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Posted at 12:00 PM EST.

7:05 PM EST. OT included. Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen writes that despite tanking and acquiring a star in Jack Eichel, the Sabres blueprint of suffering through lean years to get top talent hasn’t worked as they planned. Now, as they sink to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the losing appears to be taking its toll on not only the fan base, but players both on the current roster and those who went to playoff-ready teams. Boylen points out that for every success story in Toronto, Pittsburgh or Chicago, there are the Edmonton and Colorado cautionary tales that reveal a circle of hell that revolves around missing the playoffs and drafting high only to see little in return. Buffalo seems to be trapped, once again eyeing a top pick in 2018 with an 82% chance of not even getting that top pick. Worse, it’s shedding that “culture of losing” which has ensnared the Sabres and we don’t see them coming up roses against what might be the most focused team of the night. Aside from having terrible metrics both offensively and defensively, Buffalo will be playing its sixth game in nine nights, fourth game in six nights, third in four and tail-end of back-to-backs after defeating Edmonton last night. There is also a very good chance that Chad Johnson, Buffalo’s useless backup will be in goal here. If he’s not, Robin Lehner isn’t much better.

They lost to Arizona on November 16 when the Coyotes came to town having won just twice in 20 games. The Montreal media went ape-shit over that. A victory over the Maple Leafs two days later would have alleviated some of the stench surrounding that loss to Arizona but instead, Montreal made it worse by getting trashed 6-0. The Habs have lost five games in a row. They have been on the road for the past two and picked up a point in Nashville last game but that means nothing now. The Canadiens have not played since Wednesday, which makes them the most rested team in the NHL playing the least rested team. Losing to the Sabres here is not an option. The Habs cannot afford to be flat, unprepared or unfocused and this one sets up nicely to get all those frustrations out on an even more fragile team. Montreal is poised to play 60 minutes of dominating hockey and we’ll gamble that that they’ll put the Sabres away. The Habs are still a top-5 possession team and have been all year. This is a game that we can’t imagine for a second that the Canadiens won’t treat like a playoff game because of all the heat on them right now in that hotbed they’re in.

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