LIVE 10AM (ET) with the Starr & D’Amico Show!
Join Shaun Starr and Marco D’Amico LIVE Sunday morning after the Montreal Canadiens faced-off against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Montreal went into Saturday night winless in their last 5 games, while Toronto has also struggled going 1-4-2 over their last 7.
Join Shaun and Marco for their reactions and analysis and a deep dive into Saturday night’s contest and they want YOU to weigh in LIVE on the show with your reactions, comments and questions after Saturday night’s game.
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41 Comments
Toronto is struggling.this is not a huge win
All we needed was a game against the leafs! Our best effort of the year? FLO brought some good energy. DOBY looked like he's getting his confidence back, Marty should treat that like a little ember and nurture it into a roaring fire.
When Savard left, he said that if Slaf plays well, we'll win, and if not, we'll lose. It seems that he fits in quite well with Demidov and Kapanen. Slaf has to play well, then the game will develop completely differently. Savard was right.
Dobeš' numbers were great last night but he did seem to be fighting his positioning and seem to be reacting late to long shots. Is it just me or did you think that as well?
Dudes you need to cut these videos back down to 20 minutes. I used to like this show. I am not wasting an hour+ on this.
Can't build a contender on hope, yet everyone HOPES for a big trade for a 2C. Half the league has the same hopes.
They might as well sign him, Veleno shouldn't play every game.
Most important…Congrats to the Xhekaj family! I am so glad they gave Florian star #3. What a thrill! (Same for Joe Valeno after his first goal the other day.) These guys know what it feels like to make the Montreal fans happy in the Bell Center now. I think Marco is right that Florian has probably not yet found his forever home in Montreal, but he has shown us some strong potential going forward, and I think we want him on the road trip.
I have been a Slaf fan from the get-go. People don't seem to understand that there is more to hockey than G-A-Pts. Skilled-bangers like Slaf are all but essential to a successful line. (I hope Bolduc can become this type.) And if you had any doubts that Slaf-Demidov was a thing, just go back to the Canucks game (with Demidov on PP1 for first time) where you not only see them work well together, but they also shared hugs and smiles. We don't have hugs and smiles stats, but it still communicates valuable info.
Lastly, Speaking of information who which no stat accounts…I am becoming more and more intrigued by Kapanen. It is not so much because he has scored a bunch of goals so much as he seems to have a bit of a Gallagher-like annoyance factor. Again, those who pay attention to the social aspects of the game (after the play, behind the play, etc.), you will see a lot of others messing with Kapanen and he has a bit of a pushback. I love it!
Blues scouting habs, im ok with kyrou but they better be certain the hage or zharovsky are a center.
Our boys needed this win ..!! Going on the road …on a WINNING note ..is Much more Fun ..!! Now..Keep it going ..!! G.H.G .
Everyone who knows me on here know that I’ve never been a Slafkovsky fan and that I’ve been preaching Cooley since the draft of 2022. But last night was different , This was Slafkovsky best career game , o don’t care about the pts , he entered and carried the puck into the zone like a young Rick Nash! He look like a true power forward last night . He needs to stay on the second line . Perhaps he has been pressure to pass the puck while playing with caufield and Suzuki but now! He carries the puck and controls the play
Last night Slafkovsky was just outstanding .
For those of you who keeps saying that players need time in the AHL , that they need a couple years developing in Laval🤦♂ No , that’s bullshit , good players in majority get to the NHL early , great players get to the nhl real early
Same shit goes for Fowler , if Monty keeps choking , get rid of him and bring up Fowler
NHL Legends don’t waste time in the AHL , you won’t have a 20 year career if you get to the NHL at the age of 23 ! Saying that players need years in the AHL is an excuse to cover up poor drafting and development. This is a young men’s league now
Even when guys return from injuries , Montreal needs to get rid of deadwood and keep getting bigger . The habs talented players play way better when they have struble , the xhekaj s , Anderson and Davidson in the lineup.
Hughes main focus should be trying to get rid of Laine , Veleno , gallagher , Dach and even Carrier , replace these guys by big agressive players that will be able to follow the pace or stay healthy
Great Show TY!
I don't even like hearing Guhles name coming up in trade ideas… he's had terrible injury luck but is still a huge piece of this team going forward. He's exactly the type of D man a championship team has to supplement the hutsons and dobsons.
I’ve been saying this on here weekly for months , as soon as Montreal build big fast physical checking lines , they’ll become a powerhouse in this league . It’s obvious as day , as soon as Montreal as physical players in the lineup they dominate as their talented players play with confidence and are more courageous . The effect of having big players on the checking lines trickles down to players who wouldn’t be physical if they were the main characters
The habs needs two checking lines that opposing teams fear and hate to play against , then and only then the top two lines will be matched up against similar lines from the opposing teams
I thought Suzuki played his best game in a while last night
Happy they won, two things to point out. It's still frustrating not to see a huge body in front of the goalie when on the PP, second if Slafkovsky plays like he did last night,not looking to pass the only but having the confidence to be the man ,it will be a very positive sign
The Leafs were missing Mathews, Knies, Stolarz, Carlo, Tanev and Roy. Of course the Habs smoked them. Congrats on the Habs for burying a weakened team. The funny thing was that Toronto media actually thought they had a chance last night.
Like I said a million times , while a lot of guys on here were laughing Engstrom will have a better career than reinbacher and it won’t even be close
Montreal need to resign matheson and they need struble and xhekaj for physical players and so the whole defensive core doesn’t cost you too much
You’re not saying trading Guhle ? I am , I’m saying trade Guhle , he’s rarely in the lineup and it’s time to quit wasting time on injury prone players , I also hate carrier , that guys is brutal and so is reinbacher
The core for years to come should be
Matheson , Dobson ,Hutson , struble , xhekaj , engstrom .
I wonder if NJ would be willing to trade Nemec for Guhle straight up?
Ok Marty, stop being stupid, grow a brain and make Dobes the number one goalie. He destroyed his confidence by keeping the sieve as number one when he couldnt stop a puck from a 12 year old! Send Monty down and bring up kahkonen as the backup.
Engstrom and Hutson now 🤣
Great game and nice win by the Habs. I'm still not convinced the team's troubles are over. Maple Laughs are a weak team this year. Let's hope they kill it out West, like they did last year in December. Slaf was flying last night.
Veleno had a very good game as well. 😊
Imo Florian will be here for a while unless he gets injured by a heavyweight. Look at the effect he had on Anderson alone. The only issue is that if they truly want him to become a center then he needs to play in Laval.
I agre with Marco about Flo
But the Brotherly love was great…a bit tough but great!!!
Loved the energy within the team
Nice win. Flo stays as long as he remembers his role. Dobes was better but still out of position too much. Over playing the puck.
Better play by the D and great possession won that game.
dobes played good in afternoon games last year
Come on Marco, sure there might be some overreaction re: Florian but that's expected just like the adrenaline you say was flowing through him. The IMPORTANT identification is that Florian played a fast, hard, simple and RESPONSIBLE game. Watch the Anderson goal again, Florian drops back to the blueline when he sees Matheson carry the puck in , he made himself available for the D-to-D pass (even the announcer mistook him for Dobson), played the puck in deep to the net than went hard to the corner to win the puck for a simple pass to Anderson. My point is that adrenaline or no adrenaline, his play is eminently repeatable…will he do it? We can only wait to see but I see no reason why he can't. We aren't asking him to score 40 goals or 80 pts, he'll be 3rd/4th line energy guy, we can hope for 15 to 20 G/40pts, and consistently keeping the play in the offensive zone and wearing down the other team. Its easy to see him doing that.
Yes, yes, we all know that playing Suzuki 24m a night is unsustainable but 20 shouldn't be. McDavid and similar play similar time, the main difference being that Suzuki will play PK some times too. Kapanen/Slafs/Demidov can easily become a 1B line the way they are playing, increasing their time to 18m would spell Suzuki some especially with Kapanen playing PK and Demidov playing PP. Kapanen doesn't have to be flashy just consistently making himself available.
Marco, signing Texier is NOT 'free depth', geez you've been talking about how the Hab's have been 'growing their CAP space' all year, but as I've noted that's not what happens. Signing Texier for what he might expect ($2.1M/year) means cutting in to the CAP available to trade for a 2C. So signing Texier may be a good choice for depth but it is NOT 'for free', it will impact choices they can make later in the year.
Regarding D core, we're an embarrassment of riches. With that said it would be a mistake to not sign Matheson to at least 4/5 years, 7/8 doesn't seem right though. At that point you have only 3 'untouchable' D-men, Hutson, Dobson, Matheson, everyone else can be traded for the correct 2C. Beyond that we know that Carrier is on the hot seat, played better last night like everyone but I just don't see carrying him when you have Egstrom & Reinbacher available. We know Carrier's level and its not at a level a championship team needs, at least Struble/Xhekaj have an upside still but for the correct 2C Hughes shouldn't be adverse to trading any D-man (absent the 3 I mentioned).
We’re so lucky that Savard retired, the defensemen logjam that we’ve had since year 1 of the rebuild is simply ridiculous, lots of pieces we’ve traded lately are defensemen with no future here, because of said logjam.
Barron, Harris, Mailloux, Kovacevic, the only real exception being the 3rd Petry trade, because we were facilitators on paper, he never actually rejoined the team.
Currently fans are fantasizing on trading Matheson, Guhle, Carrier, Engstrom, Reinbacher, because they are on their last season of their contract, are always injured or didn’t even make the team yet so they wouldn’t really feel like a loss, like Mailloux, or because they simply had a bad stretch.
Ultimately, the reason we can think that, is the logjam
…. and if we’re looking back, the guys who were traded away were in Struble, Xhekaj, Engstrom or Reinbacher shoes, not up top, in fact we’ve so far only acquired up top with Dobson and Carrier, and like previously mentioned gracefully kept Savard until his retirement instead of treating him simply as an asset.
It might change, now that we are not rebuilding anymore.
Great show, love watching this show.
Engstrom did get called up so…
they needed that win. They've been playing like crap all year long.
Just to rectify. I believe the “neutered” comment was towards my comment in the last video. Arber needed some obvious coaching and some mellowing down was needed. However. As someone who has played pro level sports. Taking away someone’s instinct can be totally detrimental to what got them to the pro level. The Xhekaj squared effect last night was obvious and everyone knowing they were good made the whole team more comfortable. Good point on the 23 man roster. The recent call ups are very telling. This upcoming stretch will have a pretty big impact on what this team could or couldn’t do this year. Arber has to have that Tom Wilson to him. Otherwise he isn’t very useful. Thanks for the great show once again gentlemen.
great podcast! Good job guys!
About Slafkovsky.
I'm actually happy Montreal went on this long losing streak. It forced Marty to make changes to the lineup and he finally did. Slafkovsky on the top line was basically there to prop Suzuki and Caulfield. He goes to the boards, gets the puck which he is very good at and moves the puck to the point where the defenseman then moves the puck to Suzuki who looks for Caulfield. Slafkovsky is constantly being overlooked by the fanbase because he doesn't produce points.
When he got moved to Demidov, what happened? The Demidov line started producing and they look very good. plus Slafkovsky actually is carrying the puck, not Suzuki and Demidov is constantly looking for him and feeding him pucks. Slafkovsky could of had a hat trick against Toronto if Woll didn't stand on his head and make those saves.
Suzuki and Caulfield are a pair but we now have Demidov and Slafkovsky. We got some duo's that will form the foundation of the Habs for years to come.
next year we have 9 nhl defensemens, trade 2 keep 1 for backup cauz always injury? at least guhle is almost at the right price, 8mil defenseman who play half year is 4mil xD