What Canadiens HC Martin St. Louis found ‘hard to believe’ in Game 4 loss to Sabres

The Montreal Canadiens had a chance to take complete control of their second-round series against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night, but the Sabres battled from behind to get a 3-2 win and even the series at two games apiece.

The Canadiens would have been feeling good about themselves after the first period, when they withstood an onslaught to start the game and took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

After the game, Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis talked about the biggest thing that held the Canadiens back in the loss, via Chris G of Rocket Sports.

#Habs Martin St. Louis post game thoughts vs BUF

"Special teams played a huge part. It's hard to believe that we only got one goal on the power play because I felt like we had a lot of chances[…] Our start was not good, but after the disallowed goal and the challenge, I felt… pic.twitter.com/Or8FYwqJMX

— Chris G (@ChrisHabs360) May 13, 2026

“Special teams played a huge part. It’s hard to believe that we only got one goal on the power play because I felt like we had a lot of chances,” St. Louis said. “Our start was not good, but after the disallowed goal and the challenge, I felt like we took the game over from that point. There was a lot of good stuff from that point on. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but I liked our game.”

The Canadiens scored on the power play at the end of the first period, when Cole Caufield found the back of the net to give Montreal the lead. However, St. Louis’ squad had seven power play opportunities in total, scoring just that lone goal.

On the other side, Buffalo took advantage of its looks on the man-advantage. The Sabres got just four chances on the power play, scoring on two of them.

One of those goals was a bit flukey, as Tage Thompson dumped a puck down to the boards and got a ricochet off the back of Jakub Dobes’ leg and into the net. However, even with that slice of luck, the Sabres deserve credit for dominating on special teams to regain home-ice advantage in the series.

If the Canadiens want to get to the Eastern Conference Finals and take on the Carolina Hurricanes, they will have to get another win on the road in Buffalo. In order to do so, they will have to flip the script on this special teams trend.

The post What Canadiens HC Martin St. Louis found ‘hard to believe’ in Game 4 loss to Sabres appeared first on ClutchPoints.