BUFFALO – When he dove into the some of the stats before the Sabres began their second-round series against the Montreal Canadiens, coach Lindy Ruff said he found “everything was tight.”
Today, with the best-of-seven series tied at 2, Ruff said he feels that “everything is still tight.”
“Two really evenly matched teams,” Ruff said this morning after the Sabres prepared for Game 5 in KeyBank Center.
By the end of tonight, one team will be facing elimination.
The Sabres evened the series on Tuesday in Game, winning 3-2 in Montreal.
The Canadiens, remember, are 4-0 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year following a loss. The Sabres, meanwhile, are just 2-3 at home.
Following an ugly 6-2 loss in Game 3, the Sabres responded by roaring out of the gate Tuesday.
“We didn’t play that great in Game 3,” Ruff said. “I thought that first eight, 10 minutes in Montreal in Game 4 was as good as we can play. We’d like to carry that momentum back into our room.
“Let’s worry about that first period. Play a good first period, then we’ll go on to the next period.”
In other news, Ruff said defenseman Conor Timmins missed this morning’s pregame skate for maintenance but is available tonight.
With Timmins absent, Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley took reps of the third defense pair. Rookie Zach Metsa also rotated in.
Schenn made his postseason debut for the Sabres in Game 3.
In other news, legendary winger Jason Pominville, who will be inducted in the Sabres Hall of Fame next season, will bang the drum prior to tonight’s opening faceoff to charge up the crowd.
Wednesday marked the 20th anniversary of Pominville’s short-handed overtime goal in Ottawa that sent the Sabres to the Eastern Conference final.
“I instantly think of the Pominville goal where he drove in and won the series for us,” said Ruff, who was in his first stint as coach here in 2006. “The whole city was, ‘Welcome to Pominville.’ The second thing, we sent him down, put him on waivers and nobody claimed him, and we bring him back, and from that day on, he was one hell of a player.”
Ruff said one of the team’s French scouts once told him Pominville “has the hands of a surgeon.”
“And he was right,” he said. “His shot was deadly. He (was) a complete two-way player, and those type of players make me a better coach, for sure.”
