The Daily Faceoff Show: Sabres Streaking & Canadiens Struggling In Early Going

Welcome to another episode of the Daily Faceoff Show!

We had a jam-packed night of hockey on Tuesday and Tyler Yaremchuk (filling in for Frank Seravalli) and Mike McKenna talked about all of the interesting stories from around the league.

Have the Montreal Canadiens hit rock bottom?

Mike McKenna is surprised at how bad the Habs have been so far and he thinks their next game against the Carolina Hurricanes is already a must-win. Here’s McKenna’s take…

“0-4 to start the season isn’t pretty for a team like Montreal who had expectations. Even at the beginning of the year, I liked this lineup. They are missing players, Shea Weber, we don’t know if he’ll be around at all, Carey Price is out, but I wonder how much this team is really missing the likes of Phillip Danault and Corey Perry.

There hasn’t been the pushback from the Canadiens you’d like to see. Defensively they’re just not there, they don’t have that intensity that’s necessary to carry a team in the NHL. Jake Allen hasn’t had much of a chance in these games. I don’t think defensively the Canadiens have gotten to the level they need to be at. It’s all over the ice.”

Are the Buffalo Sabres legit?

One of the biggest shocks this season has been the Buffalo Sabres, who enter Tuesday with an undefeated record at 3-0-0. McKenna figures a lot of their success is due to an easy schedule, but he also says it’s a positive sign to see the team buying into head coach Don Granato…

“I think a big part of it is the fact they’ve had a pretty easy schedule so far. They’ve played the Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes, and have done an admirable job against teams who haven’t been great so far, but they’re still winning games.

You’re 3-0-0 to start. That isn’t an easy task. I think for the Sabres, I have to wonder how much has Don Granato made for the club? How much has he got them to buy in? There’s a lot of names that are missing from last year. It’s a total turnover.

Eichel. Reinhart. Hall. Ristolainen. They’re out the door. And you’ve got players filling in who are reclaiming thrones. Kyle Okposo has been playing some of the best hockey I’ve seen from him in years. Jeff Skinner has played well, Colin Miller looks like he’s finding his stride again. You just wonder how long this can continue. When they start to go up against the big dogs, what happens?“

Everything else…

McKenna gave his take on Marcus Foligno doing the superman punch on Brenden Dillon when the two of them squared off to fight. He said the high fighting numbers from early in the season comes down to players being very excited to be back in front of fans again.

Rachel Doerrie joined the show for Number Crunch where she detailed good, bad, and ugly performances from the week. Doerrie praised the Penguins’ second line in the absence of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and dove into the struggles of the Chicago Blackhawks and the Habs.

Yaremchuk and McKenna wrapped up the show by taking inbox questions and going over the best bets of the night.

Check out the full episode here…

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