The Montreal Canadiens will host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night at the Bell Centre and will be hoping for a much better performance than the one they delivered in Buffalo one week ago. In what was Jacob Fowler’s 10th and last game before being sent back down to the Laval Rocket in the AHL, Tage Thompson was dominant, scoring a hat trick and adding a pair of assists.

Since that win, the Buffalo outfit has cooled down somewhat, losing its next two games to the Minnesota Wild (5-4 in overtime) and to the Carolina Hurricanes (2-1) before bouncing back with a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators. They now have a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games, exactly like the Canadiens. While Buffalo won the last duel between the two sides, Montreal has won seven of the previous 10 contests.

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Neither coach has confirmed who will be manning their net yet, but the Canadiens should go back to Samuel Montembeault after Jakub Dobes’ performance against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. The former has a 5-5-0 record against the Sabres, with a 3.04 goals-against average, and a .905 save percentage, while the latter has a 2-0-0 record with a 2.00 GAA and a .930 SV.

At the other end of the ice, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has a 1-2-0 record with a 4.54 GAA and a .847 SV, Colten Ellis is 1-0-0 with a 3.01 GAA and a .870 SV and Alex Lyon is 4-3-0 with a 3.14 GAA and a 3.01 SV. Lyon played the Sabres' last game, but he has had the lion’s share of the work this season, featuring in 22 games while Luukkonen has played in 19 and Ellis in 11.

Up front, Brendan Gallagher remains the Canadiens’ most productive player against the Sabres with 24 points in 45 games, but captain Nick Suzuki is slowly catching up; he now has 22 points in just 19 games, while Phillip Danault completes the top-three with 15 points in 26 games. The Habs have four players on a three-game point streak: Suzuki (1-4-5), Cole Caufield (2-4-6), Ivan Demidov (1-3-4), and Lane Hutson (1-6-7).

Meanwhile, Thompson has unsurprisingly become the Sabres’ most productive forward after his five-point night last week. He now has 21 points in 18 games, while Rasmus Dahlin has 20 points in 22 games. The defenseman is also on a six-game point streak (3-4-7). Alex Tuch completes the top three with 19 points in 20 games.

Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch the game on RDS, TSN2 and MSG-B. Jon McIsaac and Kelly Sutherland will be the referees, and Scott Cherrey and Ryan Daisy will be the linemen. After that game, the Canadiens will next play on the road Saturday night against the Boston Bruins before coming back home for their last homestand before the Olympic break, taking on the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche, who will be wearing their Quebec Nordiques jersey for the game.

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