Lindy Ruff calls out Canadiens as Game 5 officiating pressure builds
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Daniel Lucente
May 14, 2026 (10:22)
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Photo credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
Lindy Ruff has made a pressure play, and the Buffalo Sabres coach has dragged Montreal's power play into the series.
Ruff didn't just complain after Buffalo's 3-2 Game 4 win. He tried to change the way Game 5 gets officiated.
Buffalo has taken 26 minor penalties through 4 games. Strip out matching calls, and the Sabres still sit at 19 net minors.
Ruff's line was direct:
"We played a good match. We came out strong. We lost a lot of rhythm due to some questionable decisions."
- Lindy Ruff
- Lindy Ruff
Then came the sharper part.
He said he knows the Canadiens have a good power play, but believes they "fall too easily."
"I know the Canadiens have a good power play, but I think they fall too easily."
- Lindy Ruff
- Lindy Ruff
Ruff is trying to move the whistle
This is playoff coaching in plain sight. Ruff is defending his bench, warning the officials, and putting pressure on Martin St-Louis before puck drop.
The play that keeps hanging over this series is Tage Thompson's post-whistle shove on Kaiden Guhle, followed by Caufield making Buffalo pay on the power play.
Guhle went down, Thompson went off, and Caufield finished the sequence with the kind of touch that makes every Sabres stick foul look expensive.
Buffalo finished the regular season 50-23-9, with a +47 goal differential. This isn't a team looking for excuses.
But Ruff knows the next marginal call could tilt the bench, the crowd, and the special-teams battle.
Montreal went 48-24-10 with a +27 goal differential, so St-Louis has no reason to apologize for pressure hockey.
Ruff wants the Canadiens viewed as sellers. Montreal wants Buffalo viewed as undisciplined.
Game 5 now starts before the puck drops.
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