Montreal Canadiens vs. Buffalo SabresMar 23, 2018

FinalFriday, Mar 23, 2018· KeyBank Center

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Goals	1	2	3	T		Shots	1	2	3	T
MTL	0	1	2	3		MTL	6	11	7	24
BUF	0	0	0	0		BUF	11	10	14	35

: MTL 40BUF 56
: MTL 3.65BUF 2.88
PP goals: MTL 0BUF 0
Hits: MTL 19BUF 28
Blocks: MTL 8BUF 6
PIM: MTL 4BUF 4
: MTL 50%BUF 50%

Fantasy takeaways

Generated from the play-by-play, shifts and season context. No opinions, just what changed.

Montreal Canadiens beat Buffalo Sabres 3–0

Montreal Canadiens beat Buffalo Sabres 3–0 at BUF. Paul Byron (MTL) led the scoring with 1G 0A. BUF scored 0 goals on 2.88 expected goals (56 attempts), well short of its chances.

Luck
BUF scored 0 goals on 2.88 expected goals (56 attempts), well short of its chances.
Goalie
Antti Niemi (MTL) faced 35 shots and stopped 35 (.1000), +5 against a season average of 29.6; the win.Niemi
New line
New look for BUF: Pouliot–Okposo–Larsson skated 4:51 together at 5v5 as the L4 trio (40% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games.Pouliot Okposo Larsson
Usage
Jacob de la Rose (MTL) played 15:46, +4:00 up on his 11:46 season average over 54 games.de la Rose
Usage
Mike Reilly (MTL) played 19:23, +4:30 up on his 14:53 season average over 56 games.Reilly
Usage
Scott Wilson (BUF) played 16:20, +4:11 up on his 12:09 season average over 68 games.Wilson
Usage
Zemgus Girgensons (BUF) played 17:36, +3:57 up on his 13:39 season average over 70 games.Girgensons
Usage
Benoit Pouliot (BUF) played 10:08, −3:36 down on his 13:44 season average over 73 games.Pouliot

Shot map

Both teams on one rink, filtered by strength and period.

Shot map

Every attempt, sized by expected goals. Goals are rings, shots on goal dots, misses hollow, blocks crosses.

Strength

Period

Team

← MTL attacks left (bottom on phones)BUF attacks right (top on phones) →

BUF
MTL
Goal
Shot on goal
Missed
Blocked

Showing 96 of 96 attempts · BUF 56 · MTL 40

Game flow

Cumulative expected goals and shot attempts, with power plays shaded and goals marked.

Cumulative shot attempts

BUF
MTL
Goal
Power play (shaded)

Pressure Index

BUF pressure
MTL pressure
Goal
Control (|PI| > 0.25)

: descriptive only, the team with more pressure scored the next goal about half the time. In control: MTL 28% of the game, BUF 45%.

Shift chart

Every shift, grouped by line and pair; bars are coloured by strength state. Click a player to highlight.

Shifts

BUF

MTL

goals / penalties

Even strength
Power play
Penalty kill
Goal
Penalty

Sequence card

5-on-5 possession-chain numbers from the sequence engine (Draw Equity and control cover all situations).

Sequence card
Stat	MTL	BUF
	38	58
	1.84	2.54
	1.78	2.45
	7	16
	1	1
	16	8
	+0.012	−0.012
	28%	45%

Definitions: sequence xG, transition attempts, Draw Equity, control and the Pressure Index.

Lines used

Detected from who actually shared the ice, with time together. Percentages are the unit's share of shot attempts.

Montreal Canadiens

L1Byron – Gallagher – Drouin
12:3554% CF
L2Galchenyuk – de la Rose – Lehkonen
12:1829% CF
L3Shaw – Hudon – Scherbak
10:0247% CF
L4Deslauriers – Froese – Carr
8:1121% CF
D1Petry – Reilly
15:2046% CF
D2Alzner – Juulsen
15:2027% CF
D3Benn – Lernout
13:1044% CF

PP1Petry – Byron – Gallagher – Galchenyuk – Drouin
1:37100% CF
PP2Reilly – Hudon – Lehkonen – Carr – Scherbak
1:2967% CF
PK1FByron – de la Rose
0:43
PK2FDrouin – Scherbak
0:32
PK1DPetry – Alzner
0:55
PK2DBenn – Lernout
0:12

Current MTL line combinations →

Buffalo Sabres

L1O'Reilly – Wilson – Reinhart
13:2163% CF
L2Pominville – Girgensons – Eichel
11:4467% CF
L3Nolan – Baptiste – Rodrigues
6:1150% CF
L4Pouliot – Okposo – Larsson
4:5140% CF
D1Guhle – Nelson
16:3568% CF
D2Scandella – Ristolainen
16:3247% CF
D3Gorges – Antipin
9:3569% CF

PP1Okposo – O'Reilly – Ristolainen – Reinhart – Eichel
2:55100% CF
PK1FPouliot – O'Reilly
1:01
PK2FGirgensons – Eichel
1:01
PK1DScandella – Ristolainen
2:21
PK2DGorges – Nelson
1:19

Current BUF line combinations →

Scoring summary

Every goal with the skaters on the ice for it.

2nd period

4:56
MTLArtturi Lehkonen (Jacob de la Rose, Alex Galchenyuk)slap0.14 xG
MTL: Alzner, Galchenyuk, de la Rose, Lehkonen, JuulsenBUF: Scandella, O'Reilly, Wilson, Ristolainen, Reinhart
MTL 1 – 0 BUF

3rd period

18:45
MTLPaul ByronEN (Jonathan Drouin, Charles Hudon)wrist0.96 xG
MTL: Alzner, Byron, Hudon, Drouin, JuulsenBUF: Pominville, Scandella, Larsson, Girgensons, Ristolainen, Eichel
MTL 2 – 0 BUF
19:16
MTLBrendan GallagherEN (Logan Shaw)wrist0.29 xG
MTL: Petry, Benn, Gallagher, Shaw, ScherbakBUF: O'Reilly, Wilson, Reinhart, Eichel, Guhle, Nelson
MTL 3 – 0 BUF

Box score

Skaters grouped by the line they played on; CF% is the 5v5 share of shot attempts while on the ice.

Montreal Canadiens

MTL skaters
Skater	Line	G	A	P	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Jonathan Drouin L	L1	0	1	1	+1	1	0.02	0	0	0	18:21	—	—	48	54
Brendan Gallagher R	L1	1	0	1	+1	3	0.79	1	1	0	17:05	—	—	56	58
Paul Byron L	L1	1	0	1	+1	4	1.98	2	0	0	17:02	—	—	54	57
Alex Galchenyuk C	L2	0	1	1	+1	1	0.03	0	1	0	17:37	—	—	33	22
Artturi Lehkonen L	L2	1	0	1	+1	2	0.25	3	1	2	16:35	—	—	35	33
Jacob de la Rose L	L2	0	1	1	+1	3	0.17	0	0	0	15:46	—	—	36	27
Nikita Scherbak R	L3	0	0	0	+1	2	0.03	0	0	2	16:43	—	—	40	50
Charles Hudon L	L3	0	1	1	+1	2	0.10	2	0	0	15:27	—	—	38	34
Logan Shaw R	L3	0	1	1	+1	0	0.05	1	0	0	13:56	—	—	47	50
Daniel Carr L	L4	0	0	0	0	1	0.03	0	0	0	11:09	—	—	27	35
Byron Froese C	L4	0	0	0	0	0	0.04	1	0	0	10:29	—	—	20	17
Nicolas Deslauriers L	L4	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	2	0	0	9:48	—	—	27	31
Jeff Petry D	D1	0	0	0	+1	1	0.03	1	1	0	24:56	—	—	41	43
Mike Reilly D	D1	0	0	0	0	2	0.07	0	0	0	19:23	—	—	52	57
Karl Alzner D	D2	0	0	0	+2	0	0.00	1	0	0	21:09	—	—	30	32
Noah Juulsen D	D2	0	0	0	+2	1	0.01	2	2	0	18:53	—	—	30	36
Jordie Benn D	D3	0	0	0	+1	1	0.01	0	1	0	17:15	—	—	37	16
Brett Lernout D	D3	0	0	0	0	0	0.02	3	1	0	14:26	—	—	53	50

MTL goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Antti Niemi(start)	W	35	35	0	.1000	2.88	60:00

Buffalo Sabres

BUF skaters
Skater	Line	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Ryan O'Reilly C	L1	-2	2	0.37	0	0	0	20:15	—	—	63	52
Sam Reinhart C	L1	-2	5	0.57	0	0	0	18:52	—	—	70	61
Scott Wilson C	L1	-2	3	0.56	7	0	0	16:20	—	—	63	56
Jack Eichel C	L2	-2	5	0.57	0	1	0	20:46	—	—	67	88
Zemgus Girgensons C	L2	-1	1	0.19	5	0	0	17:36	—	—	61	83
Jason Pominville R	L2	-1	1	0.01	1	1	0	15:01	—	—	60	57
Nick Baptiste R	L3	0	0	0.00	0	0	0	11:48	—	—	53	46
Jordan Nolan C	L3	0	3	0.15	3	0	0	11:44	—	—	45	39
Evan Rodrigues C	L3	0	0	0.00	0	1	0	11:06	—	—	63	62
Kyle Okposo R	L4	0	2	0.06	1	0	2	13:40	—	—	47	59
Johan Larsson L	L4	-1	0	0.05	1	0	2	12:53	—	—	47	44
Benoit Pouliot L	L4	0	2	0.02	1	0	0	10:08	—	—	75	77
Casey Nelson D	D1	-1	3	0.02	1	0	0	21:59	—	—	65	80
Brendan Guhle D	D1	-1	3	0.07	0	0	0	20:03	—	—	69	73
Rasmus Ristolainen D	D2	-2	1	0.08	3	2	0	26:36	—	—	53	49
Marco Scandella D	D2	-2	2	0.11	2	0	0	21:42	—	—	53	51
Josh Gorges D	D3	0	1	0.01	2	0	0	13:32	—	—	63	44
Victor Antipin D	D3	0	1	0.04	1	1	0	13:10	—	—	63	77

BUF goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Linus Ullmark(start)	L	22	21	1	.955	1.69	58:49

Methodology

Shot locations come from the NHL play-by-play, normalised so each shooter attacks the same way, then flipped so the home team attacks right. On-ice stats and lines come from the shift charts: a unit is the exact set of skaters sharing the ice, and CF% is the share of all shot attempts while they were out. Head-to-head cells are 5v5 time against each opponent. Expected goals and the Pressure Index appear as their models are released.