Montreal and Buffalo are tied at two games apiece in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Appropriately, the Canadiens’ Alex Newhook and the Sabres’ Zachary Benson, who have figured prominently in their teams’ postseason success, also are tied with 7 points apiece. In the series-tying game last night, Newhook scored Montreal’s opening goal, and Benson netted the game-winner for Buffalo. On Benson’s 21st birthday, his skill was on full display on his goal, as he caught a hot pass with his skate blade, calmly kicked it to his stick, then shoveled in a back-hander past Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes. With respect to Newhook, his goal was his fifth in the past three games.
Much has been made of Newhook’s recent production, scoring six playoff goals thus far. It really appears that this is a simple matter of the development of talent that has always been there. The former first-rounder had 25 points (13G 12A) in 42 games this season, which was shortened significantly by a broken ankle Newhook suffered in November. He nearly matched his 26-point output in 2024-25 in a full 82 games, almost doubling his points per game total (from 0.31 to 0.59). With his high motor and elite skating, I look for this production to continue.
Another high-motor, high-skill player is Benson. He has been all over the ice this series, never stops moving his feet, and seemingly has been in on every Buffalo scoring chance. In just his third NHL season, the newly-annointed 21-year-old enjoyed a career-high 43 points (13G 30A) in 65 regular-season games this year, an improvement of 15 points from 2024-25 in 10 fewer games. Like Newhook, Benson missed time this year due to injury, but certainly appears fully healed and wreaking havoc on Montreal defenders.