Martin St-Louis makes bold Game 7 change at the last minute
Martin St-Louis is rolling the dice. Oliver Kapanen replaces Joseph Veleno in the Canadiens lineup for Game 7 in Buffalo tonight.
Anthony Martineau of TVA Sports reported the move first. Eric Engels later confirmed the warmup lines, with Kapanen slotting in on the third line between Zachary Bolduc and Kirby Dach.
- Anthony Martineau
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This is the move St-Louis should have made two games ago. Veleno gave Montreal six playoff games, one assist, and a minus-1 rating. There was nothing left to squeeze.
The bottom-six needed a jolt after the Game 6 collapse. Buffalo torched Montreal 8-3 on Saturday night, and the Canadiens looked gassed up and down the lineup.
Kapanen has been around all season. He played 82 regular-season games and put up 22 goals and 37 points, with a +4 rating and one shorthanded goal mixed in.
But the playoffs have been a different story. Four games, zero points, scratched the rest of the way. Now he gets thrown into a winner-take-all with the season on the line.
St-Louis bets on speed over experience in Buffalo
Veleno was supposed to be the safe, defensively responsible option. The numbers say otherwise. A -12 rating across 61 regular-season games tells you everything about how the year went for the 26-year-old.
Kapanen brings more pace and a cleaner offensive profile. He centered the third line through stretches of the season and is built closer to the style Montreal plays at five-on-five.
The other lines stayed intact for warmup. Nick Suzuki between Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky up top, and Alex Newhook centering Ivan Demidov on the second unit.
Jakub Dobes gets the start in net again. The 24-year-old Czech netminder owns a .906 save percentage through 13 playoff games and just gave up eight goals in Game 6.
The Canadiens swept Tampa Bay aside in seven games to get here. The series against Buffalo has gone the distance, with three of the six matchups decided by three goals or more.
Montreal went 24-9-8 on the road during the regular season. That number matters tonight. So does the fact that the Sabres have outscored them 14-7 over the last two games combined.
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If Kapanen has a moment in him, this is when it needs to show up. The whole bench is watching the third line tonight.
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LIVE
MAY 18, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| Josh Doan | - | - | - | |
| Jakub Dobes | - | - | - | |
| Noah Dobson | - | - | - | |
| Jake Evans | - | - | - | |
| Jordan Greenway | - | - | - | |
| Konsta Helenius | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||