Kreider! Xhekaj! MSL! Latest From Habs Golf Tournament

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1:00Give your pet the best with Little Bear pet supplies of proudly, family, or business here in Montreal for over 30 years. Chuck, Evie and their All-Star staff have you taken care of with all the top brands at the best prices and they really care for your pets. Shop online at LittleBareOnline.com or visit them on St. Catherine, across from Westmount Square, it's Little Bear pet supply. Brought to you by McLean's Pub. Head over to McLean's Pub, 1210 Peel Street in the heart of downtown Montreal. Great food, cold drinks, and big games on all the screens. McLean's Pub, good times, and great company. What is happening? There's a Marco Humshawn. Welcome back to St. R&D Mico in the aftermath of the Montreal-Canadian Gulf tournament at Clube de Golf. La Valle, Cerville Lac, where Marco de Mico stepped on the hallowed grounds for the first time. Pleasure to see him there on Monday morning into the afternoon. As the Montreal-Canadians, brother, finally, I guess, open up their season ahead of the Ona sessions and the September 29 start date

2:01against the Toronto Maple Leafs Boyle boy. What a weekend, huh? For Habs Nation, we covered it like a blanket, following the Chris Crider deal, following the Zach Bulldoch deal, and then Marco, let's start in order. Let's continue with where it went with Josh Anderson, replacing Brendan Gallagher as the alternate captain, and then Martaine Saint-Louis gets a brand new four-year deal. They throw it the last year on his deal, given four years, I'm sure he gets a nice little pay bump. What an exciting time for the Canadians. Where were you in August? We couldn't use some of this in August, but happy to have it anyway. How's it going today? I'm Le Tide. Yeah. Oh, other than that, things are great. Yeah. On it, look, I mean, start of the season, right? Like this is the symbolic gong to the start of the season. And the players were pumps. Obviously, there was a lot to be excited about. The announcement after announcement, Anderson getting the A, you know, Martaine Saint-Louis getting that extension,

3:03Chris Crider being in town, announcing number 22 is his number. Like there was a lot going on. Players coming in. So it's exciting. It's fun. I think the players are ready to go. Management seems ready to go. Ownership, ready to go. They want to see what the season holds and I'm pretty sure fans feel the same way. Mm-hmm. You know, the Martaine Saint-Louis extension, I want to kind of start there, right? I mean, not only, you know, I can sit here and tell you that, you know, Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon are surprised that the level of success Martaine Saint-Louis has had is in his first foray as an NHL bench boss, right? As we spoke about at the time, I recall with accuracy, right, that here's a guy that his resume speaks for itself. He walks into any room, whether he's speaking to corporate gigs or whether he's speaking to a hockey dressing room. He comes in and commands instant respect. And one of the other things too, right, is the ability to kind of sell your message to the room where they hear it, they absorb it, and then apply what you're trying to do.

4:05Like how much has changed do you think with MSL's approach as the team has gotten better year after year? I think that I just feel like expectations on his end and I wouldn't say consequences, but having his players be accountable. I think that's what's deferred year after year. Like in the beginning, we remember the rhetoric, right? Like allow for mistakes, don't necessarily bench a player when they make a mistake, you don't want to kill the passion of the game because without the passion, there's no growth, which is a wicked line, should be in a fortune cookie, but it's true. You apply that to today where, uh-oh, make a mistake, that's not, make one mistake, okay, make two mistakes. Three mistake, it becomes a trend, the whip comes out. So that's what we saw over the last season. Zachary Buzzerk, for example, his lack of defensive commitment

5:06in certain situations saw him in the press box. And then he would come back and we play a monster a couple of games and then back in the press box. Your ice-slip cost, you talked about consistency again today. So a lot of the players, a lot of the younger players, I mean like the ones that were either drafted at or by this management team or young players that were traded for, they have found out what the rising level of accountability looks like and it doesn't change in this situation. It's going to go up another notch because now everybody sees the Montreal Canadians coming. Now everyone that's gonna be playing Montreal is gonna be doing their due diligence in the video room with a little bit more detail than maybe they did previously. And a lot of the players that's surprised, they'll be waiting for it. And so it's going to require them to evolve and to be more accountable on the ice in terms of the way that they impact it at both ends. That doesn't change, it just gets even more important. I mean Captain Nick Suzuki on his coach,

6:07said maybe the greatest coach he's ever had, right? And again, speaks to the togetherness, to use that word on the dynamic that's been kind of built and continues to be built with the Montreal Canadians and the players on the ice. And they welcome them in newcomer Chris Criter who have fans got a chance to see and hear from for the first time. Here's Chris Criter, let's throw it to our wonderful producer, Shane on Chris Criter addressing the Montreal media on a Monday afternoon, weighing in on why the Montreal Canadians. Montreal was pretty aggressive right out of the gate. And obviously there's several connections to my time spent in New York. So there's a familiarity there. So I think that certainly helped as well. And I think just everything that they're doing here and have been doing for a few years now, the culture that they built, the group that they have. Obviously it's a pretty big hockey city, the passion. I mean, trying to explain some of my friends

7:09that it's not just a sport here, it's a religion. So it's a pretty amazing place if you get the opportunity to play. And I'm really excited to play the bellstone. I mean, if you're a Habs fan, right, you gotta be smiling, right? I understand, listen, I mean, he's 35 years old. But at the end of the day, it's still a player with a lot of gas left in the tank, Marco. That could play a top six rule that chose the Montreal Canadians. And I know we talked about it on our crytor episode that came out on Sunday, right? About potential suitors and everybody else perhaps poking around wondering what his level of interest would be. But this is a good day for this fan base. Again, it's another player that put his hand up and said, yeah, I'm gonna come to Montreal. It does a couple of things I find this signing. A, it reinforces that Montreal is a destination. That teams look at what's going, they're sorry, players look at what's going on in Montreal. And you can't help but be curious about what's being built by that organization

8:10in terms of the young players, the energy, the momentum, the management team. There's a lot to like. And then of course, Martijn Saint-Louis himself, which we'll get to in a sec. One element that really kind of stood out for me in terms of crytor's decision is, you know, he said it very eloquently. He wanted to go to a place where hockey mattered and where winning mattered. And you know, as he said at the end of that clip, hockey is not a sport in Montreal or Quebec in general. It is a religion. And I think what it does is puts Montreal back on the map. It's the biggest free agent they've signed under this administration. But it also allows us to take this narrative about American players not wanting to play in Canada and boot it straight for the field goal. Because that is a low to hogwash. There are more players leaving American teams for other American teams than there are star players leaving Canadian teams for American teams right now.

9:13And you look at a guy like Crytor, Kudagant to Boston, but what was more important to him? The familiarity fit and winning. And I think the Canadians aren't a good spot for that because now you have a selling point. Chris Crytor can come in and play in the Canadians top six and you get to take your pick at playing with Cole Coffield. Nick Suzuki, your ice-slifkowski, Ivan Demadov. And I think even the possibility of playing with Michael Hage in April. Mm-hmm. Because I'm not sold if things go well enough. I'm not sold that this is a one and done for Chris Crytor. Let's dive into Crytor a little bit more, right? It's a foregone conclusion. He's a top six player, right? Oh, he did it again. Did what? I've been trying to. Yeah, my God. So with Crytor, it's a gimme plot. He's a top six guy. Whether Slap drops down, he plays on the top line or he plays with 93, whatever the case is.

10:14Top six guy, right? But Jeff Gordon said, he brings that power forward game. How much accuracy is there to that description? Because we look at his heat map on Moneypuck the other day, right? Together, all the majority of his goals come in front of the net. But when you look at his hit charts, this is not someone that he's not Josh Anderson. Like he's not running North South bowling guys over. Like he averages like a hit a game more or less. So walk me through your interpretation of Chris Crytor power forward. You don't have to hit to play tough. Yeah. It's the way I've always seen it. Puck protection is a skill that requires some level of toughness. A willingness to go, you know, you can have six hits because you're just plucking guys in the corner that are hobbling with the puck. But then, you know, never really go to the high danger areas and pay the price in front of the net. That to me is tough. He could take 16 cross checks in the back, fall down,

11:14get back up and continue to be that screen in front of the net. Something the Canadians, you know, severely lacked. I found last season and into the playoffs. He drives to the net. It's per the reason he's aided. I feel like at the same time, very good at deflecting pucks, he could score in multiple different ways. He's shown that he could score and create offense at even strength. And again, a guy that has experience, especially of late in being able to help, you know, elevate youngsters that play around him and shoulder a lot of that two way responsibility. Because again, we continue to look at him as an offensive player. But remember, this is a player that also plays on the penalty kill. We'll be interesting to see how MSL uses him in that regard. But being able to bring that two way element takes a whole world of a strain off a guy like Ivan Demadov, for example, or a guy like Cole Caulfield, should he swap with your ice love Kowski? Or if he just ends up being a high end third line player,

12:15do you imagine him on a line with Zach Bultzick? I don't even care who the center is. You just call that line crash and bang. Right, right. But speaking of Zachary Bulldoch, and I want to get back to Criter in a second, but speaking of Zach Bulldoch, I mean, his challenge became a little steeper, didn't it? When it came to the possibility of maybe winning a top six role, getting a second-wave power play time with the rival of Chris Criter? I think you need both, right? I think, because Brennan Gallagher used to get a regular shift on the power play. So, way I see it is you're just swapping out Gallagher who was the net front on PP2 anyway for Criter. So I don't think it necessarily hurts him, but the value is definitely going to be five on five, my two cents. The value for him is then to be five on five. It's going to be in those tighter games. But that's not to say that he's still a fast, big body to player. He looked in shape. So again, a free acquisition, a low cost acquisition,

13:17unless he absolutely explodes. You're looking at a guy that's going to probably top out a $4.6 million cap hit with the bonuses. I think that's excellent. I really that kind of player, there's nothing, there's very little risk involved, especially considering it's a one year deal. And the way he spoke about the Montreal Canadians, you can tell that the fact that he had to explain it to his friends, right? That says a lot. The fact that you have to sit there and just be like, why is someone that grew up in Boston and lives in Connecticut still in the New England area going to play for Montreal? Well, it's because of the passion. It's because of how close they are in their window to challenge or a cup on a consistent basis. And it's because of those that he's built relationships with in the past that would be Gorton, that would be Martinsa and Lewey, and that would be a lot of the team staff that used to be with the Rangers that are now with the Canadians.

14:20Make sure you stay with us on the channel for today's episode. We're going to hear from the president of the Montreal Canadians, Jeff Gordon, as he weighs in on Arbor Jacki and also Chris Carter, but Shane, if you can, Chris Carter. And this is a point Mark, when I brought up on our Sunday episode, talking about, I remember asking Mark with this very specific question about the influence of the or the advantage is probably a better way to describe it, of the Canadians having Martinsa and Lewey, having Jeff Gordon. And how much of that perhaps factored in? Well, apparently it definitely had a had a factor in Chris Carter's career as a pro-wrestling fighter. Thanks to our friends at Habs on Reddit, who put this out and I'll read it for the audio portion of the podcast. Quote, that's a massive draw talking about Martinsa and Lewey. For me, having been lucky enough to play with him towards the end of his career in New York, even back then, he was almost like a player coach, the intensity, the tenacity, just the things that he

15:20brought to the ring every day. I don't think that I can say that I've ever learned more from him than I've ever seen him playing with him on his line. He's super wise, incredibly smart, even back then, you knew that he'd be a great coach. So definitely a big draw. Chris Carter on the influence of Martinsa and Lewey. And here we are now, Martinsa and Lewey, for the first time, coaching a player that he played with. And again, falling back, Marco to Nick Suzuki pointing at his coach saying maybe he's the best coach he's ever been coached by. So it really does. Having that infrastructure, having that, I know these guys. Yes, Montreal's a winning club on the rise, but it's just another advantage the Canadians have. Were you surprised by by Criter describing MSL the way he did there? At all, at all. And in fact, those that I knew around the Rangers thought so much, those that I knew around Columbus thought as much as well when he was there for as like a power play consultant.

16:22And I already had the kind of that eye for it. I remember talking to John Cooper about it. You know, earlier this season, how he saw it to a degree in the way that that Marty played and the way that he was in the room. And, you know, I had a there was one famous code. I remember even getting from John Torturella that was like, you know, he may not have been a coach, but I spoke to him as much as much time as I did my assistance. And that, you know, a curious mind, the reasoning behind things, how to make things happen on the ice, having the experience of being able to do it from a player's perspective. Again, it speaks to a lot of players nowadays that you have a coach's player. And I like the way that that Criter eloquently put it. Marta Saint Louis was a player coach before he was ever a coach. Canadians president Jeff Gordon also weighed in on Chris Criter and his arrival as Marco pointed out earlier today.

17:23Jersey number confirmed he's going to wear the number 22. Here's Jeff Gordon on the new edition. Chris Criter. I mean, obviously, you know, wasn't expecting for him to be available. You know, if you go back a couple weeks. So when he became available, you know, we're looking at our roster. There'd be a good fit for a lot of reasons. You know, size, speed, appearance. You know, his playoff records really good. I knew that he would be a really good fit in the room. It just seemed like wasn't so what did you guys really any negatives when we were thinking about it? So thankfully, you know, once we spoke to him and went through the whole process. You know, once he called us and said he wanted really wanted to come to Montreal like their group. You know, we're all excited about that. So there's Jeff Gordon on Chris Criter touching on a lot of key things. Right. I mean, I can't help but wonder. You know, one of the many lessons Mark with the Canadians learned from their adventures in the playoffs,

18:25losing in five ultimately in the third round to the Carolina hurricanes. And you brought up, you know, a couple of names on the weekend, right? Talking about, you know, Courtney Perry, but more specifically, I mean, Jordan Stahl and the impact he had with Carolina. I choose to read into the fact that Montreal learned a lesson there that they're very consistent. I play at the right time that fits in the room right now. And you know, Criter's here as far as we can tell on a one year deal. That's the contract length, right? But who knows what the future has in store. But what's your takeaway? Is it, is it, you know, trying to touch on what were several missing ingredients from making this team more competitive, more dangerous and tougher to match up against? And for you, how much does Criter check those boxes? I think St. Louis was going about it on his presser where he was just checking all the things that Criter does that they need. Right. You know, speed, the physical, you know, the ability to take punishment, the net front presence, the leadership, the goal scoring.

19:27Like he checks all the boxes of what, you know, the Canadians were looking at. Now, would it have been more ideal if they would have gotten the Chris Criter from 10 years ago? Maybe because then the Canadian have an off to the races for a long time. But in the meantime, excellent stopgap for the Canadians to get will be able to, I think will be, you know, good in being able to show a guy like your ice lovekovsky who mentioned that he was eager to learn from him. A guy like Zach Budzuk, who will look to want to try to emulate that style and his prime as well. I think it will be good to have a player like that within the team. And I think it's also going to be a little bit of a relief for a guy like Josh Anderson, who has been like the de facto power forward insert here when, you know, you're feeling small. Well, now you're having options now you have Criter now you have slavkovsky now you, you know, like, and so I feel like you can have that crash and banger on every single line. So, I think it won't be worried about putting one line up versus another because they'll have diversified the personas in their lineup to the point where they can match up against any line on any night.

20:39So the Chris Criter file is now a Fettacomplee and now we wait for the results to show up on the ice. There's still one file that looms large and it's Canadian's defenseman Arbor Jacki in the aftermath of Zachary Bull, Bulldox signing for four years. Interesting to perhaps read that maybe one of the holdups in terms of getting this over the line was how many years. Going back and forth ultimately landing on four at 16.8 million over the lifetime of that deal. Again, back to Jeff Gordon as he weighs in here on what's going on with Arbor Jacki. What's the holdup here's Jeff Gordon. Confident, you know, confidence and negotiation. I don't want to talk too much, but we have a few days before we get on the ice. I'm confident that Arbor will be there. Okay, short and sweet. Confident he's going to get there. I mean, still I got a couple of days. Marco, what's what's what's what do you think's been the holdup? Like that's to me. That's the big question that looms large because personally I thought Jacki, no disrespect to the player. I honestly believed his contract was going to be maybe the easiest to get pen to paper to, but clearly, I mean, he's going to he's the last one and it's according to the two, you know, people in the know and appears what you're hearing here, but start start there. Like what's the holdup been.

21:54Philosophy and we've talked about this. It's not money. They can easily afford whatever Jacki is reasonably asking for. I don't think that it's a money term issue. It's a philosophy issue. It's where does Arbor Jacki fit today, tomorrow and beyond. And you know, when you're a guy in his, you know, in his shoes, you know, going to be 25. You're this is entering the prime now of your career. It's no longer like it was before where you hit your prime at 28 is a defenseman like you're hitting at 24 25. And, you know, unfortunately, he's got Lane Hudson, Mike Matheson ahead of him, absolutely on the depth chart. There's Kaden Gouli. We'll see how long he's out for it. And then you have Jaden Strubel that he's been arm wrestling ice time with for basically two years. But the problem now is you got to look behind you. There's Adam, and David Reimbacher coming for jobs. So where does he fit in all this. And if he were to decide, right, to sign a one year deal.

22:59Would he be subjected to the same inconsistent amount of deployment that we saw last year. And that's why he didn't sign. He didn't file for arbitration like Kirby, docked it, even though he was eligible because then that would have locked him into a contract at a given date by the league because there would be an arbitration hearing. And by not doing that, you have a little bit more control, a little bit more leverage to if the situation doesn't fit, maybe, you know, agree to disagree on the vision and perhaps seek a solution elsewhere. But I think Jack has loved for the team, the room. Being the last one that was unsigned, he was not at the golf tournament because he was unsigned. And he wouldn't be allowed on the ice or training camp, according to Jeff Gordon, because he unsigned. That's, I feel like the Canadians kind of did have done this with certain negotiations, but they use the power of that locker room in negotiations at times and timing.

24:05And I feel like for Arbor's situation, you know, either you request a trade or you suck it up and you prove that you you deserve those minutes. And I think he's chosen the ladder in terms of advancing conversation here. It's going to be interesting to see how they go about, you know, signing this. But for all the sense of purposes that I was told which mirrors the reporting from Pierre LeBron, not expecting this to drag on too, too much longer. You know, just my own opinion here, I think he'd be lucky if he got three years. That's what I think he's looking at in terms of a max term, right? For, for, you know, primarily based on the unknown of the player and who he ultimately becomes, whether he's a regular rotation player or not. And the incoming arrival, barring some sort of trade with two names that you mentioned, the David Reimbacher and Adam Angstrom. The other interesting tidbit that came from Monday's call tournament at LaValle Stralac was, was goal tending. Let's wrap up today's discussion on goal tending for a second. They're going to have three goalies to camp.

25:05Ken Hughes mentioned that he does not want to start the season September 29th in Toronto with three goal tenders. I'll throw my hat in the ring, man, like honestly, bro, I am good. If they decide to go with San Montibau and Jacob Dolbesch as the tandem that starts the year and Jacob Fowler obviously goes back to be the number one for Daniel Jacob and the LaValle rocket. I mean, do you see it honestly, even if Fowler has like, wow, like a stand up and show me kind of camp like they know Jacob Fowler at this point. Still trying to understand San Montibau and whether or not there is a bounce back in this game. Would you be surprised if it isn't Montibau and Dolbesch to start the year at least in Toronto. Montibau would have to play terrible in preseason and there's going to have the opportunity is couple of split games. You would have to be abysmal in my opinion for Jacob Fowler to start or you would have to be very, very good.

26:10And that perks up a team that has an injury or that's looking for goal tending depth and it results in a trade. And that's just that's the way I see it. I think waving Samuel Montibau would kill any possibility of you trading like it. If the Canadians want to go that route, good, but that's their call and it would be inconsistent with the way that they've been positioning themselves as being a player oriented team. Like waving Montibau would be a ruthless move. It would be a straight up cold move. But if it weren't said or weren't said, I just I think they would exhaust all options before they would do that. That's that's just the way I see it. And I heard the idea of going into cap space like Pierre McGuire. I mentioned in cap space as a valuable, the most valuable part of who Sam Montibau is. So like to me, if they do decide to and I don't disagree, it would be a ruthless, starkly move. Unless it adds up something bigger.

27:12Yeah, you'd be saving $2.3 million. Yeah. Unless you're taking money back on a dealer retaining. So I. You could. If you were to wave some on to more again, like I said, he's in Laval the whole year. And unless there's an injury and then you call him up. That's basically it. But I think you would nuke his value if you did that. Now, I'm not saying that they wouldn't consider doing it. But I think that they have too much respect for the player. That they would go that route and potentially negatively impact his ability to continue playing hockey in the NHL next season. Because this is a contract year and you don't want to bury him either. So I think that there's a possibility of the Canadians decide to go over the route that the Pittsburgh penguins took last year with Tristan Jerry, which was give him another chance to see if he can rebuild his confidence. And if his play increases to the point where he's giving you excellent starts, you can either roll with him as a backup.

28:18Or he becomes a trade ship with some value that you can move at the right time and then call up Jacob Fowler. And I think a lot of people are also worried about how Jacob Fowler is going to take this. Don't. He was probably one of the most level headed 23 year olds I've ever met. And he understands the business. He understands that he wasn't supposed to get the starts that he was supposed to get that he got last year. And he doesn't take them for granted. He doesn't see it as I deserve it now. He's just ready to come in and work and be better and be better and be better and be better. So, you know, as long as he gets consistent playing time, that's what matters. That it be in Montreal or Laval. I think he's going to see a lot of both this year. All right. Good stuff, brother. Good stuff. Let the season begin. Beautiful day for golf to hope everyone had a good time and a good time at Laval. So like like the greens over there. It's like putting on on table tops. They're just so fast. And I know Jeff Gordon had a chance to speak to Jeff Gordon earlier on Monday and wasn't looking forward to it.

29:22Apparently not the not the best golfer amongst the haves for an office member. So good time raising a lot of money for the Montreal Canadian Children's Foundation. So I hope they raise a shit 10 of money. Good job, everybody. Good to see you, brother. Big shot art as always to our valued sponsors that rolled with us throughout the course of the summer months and our reupping and ready to roll for a brand new season with star and Domingo right here. Shout out to our friends at the sick media team Big shout out to producer Shane for helping us as well today. She best t-shirts dot C. A McLean's pub is the real deal on peel cabletel dot com for the best and home security into customs dot com for all your customized gear and our friends at Little Bear pet supply on St. Catherine across from west mount square visit their website. If you want to shop online for your furry friend Little Bear online dot com. All right, brother. Good stuff, man. Good stuff. Good to see you ready for the season begin. It's going to be wild. We're going to come right back at you tomorrow with a clip on Alexander Zorowski. Yeah, as we kind of dive into how his season's been going so far where things are going and obviously is the Canadians continue to try to improve the lineup part of the solution trade chip.

30:25We're going to have all of that coming at you tomorrow. Peace.