Sabres’ Lindy Ruff: Canadiens players ‘going down easy’ to draw penalties

The veteran bench boss clearly wasn’t a fan of some calls against the Sabres in Buffalo’s series-tying 3-2 win in Game 4 Tuesday in Montreal.

“I know Montreal’s got a good power play, but I think they’re going down easy,” Ruff told reporters Wednesday. “I think it’s part of the playoffs. It just is. You know how important a power play can be. You get a stick on somebody, you’ve got to be careful with your sticks.

“You know if they have a chance to make the play worse than it is, they’re going to. It’s playoff hockey. Every team in this league does it.”

The Canadiens had seven power plays in Game 4, while the Sabres had four.

Ruff singled out a cross-checking call on Tage Thompson against Kaiden Guhle that led to Montreal’s go-ahead goal in the first period.

“The little push that Thompson gave their player, I don’t think that’s called in the regular season, but in the playoffs it’s called. So tell our guys not to do it,” Ruff said, stressing his team needs to be more disciplined.

Ruff made it clear Tuesday he thought the league made a bad call on a goaltender-interference challenge that wiped out a goal that would have put the Sabres up 2-0.

“We lost a lot of momentum on some questionable calls. I thought we could have got some calls ourselves. We didn’t. But we battled through all that and ended up winning the game,” Ruff said.

Watch Game 5 of the series Thursday at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+.