading 3-2.<\/p>\n
The eyes of the entire hockey world will be on what\u2019s already been an off-the-charts atmosphere in what many consider to be the cathedral of hockey.<\/p>\n
One win away from having the Canadiens reach a conference final involving full buildings for the first time since 2015, their march to the Final in 2021 featuring limited crowds in Montreal because of concerns for the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier<\/a>, noting it will be the first Saturday game in Montreal in these playoffs, came up with the perfect word to describe the what it will be like in Bell Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnreal,\u201d he said Friday<\/p>\n It will be just that.<\/p>\n From coach Martin St. Louis making his customary pregame walk from his nearby residence to the arena, to the intriguing question of which Canadiens legend will carry the celebratory torch into the building for the second-to-none pregame ceremony, the anticipation for Game 6 (8 p.m. ET: CBC, TVAS, SN, ABC) has reached a fever pitch in the province in Quebec, a concept that Carrier, a Quebec City native, can fully understand.<\/p>\n But beyond the pomp and pageantry associated with what surely be an event, what\u2019s really important to the Canadiens is finishing off the Sabres.\u00a0<\/p>\n Easier said than done.<\/p>\n Montreal has been here before. It was in a similar position in the Eastern Conference First Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, up 3-2 in the series and hosting an elimination game. In what may have been the most riveting game of the entire postseason, the two teams went to overtime tied 0-0 before Lightning forward Gage Goncalves<\/a> scored the winner, forcing a Game 7 in Tampa.<\/p>\n Montreal was able to win Game 7 on the road, but it was a lesson learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes a lot,\u201d St. Louis said when asked what\u2019s needed to eliminate an opponent. \u201cI mean, Game 6 against Tampa, I thought we played one of our best games of the series and didn\u2019t win.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, you know, it probably takes your best. And more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only remaining series in the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.\u00a0 Buffalo Sabres vs. Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-647065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}