Buffalo's Power Play Wakes Up at the Right Time — and Alex Lyon Is a .950 Goalie Right Now

As ESPN reported, the Buffalo Sabres defeated Montreal 4-2 in Game 1 of their second-round Eastern Conference series Wednesday, snapping a staggering 0-for-20 drought on the power play to close the regular season and converting twice with the man advantage against a Canadiens team that can't afford to keep taking penalties. Buffalo is back in the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, and right now, the Sabres look like a team that has figured something out at the worst possible time for their opponents.

The power-play numbers coming into this series were genuinely alarming. Buffalo went 1-for-24 with the man advantage in its first-round sweep of Boston — one goal in 24 chances is the kind of futility that ends seasons. Against Montreal in Game 1, the Sabres scored twice on the power play, with Ryan McLeod converting midway through the first and Bowen Byram — now with four postseason goals — beating the Canadiens goalie in the second. Josh Doan, who opened the scoring at even strength and picked up an assist on McLeod's power-play tally, was the engine driving Buffalo's offense all night. Coach Lindy Ruff kept it understated postgame, crediting good breaks and good plays, but the film tells a cleaner story: better puck retrievals, fewer one-and-dones, and a unit that finally started winning battles on zone entries.

Then there's Alex Lyon. He was Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen's backup when the playoffs opened, but after Luukkonen posted an .825 save percentage through the first two games against Boston, Lyon stepped in late in Game 2 and hasn't looked back. Since that moment, Lyon is 4-1 as the starter with a .950 save percentage — a number that belongs to elite goaltenders at this time of year, not backups who were never supposed to see this kind of run. He stopped 26 of 28 shots Wednesday in a controlled, professional performance. Montreal generated offense, but Lyon kept the game from ever getting genuinely tense.

For prop bettors, the Lyon angle is the sharpest needle to thread. A .950 save percentage over five starts isn't noise — it's a hot goalie in a deep run, and the saves prop market has been slow to price him accordingly. Lyon's saves total in Game 1 sits at 26; if Montreal pushes more shots to get back in the series, that number climbs. Back Lyon on saves props as long as he's between the pipes, targeting the over on any line set at 26 or below. On the offensive side, the Sabres' revived power play deserves respect in the team total market. Montreal ranked in the bottom half of the league in penalty kill efficiency down the stretch, and Buffalo now has a unit that's proven it can execute. Two power-play goals in one game after weeks of futility isn't a fluke — it's a reset.

Bowen Byram at four postseason goals is another prop thread worth pulling. He's operating as a power-play quarterback and logging big minutes, and his anytime goal line should be priced as a legitimate option rather than a long shot. Similarly, Doan's all-situations usage — he opened the scoring and factored into the power play within the first 20 minutes — makes him a live points prop target at plus-money in Game 2. The Sabres have the structure, the hot goalie, and now the special teams to control this series. The market is still catching up.