A Sabres employee left the Zamboni door cracked open hoping for Tage Thompson-like goals
Chris Chelios sat down on NHL on TNT this week and told a story that has Buffalo Sabres fans laughing and Montreal Canadiens fans squinting at the replay.
The Hall of Famer explained how the old Sabres Zamboni driver used to leave the door slightly ajar on the visitors' end.
The goal was to create exactly the kind of unpredictable bounce that turned into Tage Thompson's Game 4 goal.
Thompson scored a fluke marker in Game 4 when the puck took an impossible bounce off the boards.
That goal changed the entire flow of the night and shifted the momentum of the series.
Chelios swears the trick was a real thing back in his playing days. The door wouldn't be obvious.
Just enough of an angle to create a bounce that nobody could read.
The Habs lost Game 4 and watched the bounce go viral. Now Chelios is suggesting the bounce might have had some help from the building itself.
Tage Thompson finished the regular season at 40 goals and 81 points across 81 games on a 7.14 million cap hit. The 28-year-old leads Buffalo's playoff scoring through 8 games at 7 points and plus-2.
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St-Louis and the Habs head into Game 7 with home ice and a fluke goal to remember
The series sits at 3-3 heading into Monday's Game 7. The Habs lost Game 6 in Buffalo after a controversial missed headshot call on Joe Veleno, with the Sabres scoring seconds later.
The bounces have not been kind in this series. The Danault no-goal in Game 3. The Thompson fluke in Game 4. The Veleno headshot in Game 6.
Now Martin St-Louis brings his team back to Bell Centre for the deciding night. Game 7 puck drops at 8 p.m. in Montreal.
The Zamboni door joke isn't strictly relevant anymore.
The arena management has changed. The building has changed. Modern NHL ice maintenance is the most monitored part of the game.
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But Chelios' story landed because it played on every Habs fan's frustration about Game 4. Lucky bounces don't happen by accident, the joke goes. Someone is always tilting the table.
Ivan Demidov finally got his first playoff goal. Cole Caufield broke through too. The Habs top six is finally producing at the right time.
The Sabres lineup is patched together. Sam Carrick out. Jason Zucker hurt. Lindy Ruff has been working with whatever pieces he has left.
The series gets decided in Montreal. The Zamboni door stays closed.
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LIVE
MAY 16, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jack Quinn | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zach Metsa | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Arber Xhekaj | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Bowen Byram | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Matheson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||