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The Montreal Canadiens just keep finding ways to win.
Despite blowing a 3-0 lead, the Habs battle back and take down the New Jersey Devils 4-3 in a shootout to extend their winning streak to EIGHT games.
Shaun Starr and Marco D’Amico break it all down:
Canadiens jump out to a 3-0 lead (Struble, Demidov, Hutson)
Devils storm back with three straight goals to tie it
Clutch shootout performance led by Oliver Kapanen
Jakub Dobes continues his strong run in net
Cole Caufield adds two assists and stays red hot
What does this win say about the Canadiens heading into the playoffs? Are they legit contenders—or are there warning signs in how they let this one slip?
👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments!
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#montrealcanadiens #nhl #hockey
40 Comments
TO ME FOWLER is and will be #1 this and next year and beyond.
Bolduc, explaining his horrible pass to Caufield, which cost the 2nd goal ''The Devils made me do it.''
GO HABS GO!!!!
We pay ppl for those situations and are here for those “Cole Caufield “ how many times as he said it we need to stop with the empty net goals he won’t get over it
If dobes stands on his head about 20 nites in the playoffs , hab will make finals….
Marco, you're an odd fella
Jakub Dobes has always been very competitive; he simply had unrefined raw skills. Now that the Habs have a better goaltending coach, Dobes' skills are becoming refined. His puck tracking is incredible; he's more controlled in his movement in and around the net. If the defence can become more structured, the Habs can be cup contenders.
Hey guys I personally dont agree with the wild card crossover for playoffs. I think the top 4 teams of each division gets in. What are your thoughts guys on the playoff format?
BIG WIN withFOWLER tonight
He has more hair than daddy !!
As soon as Cole hits 50, maybe they’ll start putting him out for 6 on 5 situations, but at this point it has to be obvious that he wants to get there without an empty netter. Which is fine. The individual accolades are already taking up too much of the front seat here. Suzuki’s 100, Slaf’s 30 and Cole’s 50 are fun but they don’t actually matter.
D'amico is high.
Philly Has Porter Martone. Philly wiill get in with him in
Goaltending masking team D deficiencies. Feels like old times
Awww congrats, Marco !! I’m late to the show but always here for you guys
Tampa would be favoured I want the best team I want to c just how far this team is
The Devils dominated much of that game. Hopefully, the Habs will be better in today's game.
Remarkable how the majority of the away gms feel like home gms, that's probably why we have such a great road record, only supplanted by Colorado.
Dobson needs to work on his defending against the rush…man couldn't intercept a 2v1 pass if he had a commercial trolling net.
Caufield scoring 50 at the Bell Centre will be the ultimate gift for Canadiens fans for this season.. hope the insurance is paid cus the roof will be blown off..
Most of your audience won't know this coach I'll talk about because they are just too young.
His name was "Punch" Imlach he was the Coach/General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs for a very long time.
He had a superstar play for him on his team in the late 50's, early 60's named Frank Mahovolich, who BTW beat out Bobby Hull for the Calder when he played. ( I'm pretty sure some young fans heard of Bobby, not just Brett his son)
Imach was only about the team and not the player, all he cared about were wins.
When Mahovolich was getting close to some scoring plateau and his team mates started to lose focus of the game (wins) by feeding the Big "M" instead of taking the best shot, to score a goal, or making the right play to score a goal, they would instead pass the puck to Mahovolich.
Punch Imach put a quick end to that by benching (Mahovolich) the distracting player to send a message to the team…..play to win games for the team not for individual player records.
The players caught on quickly and Frank may have lost a few shifts during a period or all of the shifts in a period to stop "that nonsense ".
Punch Imlach led the Toronto Maple Leafs to 3 consecutive Stanley Cups in a row in the early 1960's and the team's last one in 1967 despite having much less talented teams than did Chicago, Montreal, and Detroit.
Sometimes coaches snd players should look to the strategies employed in the past to help solve a current issue.
There was a time in the NHL that the GM told the coach to bench a player or manipulate his ability to reach a goal or point level in a season to avoid having the owner pay on the bonus clause in z player's contract.
And often at the end of a season with a playoff position settled for a team, the coach would sit out players going for individual records just to reduce the possibility of getting injured before the playoffs or simply resting them.
On Saturday, Montreal almost blew a win when the players went out of their way to try to feed Caufield his 50th goal.
Coach Marty could have sent a message to the team by benching Caufield a couple of shifts on Saturday (not to punish Cole) and tell his players why….
This is especially important at this time of the season since Suzuki is also gunning for a 100 point season and Slaf is gunning for 30 goals, just to name a few.
Marty is the head coach of the team, he is supposed to be the 5 star general on the team and needs to meet the team's objectives, meaning he has to put his foot down and make an unpopular decision just to send a message to the team.
There was another coach in the 50/60's named Billy Reay who was the Leaf's coach when Imlach was named GM. Reay was fired about a week after Imlach was hired and assumed both coach and GM positions to turn the Toronto franchise around.
Billy Reay went to Chicago who was loaded with young stars, won a Cup, and never won another Cup again in the 1960's because he put players over the team.
Did I mention Imlach won 4 cups with a lot less talented teams, once 3 cups in a row?
Every year Billy Reay's teams would flop in the playoffs, despite being loaded with the star players of the decade just like the current version of the 'core 4' era in Toronto. My God, Billy Reay instructed Phil Esposito to only feed pucks to Bobby Hull and his talent was completely wasted by Billy Reay's shortcomings as a coach.
Remember Phil Esposito, the player to first crack through the 100 point mark in 1968/69, the player who scored more goals in the 1970's than anyone else in the NHL.
Coach Marty is not facing a unique situation with Caufield chasing 50goals or Suzuki 's 100 point season in the history of the NHL.
It's been done many, many times before and some coaches knew how to handle the distraction and some didn't while trying to win hockey games.
Punch showed coaches how a little tough love won 4 Stanley Cups for Toronto and how he made decisions as a bench boss.
To those who say the eras are completely different and those tactics can't be employed today is the same reason beside the restrictions of a salary cap issue that you don't see dynasties anymore.
Because players run the team and not the coaches anymore. Look at the Nylander situation in Toronto when he sat it out and you had an extremely ineffective management group in Toronto at the time.
Toronto got a lot of hype, spent a lot of money and went past the first round of the playoffs twice, only to be embarrassed. NO CUPS.
We saw that with Monty in Montreal this season who for whatever reason, was put on a higher priority than the entire team's success to even make the playoffs by Marty St. Louis who outright refused to make the right decision with benching Monty much earlier in the season than he did.
Marty's bad decisions regarding the goaltending coach and Monty was only saved by Dobes high level of play this year despite all of the attempts to crush the kids confidence.
Cozch Marty is NOT a Jack Adams candidate….coaches in Boston's, Pittsburgh 's & Buffalo took teams from rags to riches are….Marty has a loaded team to work with….I am afraid he just might be another Billy Reay, coach of a heavily ladened talented dynasty type team that couldn't win a Stanley Cup…as a fan I hope not but I always can see the long view.
I am well aware there are some pod casters who coach think that Marty is doing a great job and outright refuse to hear criticism of Marty St.Louis.
I get it…coaches are a brotherhood….
Well so are fans. I have no skin in the game. What I have is having closely followed the Montreal Canadiens starting in 1952 and saw them win 17 Stanley Cups.
As I stated, how any one can think that Marty is a better candidate for coaching award of the year over the teams I mentioned, is biased and has blinders on.
I am a true fan of Montreal, my family started religiously attending hockey games after WW2 and starting in 1952 when my dad got season tickets, he even brought me to some games.
I enjoy NHL hockey and appreciate talent, it doesn't matter what team he plays for.
Hes so cute, congrats Marco!
Regarding Cole and ENG, he asked MSL not to put him in a situation where his 50th would be in an empty net. It doesn't address the other 49 previous goals, but it explains why he's not going to be there for the next 6 vs 5.
Marco is a good guy. His son will always be welcome for a guest appearance.
I know you guys don't do Bluesky, so I promote your kids there when I can.
Dobes reminds me of Grant Fuhr
Great show, great game. Canadiens have a bright future 😎
8 on a row. I feel like they’re due for a stinker. I got a bad feeling about today’s game. I hope I’m wrong.
Keep forcing the puck to Caufield , sure it didnt work last night but something like 28 goals in the last 28 games by Caufield , its clearly working, no need to change it lol and im expecting a loss soon for Montreal , cant win every game
Wow Marco, you are FAR too gentle with what we watched last night. I still believe this team is a true contender but what we watched last night was PUTRID. We virtually dominated for 30 minutes and then mailed in the last 30. What makes it worse is it's absolutely clear nobody saw a real problem with the last 10 minutes of the 2nd given how bad they came out and played in the 3rd. Giving up 2 2-on-1's on a 4 min PP that looked awful to begin with should have resulted in all 5 of the top PP line being stapled to the bench with rare shifts simply to spell the 3rd & 4th lines. That's how awful they were, yes including Suzuki. Making it more disgusting is they just did the same thing against the Rangers & Nick called it out, then they did it again. Post game Nick claimed that the 10 game road trip with 5 games just 'blend together'? O REALLY? So no excitement to get back on the ice as soon as possible, no looking forward to the next stop, Nick's comment makes it sound like it was just a boring business trip selling widgets! As far as it being a long, compressed season, carrying 200 lb players around the ice on a regular basis being 'difficult', I'll remind this group of kids that the '70s and early '80s teams played with WOOD, taking devastating cross checks and slashes that would put these guys in the hospital. Until this team learns to play a full 60 minutes as much as they are contenders, they aren't making it out of the 1st round!
Marco, here's a suggestion for your and Shaun's feed. Given your access to the locker room, run post game poles to take questions from fans that you'll ask the players (obviously you get the last say in choosing the question). Here are a few I want asked:
1) Do the players to a man believe they can win the Stanley Cup this year? If not, why not?
2) We're they happy to embarrass their goalie on the 4 min PP? If not what was the expected response and do they think they brought it?
3) Have they ever heard the term 'finish your check'? If so what do they think it actually means?
Yes, all of these questions are intended to point out how bad that last 30 minutes was. Unlike Eric Engels who thinks bringing out the old saw that "They don't ask how, they ask how many" is somehow relevant, we've clinched a playoff spot so it is about HOW. This is not how a Habs team with this talent should be playing, there's no reason to be embarrassing yourself and your goalie like that. Play 60 minutes and lose then you can at least hold your head high, lay an egg for 30 minutes and winning should have them all thinking about where their next meal is coming from. Clearly I'm not at all happy about the game, that is not to take anything away from just how good I think they are, in fact its because I see the amount of talent and ability that I'm so pissed about their play last night. They have 6 games to show different, maybe if they've clinched with no possibility of movement in the standings they can take a night off to avoid injury but otherwise they have to show the league they're ready to rise to the challenge. GO HABS GO!
Marty's point can't be dismissed given how frickin' passive we are when down a man. He does not want Cole Caufield blocking shots which is a main strategy of ours.
If Monty gets another start this season fire everyone
Getting back on the positive side of the fence, after watching Caulfield's 2 assists last night, his assist on Suzuki's goal before that etc., etc., how long before we are talking about him being a perennial 50/50 man?
Patrick Roy just got fired
And Detroit loosing 4-1 at the end of 2nd
Keeping the positive vibes going, we should all be happy to see Demigod get out of his post Olympic funk. He's playing at a PPG pace but equally importantly he's a stud on playing D, forechecking, backchecking, using his size to win puck battles. That's ELITE level play from a rookie, playing the 'right way' at both ends of the ice is something that takes most players years to perfect, he's getting there in his first year. It's beautiful to watch regardless of if his line scores.
Marco Jr. is a real sweetie…congrats. But…but..NO HABS ONESY????
Thank you to whomever gifted me membership. It's very much appreciated. 😊😊❤❤❤😊😊
This 4 min PP was atrocious….
I know people have short memories and why they just look at the simple numbers but this team has more often than not played sub par games but somehow keep finding ways to win.
EVERY single night you will see teams out played out shot and they still win so it is not just MTL but the MTL seems to be better at it than most teams.
it's all about the shooting msot shooters make goalies look good but if you aim it elevate your shots the goalies will look bad…real bad.
Case in point Dobes down on his knees like always gives up an IMPOSSIBLE angle goal if he stands up it has no way of going in.Anpotehr goal is shot over his spread out pad yep elevate over the goalei who is on his knees all game and it's in.
Well MTL scored the same way goalies just drop down leaving upstairs wide open I think it was Demidov who put one over the shoulder of Allen…simple aim it it goes in you shoot at the goalie you make him look good.