Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Playoff Chances For The Montreal Canadiens Slipping Away

02/13/2016 at 4:22am EST

from Mike Boone of Hockey Inside/Out,

The Canadiens playoff hopes almost certainly ended Friday night in Buffalo.

Not with a bang, but a sorry-ass whimper.

Playing against a terrible team that had lost in Philadelphia Thursday night, the Canadiens blew an early 1-0 lead, surrendered four unanswered goals, changed goaltenders, fought their way back into the game and then were held off the scoresheet in a third period that a desperate team should have dominated.

The Canadiens outshot Buffalo 7-4 over the final 20 minutes. They hit two posts.

The late surge wasn’t enough to overcome earlier lacuna that had handed Buffalo its lead.

The loss dropped the Canadiens into 11th place because Carolina got a loser’s point in Pittsburgh. The Hurricanes and Canadiens each have 58 points, but Carolina has 55 games to 56 for the Canadiens.

With 26 games left in their regular season, the Canadiens need at least 34 points to sneak up into a wild-card spot.

Can they do it?

Mathematically, yes.

continued

Below, watch what caused P.K. Subban to receive a misconduct after the Sabres scored an empty net goal.

Subban talks about it post-game...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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