Canadiens get major Game 7 boost with key player cleared to play
Joe Veleno is good to go for Game 7 tonight in Buffalo. Martin St-Louis confirmed it Monday: the gritty Canadiens forward is available after absorbing a high hit from Bowen Byram in Game 6.
The series is tied 3-3. Win and the Habs move on. Lose and the season ends in enemy ice.
That news matters more than the box score suggests. Veleno isn't a top-six scorer, but he's been one of the louder fourth-line voices in this round.
He plays the way Buffalo hates. Heavy on the forecheck. Hard on pucks below the goal line. A steady minutes-eater on the penalty kill when Montreal needed to choke a game out.
Losing him for a Game 7 would have forced St-Louis to shuffle deployment on a night where every shift gets weighed twice. That headache is gone.
The hit itself looked ugly in real time. Veleno's head snapped back and the building got quiet for a beat before he eventually skated off under his own power.
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Why the Canadiens needed Veleno back tonight
The numbers on Veleno don't pop. Six playoff games, one assist, a minus-1 rating in this run. But role players in Game 7s aren't paid in points.
They're paid in faceoffs, blocked shots, and the willingness to chase a puck into a corner with two minutes left and a one-goal lead.
Montreal got buried 8-3 at home in Game 6. That was the worst possible exit from the Bell Centre with a chance to close the series out.
Now they fly back to Buffalo on the wrong side of momentum, against a building that just watched their team turn the series around in 60 minutes.
The Canadiens went 24-9-8 on the road during the regular season. That's a real number to hang onto when the noise gets loud tonight.
St-Louis will lean on his structure. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield will get the bright lights. But it's the bottom-six minutes that usually decide a Game 7, and Veleno's presence gives the bench one less thing to solve before puck drop.
Buffalo can hit him again. Probably will. Whether Montreal answers back is the part nobody can script.
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YESTERDAY
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 | ||||