The trap was set, but the Montreal Canadiens refused to fall into it.
With a seven-game streak on the line, Canadiens coach Michel Therrien tabbed backup Mike Condon to take on a vastly improved Buffalo Sabres squad from the one that beat Montreal in three of four games last season.
Overconfidence would’ve been Montreal’s undoing Friday night. Underestimating the Sabres, who came into the game 2-4-0, could’ve compounded things.
Instead, the Canadiens survived a closely contested first period that saw them trade quality chances with the Sabres and come out of it up 1-0. They jumped on the board quickly in the second, got a 2-0 lead, then lost the 2-0 lead before scoring two quick ones to go up 4-2. And then they put the hammer down in the third, scoring another three unanswered.
The Habs tied an NHL record with the Sabres of 1975-76 by notching their eighth straight win (all in regulation time) to start the season.
Milestones were hit by the team’s elder statesmen: Tomas Plekanec registered his 300th career assist, and Andrei Markov passed the 500-point mark by scoring five points in a game for the first time in his 15 NHL seasons.
You want five takeways from this one? Here they are:
Condon earned the win
He was engaged from the start, pushing aside quality chances from Buffalo’s Evander Kane and Jack Eichel before settling in to keep Montreal in control of the game.
Condon faced 11 shots in the first period, and six of them were quality scoring chances. He finished the night with 34 saves and thanked his posts for making three.
But luck was a very small part of the equation for Condon, who now has two wins in his only two NHL starts, a save percentage of .947 and a goals against average of 1.50.
Being a backup goalie in Montreal is no easy task. At best, Condon will get in 20 starts this season — provided both he and starter Carey Price remain healthy.
Most backups to elite goaltenders have to deal with the mental and physical challenges of starting so sporadically, but Condon faces a unique challenge in having to measure up with the best goaltender in the world.
So far, he’s more than holding his own.
Torrey Mitchell dominates in the dot
In his return to Buffalo, Mitchell won 65 per cent of his draws — one of which led to his third goal of the season.
This goal was made possible by the confidence the Canadiens had in Mitchell, who won all three of his draws in the offensive zone Friday. Knowing he’d have a good chance of pulling this one back, Markov and Subban set up in one-timer positions and Mitchell drove the net and tipped the puck in to complete the set play.
The Canadiens won 39 of 66 faceoffs (59 per cent), one of which led directly to Markov’s goal on the power play.
Eichel did everything
But he just couldn’t score.
It’s a rarity when you can say a guy who finished with zero points, a minus-2 and a 48 per cent faceoff efficiency was one of the best players on the ice, but Eichel was exactly that.
In 20:36, he was dangerous every time he got on the ice, had four shots on net and set his linemates up several times.
Montreal’s stats just keep getting better
Max Pacioretty had a hand in 31 per cent of Montreal’s goals last season.
With his goal on Friday, Pacioretty now leads these Canadiens with six, but the balance behind him is so much more apparent.
Goals from top-six forwards: 18
Goals from bottom-six forwards: 10
Goals from defencemen: 2
The Canadiens ranked 20th in goals last season. This season, they lead the league with 30.
In eight games, they have allowed nine goals. They have not allowed a first period goal and have only allowed one in the third.
The power play, which was powerless last season, is now clicking at 19.4 per cent after the Canadiens went 2-3 against Buffalo. And the penalty kill, which was elite last season at 83.7 per cent, has allowed just three goals on 28 opportunities (4th in the league).
The 23rd ranked, possession starved Canadiens of last season now lead the NHL in shot attempts (467) and are tied with the New York Islanders for the second best shots-on-net-per-game average (33.3).
David Desharnais’ impact
One of the biggest questions headed into this season was how Desharnais was going to handle a reduced role as the team’s third line centre.
He picked up an assist in Friday’s game, bringing his point total to one goal and five assists in eight games.
Desharnais has been a key cog, as he and linemates Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann have dominated possession in the offensive zone — hemming in their opponents for whole shifts at a time throughout this winning streak.
Even more impressive, Desharnais has been playing this well while nursing an injury that’s kept him from taking faceoffs since Montreal’s fourth game of the season.
Honorable mention to Brendan Gallagher
He scored two back-breaking goals at the beginning of both the second and third periods and was back in front of the net for Pacioretty’s goal just a few shifts after taking this bomb of a shot from P.K. Subban in the gut.
