The Canadiens keep finding themselves in the drama business, and Saturday’s 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres was the latest installment. Cole Caufield finished the job, Montreal picked up its fourth victory of the season, and the club moved to 4-3-1 with nine points tucked into a crowded Atlantic Division race.
But the bigger story is not just that the Canadiens won again. It’s how often they’ve needed extra time to do it.
Montreal has already gone to overtime four times through eight games in 2026-27, according to Statmuse. That puts the team second in the league before Oct. 18’s games, trailing only the San Jose Sharks, who have played five overtime contests.
Only four teams have reached OT four times or more, and Buffalo is among them, which helps explain why the Canadiens and Sabres have already produced two extra-session games against each other.
Two of Montreal’s four overtime appearances also went to a shootout. One of those came against Buffalo, and the other against the Detroit Red Wings, where it took six rounds before Zachary Bolduc finally settled things.
The only time Montreal has lost in regulation this season came on Oct. 3 in Pittsburgh, a 6-5 defeat in which the Canadiens salvaged a point by clawing back from a 5-1 deficit in the third period. That kind of comeback makes for great theater. It also adds more mileage to a team that is already logging plenty of extra shifts.
More hockey means more wear and tear, and that’s where the concern starts to creep in. Fatigue can show up later, not necessarily in the overtime itself but in practice the next day or in the following game.
Saturday offered a good example. Early in the extra frame against Buffalo, Montreal won the faceoff, moved quickly into the offensive zone and then got tangled up in a strange sequence behind the Sabres’ net.
Lane Hutson wound up carrying the puck there while 3-on-3 play unfolded around him. With only Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield as his support, the defenseman just kept working, waiting for the right opening in a situation that seemed to drag on forever.
It was a weird moment, but it also underscored the load Montreal’s top players are carrying. Hutson leads the club in total ice time with 211:46.
Suzuki, meanwhile, has been the definition of dependable. He has appeared in all 82 regular-season games in five straight seasons, from 2021-22 through 2025-26, and his average time on ice has always been above 20 minutes.
This season, with his 3-on-3 responsibilities and Montreal’s overtime habit, his ATOI is up to 21:52 through eight games.
There’s no debate about who the Canadiens want on the ice when the game goes beyond regulation. Hutson and Suzuki are the guys. The issue is what all those extra minutes might cost if this pattern keeps going.
That’s why the idea of a full 60-minute performance matters. A straightforward win by two or three goals would spare the group the added workload and avoid the extra stress that comes with overtime. It would also say something clear: Montreal was the better team from start to finish, with no late scramble required.
Instead, the Canadiens have mostly lived in close games. They came from behind in Pittsburgh, which was impressive, but they were also down 5-1 in the first place.
They led 3-1 twice at home against Buffalo, only to watch the Sabres tie both games in the third period. The Detroit game was less straightforward, with two goals wiped out after official review and another erased in overtime.
On opening night in Toronto, the Leafs made things tight late. Against Washington on Oct.
14, Montreal scored first and led 2-1 in the opening period, but special teams ended up hurting them, both shorthanded and on the power play. And as Ryan Spzorer argued, the injuries can’t take all the blame.
So who are these Canadiens, exactly? A team that thrives on surviving chaos, or one that keeps letting games slip into the kind of disorder that exposes its flaws?
Montreal still has time to sort that out. For now, a two-goal win would be worth a toast.
A victory by three or more might call for the bubbly.
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The concern is what has happened when Buffalo has had to kill penalties. The Sabres have given up power-play goals in most games so far, and those lapses have repeatedly undercut otherwise solid stretches of play. Alex Lyon is also dealing with uncertainty after an injury setback, leaving Buffalo with a few moving parts to manage just as the schedule starts to tighten. [Read more 🡒]