MONTREAL — When Lindy Ruff watched video of the Buffalo Sabres’ 6-3 home loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5, he saw a lot he didn’t like. But one thing in particular jumped out as a major problem that would be simple to correct.“When I watch film and I see a guy pointing or saying, ‘You go here,’ that for me is indecision on who’s going,” Ruff said.So after keeping the team away from the rink the day after Game 5, Ruff canceled the morning skate Saturday ahead of Game 6 and held a video session instead. And he had one expression that he kept repeating.“So we just used this expression this morning, ‘JFG.’ And you can figure out what that is. We used that on a whole bunch of clips where there was slowness in our game. I told the team I would rather err that they made a mistake going than not going.”Just f—ing go.That was Ruff’s message going into Game 6, which was the first time many of his players had faced elimination in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Ruff thought players were too tentative in Game 5. That led to the Sabres spending too much time in their defensive zone and another lopsided loss.The tentativeness vanished in Game 6. The Sabres scored 32 seconds into the game before the Canadiens got three straight goals to chase Sabres goalie Alex Lyon from the game. Buffalo then scored seven in a row to come away with an 8-3 win and force a Game 7 back in Buffalo. The Sabres are now one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.“We talked this morning about how everybody needs to play their best game,” Ruff said. “The regular season doesn’t mean anything. The Boston series doesn’t mean anything. And the five games to this point really don’t mean anything. Our defining moment is this game tonight, and we have to play our best game.”The Sabres did that on an individual and a team level. Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and four assists, becoming the first defenseman in NHL history to have 5 points in a game with his team facing elimination. Jack Quinn scored his first two goals of the playoffs, the first of which was the game winner. Tage Thompson, who has faced criticism for his lack of production in the playoffs, had a 4-point night. Even Zach Metsa, playing in his first NHL playoff game, chipped in a goal late.For the first time all series, the Sabres looked like the team that skated through the league in the second half of the season on the way to winning the Atlantic Division. Thompson said he felt the mood at the team hotel was calm Saturday morning. Jason Zucker said that in between some serious discussions about what had been going wrong, the team managed to keep things lighthearted, understanding this moment was one worth savoring.