{"id":45406,"date":"2026-05-14T19:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/45406\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:09:07","slug":"montreal-canadiens-will-look-to-tap-into-resilience-in-game-5-against-buffalo-sabres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/45406\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens will look to tap into resilience in Game 5 against Buffalo Sabres"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO \u2014 Martin St. Louis has no interest in an off-ice battle with Lindy Ruff.<\/p>\n

A day after Ruff, the veteran coach of the Buffalo Sabres, said that the Montreal Canadiens are \u201cgoing down too easy\u201d in the Eastern Conference second-round series between the clubs, St. Louis made it clear that gamesmanship is not his thing.<\/p>\n

Ruff wasn\u2019t necessarily trying to get anything going in the media, but it was evident he didn\u2019t like some calls going against his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like if I\u2019m relying on the refs for me to win a series,\u201d St. Louis, the Canadiens coach, said at the club\u2019s hotel on Thursday morning, \u201cI\u2019m spending my energy in the wrong place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best-of-seven, tied 2-2 heading into Game 5 on Thursday night<\/a> at the KeyBank Center, hasn\u2019t featured calls going heavily in the favour of either team. The Sabres are 4-for-20 on the power play in the series; the Canadiens are 5-for-16.<\/p>\n

In Game 4, a 3-2 Buffalo win on Tuesday in Montreal, the Sabres had four power plays. The Canadiens had seven.<\/p>\n

Following that loss, the Canadiens\u2019 self-esteem hasn\u2019t taken a hit \u2014 it\u2019s a resilient Montreal group in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. Including their first-round win in seven games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal has not lost consecutive games in this post-season. And the Canadiens are 4-1-1 in six road games.<\/p>\n

What do the Habs say about Game 5?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how to respond,\u201d forward Josh Anderson said on Thursday. \u201cWe have full belief in this group. I like where our game is at. We have full confidence that we\u2019re going to come in tonight and play the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said St. Louis: \u201cI like the way our team has played on the road all year. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re preoccupied home or away. We have a brand we\u2019re trying to play and we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabres defenceman Conor Timmins missed the morning skate on Thursday for maintenance reasons, Ruff said, but is available for Game 5. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in the starter\u2019s net at the skate.<\/p>\n

St. Louis did make a battle reference when he was asked what he likes about coaching in the NHL playoffs. During his prolific playing career, St. Louis, 50, skated in 107 playoff games, recording 90 points. In 2004, he won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cYou feel you\u2019re on the battlefield when you\u2019re trying to win, this battle against this team. It takes four wins. You get knocked down, and the process of getting back up, it\u2019s like a boxing match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe round is over, you talk about it, you might have won the round, lost the round. You make subtle adjustments, and you get back and you show some courage. I know I\u2019m not on the ice, but you\u2019re in there with them. It\u2019s pretty fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

tkoshan@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

X: @koshtorontosun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO \u2014 Martin St. Louis has no interest in an off-ice battle with Lindy Ruff. A day after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4586,20188,4855,20187,2497,50,269,4930,9531,2496,8571],"class_list":["post-45406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-conor-timmins","tag-josh-anderson","tag-lindy-ruff","tag-martin-st-louis","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-noah-dobson","tag-st-louis","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-ukko-pekka-luukkonen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}