Buffalo Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 11/22/2022

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Bell Centre, Montreal, QE

Where to watch: NHL Network, TSN2, RDS, MSG-B

DraftKings: Canadiens -115, Sabres -105

FanDuel: Canadiens -114, Sabres -105

BetMGM: Canadiens -120, Sabres +100

Caesars: Canadiens -120, Sabres +100

Sabres: 7-11-0

Canadiens: 9-8-1

Sabres: lost 8 straight; lost 5-2 at Maple Leafs on Saturday

Canadiens: won 5-4 (SO) vs. Flyers on Saturday

Man, I had such high hopes for the Buffalo Sabres. I thought this was going to be the year. I thought Buffalo would find a way with all of this young talent, banding together after the Jack Eichel trade and just finding ways to win to get to the playoffs. Now granted, there is still time for Buffalo to get together and start winning some games again but having lost eight games in a row is not the most ideal situation for Buffalo at this moment.

And now they have to go on the road with this long losing streak to take on the Montreal Canadiens who continue to impress day after day and finding ways to win. This is the young team that was not supposed to win as much as it is. This was the young teen that was supposed to not get by with the average goaltending. That was supposed to be Buffalo. And here we are nearing Thanksgiving, Buffalo is falling like a crashing rocket while Montreal is beating teams that they have no business beating.

Look no further than Montreal’s win on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Philadelphia was seconds away from winning this game and should have by all accounts. And then by the grace of the hockey gods, Nick Suzuki fires a ridiculous cross-ice pass to Cole Caufield, and he scores with 3.9 seconds left to force overtime period Montreal goes on to win in a shootout to snap a two-game losing streak.

Montreal ran into a little bit of a snag in their last couple of games losing to the New Jersey Devils, AKA the hottest team in the NHL at the moment, and then a 6-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road. That coming off a 3 game winning streak did not settle well with Montreal, but it's the fact that they're finding ways to win. This is not something Buffalo can say right now because they have not won in a very long time.

The Sabres are coming off a 5-2 loss at Toronto over the weekend and with one look at the Buffalo offense and you can see, the offense has dried up at the worst possible time period they've scored four goals on two different occasions in their last six games, but gave up seven and five goals respectively in that process. Other than that Buffalo has scored a grand total of 13 goals in their last six games which is just above two a game, which is so far below the league average it makes me want to put sunglasses on.

Buffalo has just been such a disappointment that it doesn't even make me want to get excited for the fact that they're bringing back the red and black colors and they're bringing back the evil goat head and it's just sad. It's just utterly sad that they have fallen this far off period now again, there is plenty of hockey left to be played and the sabers can absolutely turn it around. But you would catch me dead before thinking that I could get behind the Montreal Canadiens, but they're so fun to watch right now and it's almost sickening.

This would normally be the game where I would say Buffalo ends the streak and it gets back on track, but Montreal is just having too much fun right now and too much fun usually equates to wins so I am taking Montreal with the over. Canadiens win 5-2

Sabres are 75-82 on road games on Tuesday since 1996.

Sabres are 18-20 when playing their 2nd game in 5 days since 1996.

Canadiens are 6-1 after losing 2 of 3 this season.

Sabres are 0-8 after allowing 3 goals or more in 5 straight games this season.

Sabres:

Jeff Skinner -- Tage Thompson -- Alex Tuch

Jack Quinn -- Dylan Cozens -- JJ Peterka

Peyton Krebs -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Victor Olofsson

Rasmus Asplund -- Riley Sheahan -- Vinnie Hinostroza

Rasmus Dahlin -- Owen Power

Lawrence Pilut -- Henri Jokiharju

Jacob Bryson -- Ilya Lyubushkin

Craig Anderson

Canadiens:

Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Kirby Dach

Mike Hoffman -- Christian Dvorak -- Brendan Gallagher

Evgenii Dadonov -- Sean Monahan -- Josh Anderson

Michael Pezzetta -- Jake Evans -- Juraj Slafkovsky

Kaiden Guhle -- David Savard

Mike Matheson -- Joel Edmundson

Arber Xhekaj -- Johnathan Kovacevic

Jake Allen

Points: Tage Thompson -- 22

Goals: Tage Thompson -- 12

Assists: Rasmus Dahlin -- 13

Goalie: Craig Anderson -- 3-3-0, 2.82 GAA, .910 SV%

Points: Nick Suzuki -- 23 

Goals: Nick Suzuki -- 11

Assists: Nick Suzuki -- 12

Goalie: Jake Allen -- 6-6-0, 3.33 GAA, .898 SV%