BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Carolina Hurricanes have been sitting around and waiting for the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens to finish beating up on each other. That wait will come to an end very shortly.And when it does, the Hurricanes will likely have their hands full, no matter what happens in Game 7 here on Monday.While the quality of the hockey over the past few games has not suggested that either the Sabres or Canadiens will be much of a challenger in the Eastern Conference finals, history suggests otherwise.Since 2000, there have been eight series in the Stanley Cup playoffs where one team was coming off a Game 7 win and the other was coming off a four-game sweep. The team winning Game 7 won seven of those series, and in two instances, they even swept that opponent. If recent history is any indication, there is a lot more on the line in Game 7 for the Sabres and the Canadiens than just the right to face the Hurricanes.Here are a few of the elements we feel will be a factor in Game 7 at KeyBank Center on Monday night.The goaltending question Arpon Basu: While rookie Jakub Dobeš has shown definite signs of weakness, getting pulled after allowing six goals on 33 shots in Game 6, there is no way Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis will go with another rookie, Jacob Fowler, in Game 7.At least not to start.But it is at least worth wondering if there will be a considerably shorter leash now. St. Louis was considering pulling Dobeš in Game 5 in Buffalo after he allowed three goals on his first four shots — the exact performance that got Alex Lyon pulled for Buffalo in Game 6 — but he deferred to goaltending coach Marco Marciano, who made the call to stick with Dobeš.That decision was rewarded and widely commended when Dobeš stopped the next 32 shots he saw in a 6-3 win. But when you add that moment of uncertainty and combine it with giving up six in Game 6 and add in the finality of a Game 7, the possibility that St. Louis might be quicker to turn to Fowler certainly exists.This will be Dobeš’ 14th consecutive start, something he has not done at the NHL level and has never done period in a span of 30 days like he will be asked to do in Game 7.Ultimately, Dobeš remains fourth in the Stanley Cup playoffs in goals saved above expected per 60 according to Moneypuck, he is the biggest reason the Canadiens won Game 7 in Tampa two weeks ago, and there is zero question he will be making that 14th straight start in Game 7 on Monday.It will be in his hands to determine if he finishes it.Matthew Fairburn: Buffalo’s goaltending was a major reason why the team was able to stack wins and win the Atlantic Division this season. Both Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had long stretches of success. Now, goaltending is the team’s biggest question mark. Both Lyon and Luukkonen have been pulled from games in this series. During the playoffs, Lyon is 13th in goals saved above expected per 60, and Luukkonen is 15th in that category. Lyon allowing three goals on four shots in Game 6 could have sunk the Sabres’ season if not for a workmanlike effort from the rest of the team to turn the game around when Luukkonen took over. And Luukkonen was steady in stopping all 18 shots he faced.For the third time in this series, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff has a decision to make in net. Both goalies have started multiple games in this series. Neither one has been able to find any consistency. But it’s hard to imagine Ruff being able to erase the image of Lyon’s last showing. The Canadiens seem to have figured him out. Luukkonen has dealt with extreme highs and lows this postseason, but he was much sharper in Game 6. It makes sense to ride the hotter hand.The coaching wild cardBasu: Counting the number of line combinations St. Louis used in the final three games of the Lightning series required a spreadsheet. Counting them so far in the second round simply requires some fingers.St. Louis has favored continuity against the Sabres, but after watching his counterpart Ruff shuffle the deck completely in Game 6, it might be St. Louis’ turn in Game 7.One factor worth watching is the state of Juraj Slafkovský, because the version of him we saw in Game 6 just screamed someone playing through some sort of injury. He had no strength on his stick, was knocked off pucks easily and had trouble handling it with any efficiency or effectiveness. If it is an injury that caused that level of play, and if that injury is still a factor Monday, keeping Slafkovský on the top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield would not make much sense.That’s not to say St. Louis should remove Slafkovský from the lineup altogether, but it does provide an excuse to send a spark through his lineup and give Ruff something to react to.Ruff has had six games to figure out a way to attack this Canadiens lineup. If it takes him a game to adjust to a re-configured lineup, that is all the time the Canadiens would need.Fairburn: In this series, Ruff is showing why he’s a Jack Adams finalist. He has the pulse of his team and what they need in a given game. He kept the team away from the rink between Games 5 and 6 to ease the pressure, and that seemed to work. He also significantly shuffled the Sabres’ lines for Game 6 and it produced immediate results. He’ll probably stick with those lines, but his new challenge is how to get his team playing better at home.Ruff joked after Game 6 that he was in the process of trying to see if they could play Game 7 in Montreal given the team’s success on the road. Buffalo is 2-4 at home in the playoffs and 5-1 on the road.“It didn’t get switched but we’re looking forward to giving our fans our best game,” Ruff said before the team flew back to Buffalo on Sunday.Ruff does plan to change the team’s routine at home to change things up. To what length will he go to make Monday feel like a road game? Will the Sabres take the ice to Coldplay? Will Cami Clune sing the French part of the Canadian national anthem? Will Sabres fans start chanting Olé Olé Olé? Will they replace the pre-game drum bang with a torch? Will they change the signage at KeyBank Center to KeyBank Centre?The more realistic option is to have the team stay in a hotel the night before the game to limit some of the distractions that come with playing at home. That seems like it’s going to be the case, as the Sabres have scheduled their media availability for Monday at a local hotel. That’s a first in these playoffs.What ultimately matters is how the Sabres handle the game itself. Their puck decisions have been too careless at home. Turnovers and soft defensive-zone coverage have made the Sabres’ home games helter-skelter affairs.“The goal is to make Game 7 like a Game 6,” Ruff said. “Move the puck quick, play with a lot of pace, keep our feet moving in the offensive zone, and close real quickly in the defensive zone. That’s our recipe.”Game 7 experienceBasu: Last year, when the Canadiens went down 3-1 in their first-round series against the Washington Capitals, Suzuki casually dropped after the Game 4 loss at home that he had been down 3-1 in a series before.It was a reference to 2021, when the Canadiens erased a 3-1 series deficit to the Toronto Maple Leafs and won Game 7 on the road, albeit in a largely empty building. In addition to Suzuki, Caufield, Jake Evans, Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher also played in that Game 7. They all played in Game 7 in Tampa just two weeks ago on May 3, along with the rest of the Canadiens.This is all new for the Sabres. It is not for the Canadiens.“We’re gaining experience, that’s for sure,” St. Louis said after Game 6. “And that’s how you grow, through those experiences. It’s not always a failure, it’s learning, too. It’s a part of it.”On top of that Game 7 experience, it’s been two months — or 29 games — since the Canadiens have lost consecutive games.“We can for sure lean on it,” Suzuki said after Game 6. “We’re a team that’s really resilient, we’ve been in this situation already in the first round, so we have experience. We’ve just got to win one game, so that’s the focus right now.”Fairburn: The Sabres aren’t exactly dripping with Game 7 experience. Alex Tuch has been in this situation in Vegas and said he’ll try to impart some wisdom on his teammates, but added, “It’s hard to explain. Everyone’s gonna have nerves. Everyone sitting in the same spot. If you’re not nervous, you’re not human. But it’s exciting. You’ll have fun with it. It’s the reason why we play the game of hockey.”But the Sabres have tried to block out the talk about their lack of playoff experience. Thinking too much about that hasn’t helped any.“I don’t really think the experience thing is real,” Sabres winger Tage Thompson said. “We’ve been in a situation all season where people have doubted us, had us out, had our backs against the wall the whole season. It’s no different. Obviously the stage is a little bigger and the stakes are higher here but at the end of the day, it’s still the same game. So nothing really changes for us. We’re a good team, we know that. I think that belief in this room is really the only thing that matters.”Who has more to lose?Basu: It could easily be argued both teams are playing with house money here, but for the Canadiens, this group will be back. Aside from potential trade candidates, there are no significant impending unrestricted free agents, the entire core group aside from Ivan Demidov and Dobeš are signed long-term to team-friendly contracts, and both Demidov and Dobeš should be settled this summer.For the Sabres, there is already chatter over Alex Tuch’s future coming off a playoff series where he has not made much of an impact. Bowen Byram’s future in Buffalo has periodically been in question. The Sabres will likely have this opportunity again, but there is at least a possibility that this will be the last chance for this specific group if the Sabres and Tuch are unable to come to terms by July 1.And frankly, the chances of them coming to terms can only decrease with a loss in Game 7. There is just a bit more finality to this game for the Sabres than there is for the Canadiens.Fairburn: Part of why the Sabres were so successful in Game 6 is that they managed to effectively embrace the idea that they had nothing to lose. They were grateful for the opportunity and tried to soak in the moment of playing a Game 6 on a Saturday night in Montreal. Multiple players have brought up the idea that nobody would have expected them to get to this point when NHL training camps opened in September.Now they’re here, though. The nothing-to-lose mindset is harder to manufacture when you’re playing a Game 7 at home with a trip to the conference finals on the line. Ruff is 66 and in the final year of his contract. Tuch is in the final year of his deal, too. The Sabres have a lot of reasons to be excited about the future, but this version of the team has an opportunity that won’t be easy to repeat. Of course, they have plenty to lose in this scenario.But the Canadiens are the ones who had a 3-2 series lead with a chance to close it out at home. They also had a 3-1 lead in Game 6. A big part of the conversation surrounding these two teams has been all the experience they are gaining by playing in these big games. But negative playoff experiences can leave scar tissue. Just ask the Leafs. The Canadiens have already accomplished more than the Leafs did in the first six years of their window, but letting this series slip away would not be a fun feeling to take into the offseason.