Canadiens face the Sabres on 9-game skid

By The Associated Press. February 13, 2022

Buffalo Sabres (14-24-8, seventh in the Atlantic) vs. Montreal Canadiens (8-32-7, eighth in the Atlantic)

Montreal; Sunday, 12:30 p.m. EST

FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Canadiens -107, Sabres -112; over/under is 6

BOTTOM LINE: Montreal aims to end its nine-game slide with a victory over Buffalo.

The Canadiens are 2-7-2 against the rest of their division. Montreal serves 10.8 penalty minutes per game, the most in the Eastern Conference. Michael Pezzetta leads the team serving 68 total minutes.

The Sabres are 4-7-4 against opponents in the Atlantic. Buffalo has scored 24 power-play goals, converting on 19.2% of chances.

Buffalo beat Montreal 4-1 in the last meeting between these teams on Nov. 26. Tage Thompson scored two goals for the Sabres in the victory.

TOP PERFORMERS: Nicholas Suzuki leads the Canadiens with 28 points, scoring nine goals and collecting 19 assists. Tyler Toffoli has four goals and five assists over the last 10 games for Montreal.

Mark Jankowski leads the Sabres with a plus-five in 16 games this season. Thompson has seven assists over the last 10 games for Buffalo.

LAST 10 GAMES: Canadiens: 1-7-2, averaging 2.5 goals, 4.2 assists, 4.9 penalties and 14.1 penalty minutes while giving up 4.8 goals per game with an .870 save percentage.

Sabres: 3-5-2, averaging 2.4 goals, 4.1 assists, 4.6 penalties and 11.6 penalty minutes while allowing 3.4 goals per game with a .910 save percentage.

INJURIES: Canadiens: Rafael Harvey-Pinard: out (health protocols), Louie Belpedio: out (covid-19), Gianni Fairbrother: out (covid-19), David Savard: out (ankle).

Sabres: Casey Mittelstadt: out (upper body), Zemgus Girgensons: out (undisclosed), Jack Quinn: out (lower body).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Olympic Men’s Hockey Moves To Playoff Round

With the end of the preliminary round the playoff picture for the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament in Beijing 2022 has become clear.

According to the tournament format, the teams from all three groups are ranked in an overall 12-team ranking.

The first four teams – the three group winners and the second-placed team with the best records – directly advance to the quarter-finals.

The other four quarter-finalists will be determined in qualification playoff games between the teams ranked 5th to 12th.

Qualification Playoff (15 February)

Canada – China
Denmark – Latvia
Czechia – Switzerland
Slovakia – Germany

Quarter-Finals (16 February)

USA – Winner SVK/GER
Finland – Winner CZE/SUI
ROC – Winner DEN/LAT
Sweden – Winner CAN/CHN

The semi-finals will take place on 18 February with the highest-ranked semi-finalist playing the lowest-ranked according to the combined preliminary-round ranking and the second-highest ranked semi-finalist playing the third-highest ranked.

The men’s teams will have a day off tomorrow until the start of the final round. In the meantime the semi-finals of the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament will be played tomorrow with Canada vs. Switzerland and USA vs. Finland.

Source: iihf.com