3. Past experience in clutch situations<\/p>\n
In terms of average years, Montreal has the youngest roster in the NHL (25.88), while Buffalo has the third-youngest team (26.60), and both teams have struggled at home this postseason; each team is 2-4 at home during the 2026 playoffs, including a pair of Game 5 losses for the Sabres at KeyBank Center and a pair of Game 6 losses for the Canadiens at Bell Centre.<\/p>\n
Buffalo\u2019s Rasmus Dahlin<\/a>, who\u2019s 26 years old, became the only defenseman in NHL history to have a five-point game with his team facing elimination in a playoff game (Game 6 at Montreal) but has never played in a Game 7. Tage Thompson<\/a>, Buffalo\u2019s top forward, has also never played in a Game 7. Tuch is the only player in the Sabres\u2019 projected lineup with any Game 7 points (two in three games; one goal, one assist); Tuch had a 2-1 record in Game 7s with the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n Newhook, who\u2019s 25 years old, is the only player in this series with a winning goal in a Game 7 after scoring the tie-breaking goal in the third period at Tampa Bay in Game 7 of the first round. Montreal\u2019s young forward duo of Caufield and Nick Suzuki<\/a>\u00a0has a 2-0 record in career Game 7s, with Suzuki having two points (one goal, one assist) in those winner-take-all games. Montreal\u2019s No. 1 defenseman Lane Hutson<\/a> had an assist in his only career Game 7 against Tampa Bay in the first round, while Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a>, another one of the Canadiens\u2019 young impact forwards, was held without a point in that game, his only Game 7 appearance.<\/p>\n A key metric for Montreal entering Game 7 is its skating speed: in terms of 20-plus mph speed bursts, Suzuki (37; 96th percentile among forwards), Newhook (28; 92nd percentile among forwards) and\/or Hutson (17; 97th percentile among defensemen) are potential difference-makers on any given shift.<\/p>\n A key metric for Buffalo\u2019s top two players entering Game 7 is their shot speed; in terms of 90-plus mph shot attempts, Dahlin (eight; second) and Thompson (five; tied for seventh) are both among the NHL\u2019s best this postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3. Past experience in clutch situations In terms of average years, Montreal has the youngest roster in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-649159","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\/649159","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=649159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}