Game over. Welcome back to Game Over Montreal. I'm here for the first time in a while. It feels like just getting over a cold, so I'm sorry about the voice, but mostly here. Here with Sebastian High. Sebastian, how are you feeling after that one?

That was the most fun I had watching the Habs this season so far. I enjoyed every second of it. You got to enjoy good Habs hockey when you're blessed with an opportunity to actually see it.

Yeah, seriously, it was a really strong game, I think, from both teams in a lot of respects. Two teams in Rebuilds. I think we could probably compare the rebuilds a little bit at some point, but with the context that this is Buffalo's second rebuild in a row, so maybe higher expectations for them at this point. But a really strong game. We're going to talk about the story of the game. Usually, we start every show with the story of the game and go over the positives and all that. But I want to talk about Stroble. I want to talk about Slavkowski tonight. That'll be in our last segment. But first, I want to start off. Let's get all the negatives out of the way to start with. I want to talk about Justin Baron because I have a couple of theories about Justin Baron that I know people are really hard on him right now. For good reason, he's struggling, especially on the defensive end. I think there's two issues with Justin Baron. One is very easily fixed, and I think one can only come in time. Number one, I think he uses the wrong stick, Sebastian, because I've never seen a guy have so many pucks hop over his stick blade.

Either his stick blade is too short, it's not wide enough, or maybe his stick is a little bit too stiff. He's thinking too much shot when he should be thinking maybe more stick handling and passing. That's just throwing that out there. Maybe the Canadians equipment staff want to check that out with him. But the bigger thing for Justin Baron to me, and I'm saying this not trying to be mean, I'm just assessing what I think is happening with the player. I think Justin Baron right now plays like he's a better player than he is and takes risks that his current skill level can't cash. There's something that comes down to awareness and holding on to the buck too long in the defensive zone. At the end of the day, you want your players to have confidence in what they're doing. I think that Aaron does have that confidence, and that's a good thing. But he's not at the peak of his development curve yet. At times, I think he needs to dial it back a little bit. What do you think?

Yeah, Aaron is an interesting case. I think that with both him and Logan Mayu, the Habs have two defensemen who have some really interesting tools. Aaron is an excellent skater, really beautiful, edge work. He can activate offensively really nicely. And we've seen him score quite a few already this season because he gets involved in the offensive zone. But going back to his draft year, his defensive awareness and especially his tendency to cough up the buck in the breakout in highly vulnerable positions has always been a part of his game that hasn't really been ironed out just yet. I think one of the big things that I've seen, it might be a stick thing. I think I see it more with Baron. When he gets a pass in the breakout, he is already scanning for his passing options, and he's not the most capable at pass receptions, and he regularly coughs up the buck. It's almost like in football when a receiver piques to look ahead before they actually secure the ball and it pops out. It's the same thing with Aaron. Either he has to work on his buck control to receive those pucks a lot more fluidly, or he's going to have to make sure he actually gets possession before he starts scanning for passing options.

I think too far ahead. I think when Mike Matheson is off of his game, he does that too. He's thinking three, four plays ahead and he burns himself a lot of the time. Aaron has that same issue. I think that's why when the two of them were paired together and Baron was forced to play a little bit more reserved. It worked for a short period of time. But when they start struggling, it gets real bad. Same thing is happening now with Gugli, where Gugli is there to insulate. But I don't think we're seeing the best of Caden Gugli right now either. I feel like that pair has taken more and more tough minutes over the last few weeks, and it hasn't really worked out. I think they looked good at the start. But baron seems to be the guy that needs a push every now and then. Maybe it's time to knock him down one pairing and elevate Jaden Struble, say, who was fantastic tonight, and we'll talk about it in the last segment. But baron is... I get why people are frustrated. The skill level is there. I think there's an expectation for offensive defensemen to also be great transition players.

That's just not true of baron at this stage of his game. Inside the offensive zone, I really like what he does. Handling the buck outside of it, less so. He's got things to work on. All of these guys on defense are works in progress, which is why when people were getting really upset about Jackass being sent down to the American Hockey League, I was like, What do you guys think is going to happen? You think just because George is a rock says he's going to be traded, that he's going to be traded? I'll tell people this also about Arbort, Jacki. If he is traded, you're probably going to be okay with the trade. This is a guy that 31 teams would like to have on their roster and one has. If he goes, it's going to be for wildly above market value.

Yeah, I agree. I think that if the have is still comfortable to at least dip their toes into the trade market with Jackassie, they really get a big return. Especially with a player like Strubel already taking that spot at the third pairing left-hand defense slot. Jordan Harris is going to be back at some point and you have guys like Lane Hudson, Adam Engstrom in the wings. The left defense is not a position of weakness in the Habs School, especially for young pieces. I wouldn't be surprised if they asked around for Jackassie. Now, whether or not they feel comfortable pulling the trigger, especially on a player that came out of nowhere with the Habs and they drafted his brother just very recently, which was also a reach of a pick. They have a lot of invested in not only Arbor Jackassie but his family with the organization. But yeah, you are totally correct. If they want to deal him, they would at the bare minimum get a contender for a first round draft that can return.

Yeah, 100%. I viewed it the opposite of the way other people did. We're getting distracted talking about Jack guy, but I never got to really say my piece because I haven't been on the show. But I saw the opposite way of the way a lot of people did when he was sent down. To me, sending Jack guy down to the American Hockey League, coming off of an injury, telling him to work on his defensive game, my viewpoint from seeing that was that they now see more in Jacki than they previously did. They're saying, Yes, you're super tough. Yes, you can score goals because your shots, your wrist shots somehow go through netting. You've got power behind you that most guys could only dream of. But you can be more than that. You consistently have shown improvement. Let's work on your game. Let's develop you even more. I think being sent down to the American Hockey League has shown that Canadians are even more committed to Arbort, Jacki. The time may come down the road, as you mentioned, there's so many good left side defense prospects in this Canadian system that he may be moved. I don't think it's imminent right now.

I think that this is a play on trying to push him to the next level to see if he can move up the lineup. But yeah, Justin Baron, I do still believe in this kid. I think that he's having a really rough ride right now. Maybe he needs to be... Is he even eligible to go down to the American Hockey? I don't know.

Yeah, he still is. He still is, yeah.

It might be worth a shot to once maybe David Savard comes back and just let him marinate again, let him work on his game a little bit, get his confidence back, and then bring him back up. But either way, I think tonight the game tying goal, I'm going to give Baron a mulligan on that one because of the headshot earlier in the game. I know he wasn't good before the headshot either, but just that seemed like an I'm concussed play. It was a- Not to say that he for sure is, but I was pretty shocked that they didn't put him in concussion protocol.

Yeah, me too. We've had this drill in the past with the Habs. I can think back of multiple instances in the past, two, three seasons where we're pretty certain that a player should just be retired for the game to get checked on and they haven't been and it's come back to bite them. Hopefully, that's not the case with this case here. But yeah, it did not look like a pretty hit and the reaction afterwards was also concerning.

Yeah, he looked not well as he skated to the bench. It wasn't pretty. Five-minute major in game misconduct turned the game around in a lot of ways and was the right call, which was one of few that the refs actually caught tonight. Whether it was Brendan Gallagher trying to break Jeff Skinner in half or it was Skinner, right? Not MiddleStat?

Yeah, it was Skinner. Yeah, I thought so. Two shots too. He got two in.

Yeah, or Cawfield getting tripped and then elbowed in the back of the head. Officiating in this league is a horror show. It is really awful. It's not about one team. It's just terrible.

Yeah, it's not the strongest of the professional sports I watch.

No, definitely not. All right, let's get into the story of the game. But before we do, lots of people in here tonight, make sure you remember to like the stream, subscribe to SDPN, and throw some comments in the Streamchat here. I read them live as much as I can. I try to keep up with what you guys are saying. If you've got something that you want to question, it's off topic from what we're talking about, keep it to the end. We will do a little mini press conference at the end. We will warn you when it's time to get your questions in. But if you've got comments on what we're talking about live, sometimes we read them out. We'll shout you out if you have a good idea. There's lots of ways to interact with the show live. Make sure that you follow Sebastian, @hi_sebasion on Twitter. I'm refusing it to... Refusing to call it the other name still. Apparently, the only one is holding out, but I'm not giving Mr. Musk that satisfaction. All right, I think the story of the game is pretty simple here, outside of it being wildly entertaining. Caden, Primo.

That was a hell of a bounce-back performance after looking abysmal in the third period in his last start.

Yeah, no, I mean, the first period was excellent as per usual with Primo this season. He's been lights out and I think every single first period he's played so far for the haves this year and that was no different tonight. But he continued it up in the second, too. I thought it was a very strong performance. Sure, Buffalo got two quick goals to start the third period when he had a two-goal lead, but he was really strong the entire game. In the shootout as well, I thought that he looked quite solid and he was beaten twice, but he did enough for the haves to earn the victory.

Yeah, he absolutely did. I don't think we could blame him on either of the goals that went in really. They're pretty tough ones. Even maybe you could say the Skinner goal, he could have got across because I feel like he stopped four or five of those same attempts tonight. But the expectation can't be to stop five or six of those every night. It's pretty tough.

Oh, for sure. I mean, he had his fair share of high danger saves in this game. He was allowed to let one in too.

Yes, 100%. He was fantastic. I was calling last game that I would basically just throw him on the waivers the next morning. I'm still not convinced that this three goalie situation is worth carrying around. But hey, if Kent Hughes ends up getting a nice return for one of these goalies going into the end of the Christmas holidays or something like that, maybe it'll work out. I don't know. But still not thrilled on the three goalie situation. I'm sure none of the goalies are either.

Yeah, definitely restricts playing time for all of them. But if they end up extracting value from this and whether that be selling high on Primo relative to losing him for nothing after preseason, or if they just get some type of return for Jake Allen, maybe a contender wants to have a proven backup with a lot of NHL experience, he's a good option for that. But yeah, I was expecting it to the goalie situation to have been solved by the end of November. I'm a bit surprised that they're still going ahead with it well into December now.

Yeah, it seems like a lot of teams are just sitting on what they have and not willing to pay the prices that are being asked. I guess if you're a team like the Edmonton-Oilers, it's starting to pay off a little bit. But I would still be a little bit wary of having to deal with the goal tennis situation they've got heading into the playoffs. They've got to find something. I don't like Caden, Primo is a fit there. I do think Jake Allen in a support role for a Stew Skinner might be a fit there.

I agree. I think that Jake Allen and Edmonton is about the best fit I've seen from a Habs goalie with any other NHL organization. It all depends on Jack Campbell, though. If you can stick in the NHL as a serviceable backup, then Edmonton really has no use for Jake Allen, but if that doesn't end up working out and he's back stuck in the AHL, then I could really see Jake Allen being an enticing option for the oilers.

Yeah. Ben Dawson says, Primo doesn't have a big enough body of work to obtain a sizable return. Teams give value for sure than goalies. I agree totally. That's why I think the big hold up on this is that now that Montembo is signed, which I think is a good contract, the only goalie that can move is Jake Allen. It's the only one that makes sense.

Unless they just get an offer for a fourth round traffic or something and they cut their losses with a three goalie situation. I could imagine that. But at this point, they've invested a lot of time into Caden, Primo, and taking a lot of valuable starts away from their projected starter net over the next couple of years. Samuel Montombo over the past couple of months, that that would be a little bit probably disappointing as a return for Kare in the three goalies. But it's going to have to shake out at some point because you're not going to see the Habs K or three goals this entire season, I don't think.

I surely hope not. How much longer can they keep going that way? There's stuff that caught my eye in this game. I know that they didn't pile on an avalanche of goals on the power play or anything, but as opposed to the usual story with the Canadians, I thought the special teams tonight were pretty spectacular. They allowed their fair share of chances while on the PK, but they were in it. They were keeping pucks to the outside for most of it. They had several heroic PA shifts. Mike Matheson in particular tonight on the defensive side of the buck. Man, where has that guy been? I know that you can't expect that guy to show up every 82 games. It's impossible. But he was astonishingly good on the penalty kill tonight, whether he had his stick or not.

Yeah, he was a ton of fun tonight. I love watching Mike Matheson play and especially that play without the stick, not only to get the buck out of the zone, but to then spark a counterattack where Christian Dworak actually gained possession in the offensive zone against Rasmus Dahlene, who had a stick. It's really impressive. And Dahlene is one of the two or three best skaters in the entire world at this stage. He's a really wonderful skater. But Mike Matheson beat him in that one on one toquite lacking a stick, which was a lot of fun to watch.

Yeah, it was a really impressive shift. I feel like the strength and balance that he put on display there in not only out muscling Dahlene at the line and then out racing him, but keeping up with him without a stick to put pressure and not allowing Darlene to deke him out at the blue line. Just incredible series of reactions from Mike Matheson and applying pressure. I find so many players without a stick play so conservatively, and I don't get it. Matheson has the advantage of the fact that he's a physical freak and stronger than his size and a super good skater. But when you don't have a stick, just take a guy out, man. Just go after the buck. Let the rest of your team figure it out.

Yeah, for sure. He then also got a decent pass and he can skate afterwards. He completed the whole sequence. But yeah, he was a ton of fun tonight. There's often another PK sequence that was less pretty, but he splayed himself out right at the foot of the crease to make sure that the buck didn't get across. And he's been really, really solid since being trained to the haves. I'm a big fan of Mike Matheson, and he's very much leading the way and showing what a number one defenseman should look like with this organization. And while he's not going to be that solution long term, you have a lot of young defensemen, as we were talking about earlier, that can really learn from which is just great to see.

It really is. I don't think he's an actual number one defense, but I think he's on a good team.

Fringe.

Probably a number three guy. But he's been great.

Number two, I'm number two. I have a very big fan of Mike Matheson. Do you think he's number two? I think he's a shoe in number two on the vast majority of teams on both sides of the park with how he uses his skating. He has a bit of that Jeff Petrie effect of just improving year on year well into his late 20s. And of course, we're going to see a dip at some point, especially for a player that relies so much on his mobility to create advantages. But I'd say for the next 2-3 seasons, he's a pretty solid bet for a first pairing defenseman, even on contending team.

Yeah, I do wonder if at some point they get Gugli playing on his offside and just put him with Matheson and have a real top pairing. Because if there's one thing I think Matheson needs right now, it's to not have to carry around somebody who is not prepared to play those kinds of minutes. I know that he has scored some goals, but I'm tired of Lindstrom. There was several plays tonight where he just wasn't ready for a pass or a pass was sent to him along the wall, he's under no pressure, and he just bobbles it and loses all the time and space that he had. I find that stuff, it's the same issue that Baron was having tonight. It just gets frustrating because your teammates can't rely on you to do the simple things. That's not his fault. He shouldn't be playing on the first pair. That's a coaching decision that's out of Lindstrom's hands. But I do think Matheson needs somebody who can be a little bit more reliable just to make the safe play and allow Matheson to run free a little bit.

Yeah, for sure. Gustav Lindstrom put in quite a few decent shifts on a third and second pairing after getting called up. But he really is a seventh or maybe number 6 defenseman and playing on a first pairing, despite getting pretty limited than special teams minutes, which keeps him a little bit fresher, still is a little bit too much to ask from a player of his caliber.

Here's a question for you, Sebastian. What are your thoughts on Yoel Armia right now? Because he's a guy who's had all the chances you think that maybe a guy should deserve, and he seems to come up, play really well for a stretch, and then go back to the Armia that we're used to where he's lackadaisical. But tonight he pulled maybe the best move I've ever seen him pull. He was spectacular on the penalty kill. All season long, I know he's playing sheltered minutes, but all season long, his underlying numbers are spectacular. What should we do with this guy?

You all are me as one of the more fascinating case studies I've ever seen, especially with the Hab system. I wrote up a scouting threat on him back in March or February of this year, just because he really is so interesting. You'll learn me as a player that never really learned to leverage his tools against compact defensive structures. He depends on it being wide open in the offensive zone to pull off his moves, whether it be the ridiculous steak that we saw today to cut to the middle of the slot or his overall goal scoring. It always does come against weaker sides where he's able to actually find space and has enough time to get his shot off because his shot is really dangerous. But he lasts the tools to get it off in traffic and he doesn't exactly have a hard nose for the slot, despite being a really strong board battle player, for instance. He stays on the three quite a bit. He's a player that when given the space and the time and a good night's sleep, can look like Prime Eric Lindrose for about three shifts a game against weak opponents.

It's always very entertaining. I've quite enjoyed watching Yola Miya play. I think that he's a really fun fourth liner to have at your disposal. He's also a really strong penalty killer, so that gives him added versatility. But yeah, I think he could stick with the haves. It would be fine if they want to prioritize that development of some players and get them NHL minutes. You can send them right back down to Laval because no one's claiming that contract at this point. I don't know. It depends what they have to want to do. It depends if Yola, Mia keeps playing the way he's playing right now or if that drops back down to the Yola, Mia that we've also, the other Yola, Mia that we've gotten to know quite well over the last couple of years. We'll see how it goes. But he is fascinating and from a scouting perspective, just a really fun case study of what happens to some high-end draft picks that got picked top 20 overall who had all the tools in the world but could never quite do it at the NHL pace of high-level NHL opponents.

Yeah, I'm with you. I think the tough thing now about sending Armia down to the American Hockey League, if the Canadians get to a point where they're healthy enough to do so, which losing Turner-Person tonight, maybe that's not coming anytime soon. It seems like no matter what they do, they find a way to get injured. This team is ridiculous. At the NHL level and the American Hockey League level, I think I find it hard to justify sending Armia down at this point over... I'm not saying send him down, but does anybody think that Armia is not outplaying Josh Anderson?

Seriously. Armia is currently providing more value than Anderson is, but once Anderson gets going, he will offer more value than Armia does. Theoretically-we've seen Josh Anderson as a streaky of player as they come. Remember the entire season before he got to trade to the Habs, he had one goal in 26 games with Columbus after his three goal season. He is as streaky as they come. I remember there was a month of February, two years ago, where he was scoring a goal a game pace for a full month. And I think it'll come with him. The key with Josh Anderson is he needs to more consistently not overextend rushes. That was why Stolkowski looked so bad on his line for the entire first month of the year because Pukowski needs a methodical approach and transition where he can build up play with his line mates. And Anderson just sprints up the boards, lose a possession, and has to go back all the time. But we're seeing Anderson integrate some more delays into his rushes. We're seeing him hit the brakes and wait for his line-mates a little bit more right now, which is promising. And at the very least, is clinching to have some added offensive's own possessions.

But yeah, I'd probably still keep Anderson in the lineup just because he provides an X factor of sorts that is present more than one shift every Blue Moon like it is with Armio. But yeah, with the Habs injury record and they are so consistent at getting hurt. I don't think that's going to really stop at any point soon.

It's the most consistent thing they do.

Consistency is key. It's the key to winning championships and the Habs have adopted that in an interesting place.

They really have. It's interesting. Deshiren asks if Pierson is out long term, do they have to finally call up Joshua Wah? I'm going to say I don't think so. I don't think they want to be in a situation where they're forced to call up Joshua Wah. I think they're going to bring up Joshua when they're good and ready, when they're putting him in a good situation and not a situation where it's like, figure out how to build a line out of what we have left. I think they want to call him up when they have a spot for him ready for him to Excel. What do you think?

Yeah, I would agree. I think that we've seen the Habs hastily call up young players from the AHL repeatedly over the last decade. Joshua, we've seen the ups and downs already this season. The production is excellent. He's playing really good hockey. But there's been hills and valleys in both the production and his shift-to-shift play this year. He's maturing his game. He's still adapting to pro hockey. There's no rush to get him from a bad situation in Le Bal to a slightly less bad situation in Montreal unless you really want to. I don't think that injury is the case. That's really going to make that happen for him or really force Montreal's hand because you have alternatives. Zavi Simono, I think, has earned a call-up. He got massacred with a massive hit today. A 6'5 guy jumped into his head with his shoulder, which - Jeez. -went on the 6'5 player jumps to hit a 5'6 player. It's not ideal. But if he's all right, if he's healthy, I think he's a pretty logical player to call up. He's in the vein of Raphael, Harvey, Pinnard and Brendan Gallagher stylistically. Super high motor. You just plug him into your fourth line.

He's also going to give you some really solid playmaking and inter slot play in the offensive zone. It's a solid bumper, really versatile, but has that dog in him, which I think all Habs fans appreciate and Habs management appreciates. If he's healthy, I think he's the most logical next call-up. I know it would make me and my good friend, Haddie, very happy to see Simono in the NHL. Yeah, they had to definitely have some options apart from Goa as well, and they don't have to rush him.

Yeah, Jean-Simard mentioned Heinemann as well. He's just returning from an injury, so they might want to let him cook for a little bit longer just to get his timing back. But I think he is a call-up option. I don't think he's a call-up option right now, but we mentioned Laval. They won 5-1 earlier tonight, even with the big hit, obviously. A guy that's coming on there that has had a tougher transition to the American Hockey League than Joshua O'Wah, but Riley Kidney is finally starting to produce points. He's up to nine points in his last 10 games, two goals and an assist today. Really good to see him getting on the board as well because he's not as all situations oriented, we'll say, as Joshua O'Wah, but he's a guy who can put the buck in the net and who can make plays for his teammates. Seeing him get a little bit of confidence now, that's a good sign for the Canadians as well.

Oh, for sure. Kidney is really fun. He was a player that in his draft year in his D+1 and even well into his D+2, really struggled to access the middle of the ice. He was extremely peripheral in all of his offensive plays, which is especially an issue when you're playing at the QMJHL level where slots are usually wide open and easy to exploit. But he's worked very closely with Adam Nicholas and has really opened up his game to being quite middle-driven. And it's unlocked a lot more of his playmaking ability because he now has two flanks that he can really attack with his passing rather than just sticking to the perimeter and just really having that one cross-size option. So it's been great to see him get going because it was a pretty slow start in terms of production. I think he had one or two points in his first 15 games. Yeah, it's tough. -yeah, it's getting started. Yeah, it was slow. He was playing like four or five minutes, pretty sheltered. But it's getting going now. And especially with a lot of Le Bal's players now in Montreal, there's actual offensive opportunities for him down there.

It's nice to see that he's running with it. That first goal he scored tonight, it also clinched the Teddy Bear toss, so that must have been a cool experience too to just be blooded with teddy bears for scoring a goal.

Yeah, that's always a fun game. Although I'm sure that it takes a while to get all those teddies off the ice, which hurts the flow, I'm sure. But the Rocket actually made it out of that one. It was nice to see them win a game. It's been a tough stretch for Laval. But yeah, let's talk a little bit about not necessarily the AHL, but we mentioned the Canadians calling up players too early or willy-nilly, not necessarily having a plan in the past. Let's talk about somebody who has made a fantastic transition, James Trubel. But first, another reminder, everybody who's here, please like the stream, subscribe to SDPN. If you really like it, well, hey, grab the link and share it on your favorite social media of choice. It helps to have lots of people in here and have fun, especially live, because then they get to interact with us. We get to read their comments. We get to adjust the show based on the wants and needs of our viewers. That's the coolest thing that we can offer in a live show streamed right to your computer or your phone or your tablet or your TV too.

So, Sebastian, let's talk about Jaden Struble because aside from just the mechanical precision that he plays the game with in terms of his decision making, he had one of the more impressive backchecks I've seen this year on Tage Thompson, who is bigger than him, had a step on him and isn't really a slow skater. He's a bit of a weird-looking skater because he's so big, but he's not a slow skater. But Struble's speed burst to catch up with him and then out-muscle the big man. Man, this kid is so impressive. Then he goes out and scores his first goal on a wild rush with two defensemen leading it, two defensive defensemen going on a rush and scoring.

And perfectly executed.

Right? He put this guy on the power play all of a sudden. He's been so unbelievably impressive. What I kept hearing about James Trubel throughout his college career, his first year in Laval, was that he has all of the tools, but the mental game hasn't put everything together yet. It sure seems like it has now. He's gone from a guy who might have been one of the forgotten guys on that defensive depth chart to the point where I think he's an NHL or I don't want to ever see him go back to the AHL.

He has looked fantastic. There was a lot of criticism with his development at Northeastern because he peaked offensively in his sophomore season. He did not top that point total in either of his final two college seasons. That said, his game developed tremendously in those years. And instead of being molded into this freak offensive defense that he could have been with his tools, he had the mobility, he had the creativity coming out of prep. He had the confidence for sure. That was an option developmentally. But instead, they decided to mold him more into a solid two way player. And he really refined his defensive game. And at Northeastern, he became really one of the best breakout defensemen in the entire NAAA and in the entire Habs organization and their death chart. And that's been very clear since his call up to Montreal, the calmness with which he's handled pressure on the breakout. We saw it even on his first goal, where he retrieved the buck in the neutral zone and made a really little deathly play to get the buck to Kobasevish before bombing up the middle lane to get in the tip to score the goal.

He is very, very active. Jaden Struble is anything but passive on both sides of the buck. He tries to make things happen, but he's gained this element of control and decisiveness that really wasn't there as a draft eligible. He came straight out of preq hockey and he was quite raw and he was going to be a four to six year project, and he has been. But the payoff has been so interesting and quite different from the profile that he was drafted as.

Yeah, it's funny because we know that there's going to be moves on this blue line in the future, and we shouldn't get too attached to anyone. But I find myself... Right now, I think of the young defensemen who are currently in the NHL, Jordan Harris is probably on the bottom rung in terms of most likely to be traded. He's probably the most likely to be treated. Then you've got your Strobles and your Jack guys and your Barons and then Gugli is safe, Hudson is safe, Reinbacker is safe. You've got a bunch of other stuff that you aren't sure- Engstrom. -engstrom, right? Who looks like he could be a middle-paring defenseman. He's fun. Right away, he's really fun to watch, really good player. But I'm like a dragon and I'm hoarding my gold. I'm like, No one touched my defenseman. I like all these guys. I think that's what makes it really difficult is you don't want to fall in love with guys that you know there will be some moved out. But on and off the ice, I really love Jordan Harris. You know what? Someone mentioned, Strubel, aside from being so strong to start the game, man, he's also pretty as hell.

He is one handsome dude. There's a lot of people who like him for that too. These players are extremely likable. Arberaxaca, extremely likable, likable family, great story to root for. It's going to suck and be bittersweet when some of these guys are moved on.

Certainly, right? That's a difficulty with being a big hockey fan and being attached to any specific team. There's always player movement. I think the longer I did the scouting thing, the more I'm becoming a fan of individual players and teams as a whole. I still am a Habs fan at heart, but I probably get more joy from seeing Zach Benson's first career goal being in between the legs after spending the entirety of the past year cheering him on and just studying his game and loving every second of it. I get more joy from that than I don't know, Christian Divore, Xcord, a brace for the Habs. That just wouldn't do it too much for me. But tonight's game was excellent. It really did enjoy it. I think that the Sokowski shootout winner was just the perfect cherry on top to a beautiful game. As you said, Struggle was fantastic. And he's a player that I would love to see stick it out in Montreal. He's so versatile. I'd love to see him just get an opportunity on the second power play unit at some point and just see what he does with the Puck. Because really going back to that sophomore year in college, he's really been doubling down on practicing his off-puck game.

Trying to look back into his on-puck game and seeing what he can create offensively would also be fun to explore for the Habs. But yeah, lots of fun players to look at after this game against Buffalo.

Yeah. Mark Chagnita said, Grace is a great point. He said, I was sad to see Romanov go, but it was an incredible deal. Let's hope for a few more like those. That's the thing that the Canadians have put themselves into with this many really strong defensive prospects. There's going to be situations where they can leverage this position of strength because defensemen are always in need in the NHL. There's just always a need for defensemen. There's going to be some tough goodbyes, but they'll get some good returns too. All right, James Trubel is off. Amazing, great game. But we also got to talk about Uraselov Gowlsky. He has been a different player since they destroyed that line of him, Newhook, and Anderson. But it's gone to another level now where to me, he looks like a player on the verge of having a gigantic scoring streak. He's in that same element as Caulfield right now where everything they're doing is the right thing to do. The finishing just hasn't come yet. Then both of them obviously finished in the shootout tonight and win the game. It was a good feeling to see Slavkovsky pull off that nice move and get it to go for him because he's been doing everything but score lately.

He really has. His development since the start of training camp has just been funny to watch. When training camp started, Slavkowski looked very much the same player from a year and a half ago when he first broke in with the Habs, and that was not necessarily a good thing. But he has really worked on the small details in his game. The small things really do unlock a lot. For instance, Slifkowski, the big thing he strived with last year was pre-scanning. He never scanned before he got the buck on his stick. Whenever he get a buck retrieval or reception in the neutral zone, he would be looking down at the buck and then would take about a full beat before getting his head up and looking, and then he'd just get wrecked with a massive hit and we saw him get injured because of it. I think that was one massive issue in his game that Haves Management should have put a flag on and start him in the A. H. L. To put the very least work on that before getting him to the NHL level. But this year, within three or four weeks of the season starting, the amount of work he did on the scanning specifically trumps what he's done going back to the beginning of his draft year's season.

And that was quite stagnant the entire time of his development. It was a bigger concern that I personally had in this game. And it was like, you just flipped the switch and he starts pre-scanning and then the dominoes started falling in line. When he started pre-scanning, he started being able to leverage his intelligence against NHL competition. And when he was able to do that, he was gaining confidence with the buck on his stick. And then things just started flowing his way once he became comfortable. And that last season, there was always this angst when he had the buck on his stick. He was always nervous about getting hit because he got hit often. And ever since integrating these scanning habits into his game, he's really been a revelation for the Habs. And that stylistic fit on the Habs top line is just superb. I think that that will and Suzuki aren't necessarily most natural fit at five on five, but self-cost, we complement them both perfectly. He is able to get in and do all those board battles and do the dirty work on that line, which frees up Suzuki to drift off Puck and find those openings and try to find that soft ice, which he does so well and allows Coughfield to not really have to get too involved in the board battle because it's not a strength of his.

And beyond that, his playmaking ability unlocks goal scoring for both of his teammates. And I'm still a big believer that the playmaking is Kovsky's biggest offensive tool along with his handling. I think that the shot is very good, but the goal scoring instincts just don't quite compare to the playmaking instincts. And while I certainly agree he needs to shoot more because that will only diversify the offensive toolkit and make him a lot less predictable with the buck on his stick. The playmaking, I still think, is going to be the jewel of that toolkit moving forward.

Yeah, I agree with you. And I think we saw that when they had the Divorak, Cawfield, Slavkowski line together and he put a lot of good pucks on Cawfield's stick. Through Divorak's feet because Divorak doesn't pay attention when he's in the scoring position, but I digress. I know we got a comment here from Ben Dawson says, Slav is consistently a step ahead of the play, a huge contrast to last year. I think that comes back to what Sebastian was saying with the scanning and the pre-scanning. You can't be ahead of the play if you don't know what's going on. Now he does, and you can see that the piece is falling together. Trizak mentioned everything but scoring is important. Of course, that is obviously true. But before the scoring begins for a player who is a project, these pieces have to fall into place. You have to do the right things to get the consistent scoring, or else you develop into a player who's super streaky or extremely one-note. I think what's encouraging to me about this season in general, but Slavkowski and Coughfield in particular, is along with... I know the finishing isn't there for either of them right now, but the offensive contributions are and the defensive contributions for both are just wildly better than last year.

Wildly better. I know there was a game recently where Coughfield had four or five defensive zone turnovers. But the point is, he's involved in exits now. He's not flying the zone just to score. He's involved in breaking up plays defensively. Once in a while, he throws a hit out there, too. It's fun. You mentioned Pseutkowski being worried about getting hit. Now, it seems like he's no longer worried about getting hit at all. We'll just let guys go at him and shrug them off. His ability to forecheck this year is miles and miles beyond what we saw last year. How many times tonight did he take a hit to just create space for himself?

Exactly. I think the progression on that front is almost one of the most surprising things for me personally in his development because he was so afraid of being hit last year. Tonight, for instance, I saw at least three different occasions in the offensive zone where he absorbed a hit, especially on the power play, to get a decent pass open into a passing lane that opened up because of that pressure that he threw in. And he's absorbed that contact comfortably. He doesn't look at all afraid of taking a hit to make a play. And yeah, I think that the progression has just been, again, very funny for me to watch over the past two months just because he's now displaying all the tools and skills that I've seen in him going back to his draft year, but that you really only ever saw him put together in these tiny little spurtes and very specific international tournaments, which helped him get picked first overall. And after a pretty slow start to the season on a line where he had... I don't think you can find too less complementary players in the hat to line up than Josh Anderson and Uri Solkowski stylistically.

So he was not in a good position in that line, and especially because Ilet's new hook is in a natural center, does not really help the equation because you saw Solkowski be the main defensive player on that line, dropping low in the defensive zone. And then you just have new hook and Anderson sprinting up the ice and then Solkowski is still by his own crease, right? He can't really play that way. But ever since he got moved to a line where he has a well-defined role, and that was when he got moved with the Dvorak and Coughfield, everything's just been falling into place. Again, he's developed so hilarious in that span. As soon as he got a role that he could build his strengths around, and that wasn't just abstract, give it your best shot sport, go over the boards, it's starting to fall into place now and you're seeing him get really targeted development both from Martin C. Louis and from Adam Nicholas, which I think is really smart from the organization because those are some really smart hockey minds and you want them to work with your highest potential young players, and Sokowski is most certainly that.

He's been getting that targeted development, the one-on-one video and skating sessions. I'm very excited to see how it continues this season for Slough and—as he mentioned earlier, it really does feel like a point streak is just above the horizon for him.

Yeah, it really does. I really have to credit him for putting in the work and the Canadians for sticking to their plan. I don't want to take a victory lap yet, but I will say all the folks who are saying that he had to go to the AHL when he was on that Anderson Newhook line. My point, I know there were some big arguments that happened on Twitter that my whole point was they need to give him another option in different line mates before they throw in the towel and send him down. I got to say, right now I'm looking like I was right.

They.

Threw him a lifeline and he took that rope and pulled hard and he is on that boat right now. He's going in the right direction. Even if he's getting hit by a ref, he's taking hits, he's making plays before his fight tonight. He's fighting. Yeah, before his fight tonight. He got knocked by a ref. He was trying to get the and the ref took him out. I guess he was so frustrated he decided to fight the Sabers player, I don't know. But got handed to him. Great game from Slavkowski tonight. All right, let's take some questions from the chat. I'm excited to chat with everyone tonight a little bit because it's been two times that I've been on for the last three weeks. I'm out of practice in running a stream. It's been all marked all the time while I've dealt with the illnesses and school strikes and parents visiting and all this stuff. Let's get some questions in. I'm going to look through here and see if we've got any good questions for Sebastian. While I'm looking, Sebastian, can you tell us how do you feel about Cole Coughfield's season so far?

I mean, it's a matter of time for him. He's definitely still Cole Coughfield. I've liked him more this season than I did last season. I think that, as he mentioned earlier, the defensive game has really grown a lot. I think that he's becoming a lot more dynamic with the put on the stick on the Power of Play. Over the last two seasons, he was based on auto shoot mode every single time he was laid up for a shot on the power play. He's been looking for playmaking options a lot more. He's been making quick 1-2 passes with Suzuki and Matheson to shift the defensive box that I wasn't seeing much last season. And he's shooting at under six %. And this is Cole Caulfield we're talking about, who's probably used to shooting well over 10 %. So it's a matter of time. He's gotten really unlucky. He's hit quite a few posts recently. He had at least, I think, nine shots on target in this game against Buffalo, which is just funny. I think that Caulfield is doing just fine, and especially playing on this lineup with Solkowski and Suzuki, his goal tally is going to rocket up pretty soon.

I'm not very concerned about that.

Yeah, nine shots on net tonight, 12 individual shot attempts, eight scoring chances. He got a rebound attempt. He's going to start scoring. It's going to happen. I do think there's probably some calibration issues with the surgically repaired shoulder where things are mostly the way they should be, but there's a little bit that's off and that's affecting his finishing maybe. Maybe that's a part of it aside from the luck. But in comparison to last year or the year before, he's creating more shots, more scoring chances, more high danger chances. He's getting to better areas. I'm just not worried. I think everyone who is worried needs to take a little bit of a chill pill just like the Arborer Jack, I think. John Samar says, Is Colby Armstrong a garbage color commentator? Yes or yes. I wasn't a fan of him continually justifying late hits, but I will say at the very least, he seemed to be watching the game, which is something that a few color commentators who we seem to regularly get with the Canadians don't appear to do. They're a little bit sleepy, so I'll give Kolby that.

Yeah, I'll limit my comment to I thought it was pretty funny when we got the insight after that double cross-check from Brendan Gallagher on Jeff Skinner, where he was asked, did he already have that in his rookie season? And Colby arms have just started laughing because, of course, he had that in his rookie season. Gallagher has never been wanting to shy away from physical contact, especially one that's in the gray area, if you're generous like that play was. That was entertaining at the very least.

Yeah, I think if you're ever wondering if Brennan Gallagher has always been Brennan Gallagher, you can go watch the highlights of when he was playing in the Brick Tournament when he was 9 or 10 or something like that, and immediately crashes the goalie, immediately he's hitting guys. It's Brennan Gallagher through and through. He's never been different than what he is now. Let's see here. Just here, said, Kola is poised to have massive scoring percentage way too low. I agree. Sorry, excuse me. Ryan Dodd says, How much of a benefit is it to play left shot D on the left and vice versa? Could there be a benefit to left shot D on the right, similar to how wingers are deployed these days? I think it's a great question. I think that there's benefits and drawbacks of both. Offensively, I think playing on your offside can open up a lot of avenues for you. But defensively and also holding the blue line along the wall, it is a little bit more difficult. Your stick position is different. When you have your stick in one hand and you're poking, it's a little bit different to be on your offside.

What do you think, Sebastian?

I've always found that it comes down to a player's style a little bit with how comfortable they are in their offside. It's fully agreed. In the offensive zone, I love seeing defense and swap spots and create more dangerous shooting lanes and set each other up for one Timer options and so on, so forth. But defensively, when you're a player like, for instance, Caden Gugli or Alexander Romanov, who has a lot of their value come from being suffocating in defending transition and really just snuffling out everything on their side of the ice, I think it can actually be a bit of a mistake to have them on their off sides because it makes them a lot weaker in defending plays up the boards. So if you're playing Cate and Gugli on the right side, for instance, you'd see a lot more players get by him just by virtue of being able to get the puck through that little hole on his right side between his back and the boards where it's a bit more uncomfortable with your back hand. I think it depends on the situation, but I'm not a believer that it really should be a rule that you go by that you have to keep your left shots on the left and right shots on the right.

I think that there are benefits to mixing, matching and going for stylistic pairings rather than just handling those pairings. I think that Jaden Struple could do just fine on the right, and you pair him with a guy like Mike Matheson, and you have the best transition defenseman pair that you've seen, Habs-Jersey in a long time, which would be enjoyable to watch. It would be out to that ability, but it would be entertaining. And I think that there are players that can Excel on that side. So Arbor Jack is another one where, yes, transition defending is a strength, but it's mainly because he plays the body rather than the stick first. Whereas Gugli is, despite being violent, is quite dedicated to being a stick first player, which I love in my defense men. It does depend on the style a little bit and on the strengths. But in general, you can mix and match and just see what fits because you do see left shots Excel on the right and vice versa. Jordan Harris, I like quite a bit on his offside. I think he's really solid there. One of the many reasons I'd love to see the Habs hang on to him, I think he offers excellent versatility in a bottom pairing.

Yeah, I do too. I really like Jordan Harris. Jim Neal says, Mike Johnson is the best color man in the League. I absolutely adore Mike Johnson both professionally and personally. He's been a great person to me. He has been on multiple of my shows before I want to get him on this show. However, I think he's been dethroned. I think the best color person in the league is Cheryl Ponder.

She just is- That's a hot tick.

She's so good. She's so good. She's excellent. Mike Johnson is right there. It is one-two, very, very close. But I really like what Cheryl Pounder brings. I find her perspective is so unique and nuanced in the hockey world. Another for me is Frankie Carado. He's probably number three right now for me.

I still have Mac Dooney at number one. I'm a quite dedicated RDS viewer for my Hanabs games, and I don't think that any duo can really compare to Piaf and Mac Dooney in terms of a commentary.

There's no play-by-play person in the league- No. -that can compare to peerhood.

I don't even think it's close. He's a voice of my childhood. I grew up with his voice.

Voice of a generation. It was a nostalgic, through.

Many generations at this stage.

That's true. Good point. Let's see here. What else we got? Let's see, what else? Any other questions? Do goalies have the book out on Caulfield? No. Trissach? No, they don't have the book on Caulfield. Colin McDonald says-.

He won't have the Bible tonight, which goes against the book at the very least.

That's true. Colin McDonald, What might the Habs get in return for Alan closer to the trade deadline? I think that really depends on what the situation is. I know it's not a satisfying answer, but how desperate are the teams? If Jack Campbell falters in his call up back to the NHL, the Oilers are probably a lot more desperate than if he is just okay. If Skinner starts to struggle again, they'll get a little bit more desperate. You hope that more goalies start to struggle. I wouldn't rule out the Carolina Huricans looking for a goalie either. It seems like they're having big troubles with injuries. Yeah.

I think with Jake Allen, my guess is he fetches a third round draft pick or something comparable to that. It's not too much of a thing. Perhaps paid for him. I think goalies in general really go for a lot less than you might expect based off of their impact on the game. That's due to the inconsistency between seasons for Goldhender is being so erratic. You never really see teams shelling out and paying the big bucks for goalies, especially in the last two seasons. I think if the Haves are able to fetch a third round traffic for Jake Allen, who still has a decent lead, a large capit next season that you wouldn't mind necessarily getting rid of and running a cheaper tandem, could make sense for sure for the Haves. But I think a mid-round pick. I think third is hopeful and fourth is the expected for me.

Yeah, I think where you might get a bigger return for Jake Allen is if it's the Canadians taking money back. I don't really want the Canadians to take on Jack Campbell's contract, but if they were to send Campbell to Edmund or send Allen to Edmonton, sorry, and take Campbell back, then maybe you're getting a big payout from Edmonton to take on that contract, right? You would be. Yeah. You're probably getting like, Bourgo or something like that. It would be, I think, significant to get rid of Jack Campbell's contract. It would have to be.

Bourgo isn't the biggest piece. He's 22 years old and he's struggled to get over half a point of game in the A. H. L. He's not the player that I'd be targeting. I think, I mean, Edmund's prospect pool is barren. It really is a barren landscape there. But you've got the only two players I think I'd be interested in from the Haas perspective. Well, one's a left shot defenseman. So big grads out there, Bo Ike. It's a ton of fun. He's out for the season, though, which makes him cheaper to get by trade. It was just drafted. Really great transition defender. He's Brett Kulak, but better projection. So he's fun. But again, left shot defenseman is definitely not a position of need for the hubs, especially for young players. And the other one is Dylan Holloway. I think he'd be an interesting fit. He doesn't project as much more than 3C, but could fill in and swap in for Divorak once Divorak's gone. But I think draft picks are really what you'd be aiming for there. Try to loosen out a first and a third or something. At the very least, you have a first round pick for taking on the Campbell contract, looking at past cap dumps.

But you wouldn't be getting that value because of Jake Allen.

Yeah. Last question of the night. There's a couple of good ones in here, but we've already gone an hour here. Ben Dawson asks, Have we talked about PA's interview for CBC Gen? No surprise. 2014 team Canada coach was Mike Babcock, where PA mentioned that he was told that he wasn't allowed to celebrate if he scored a goal while playing for team Canada. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Mike Babcock. I wouldn't be surprised if that was somebody else in Hockey Canada either. We don't know. I'm glad PK is talking about it. I think that's my biggest takeaway because watching PK Subhan's career with great interest as he was flat out my favorite player, I thought that he was just going to keep his head down and push through everything and never really talk about the bullshit because he dealt with a lot that was swept under the rug, not just from his own team in the Montreal Canadians or from Hockey Canada, but also, frankly, from referees. I think if you look back at P. K. Subhan's early career, he's a rough and tumble guy. He gets in players faces. He's an agitator. He's going to take a lot of penalties.

I don't think he should have been the eighth most penalized player in the League during his prime. I think that's completely horse shit. There were several moments that were caught on, I don't know if you remember the show 24 CH? When they.

Used to be that? Oh, yeah.

There was one where he was miced up for a game and there was a play where he got tripped up behind the net while he was trying to clear the puck and ended up icing the buck. The guy's stick came up and the blade of his stick caught him right in the throat. He bolts to the bench. He think like he can't breathe for a second. He's scared, he goes to the bench and the ref comes over and just absolutely chews him out for going to the bench. He was like, I thought I was injured. He was like, No, you get back out on the ice and you tell me thank you, sir, for not giving you a penalty. I was like, Whoa, I don't think you'd say that to most players, man. That's pretty messed up. I think there's a lot of things about PK's career that would be very interesting for people to know. A lot of his accomplishments are downplayed, frankly, because he's a loud black dude. People talk about his 2013 Norris as a fluke as if he wasn't nominated or top five in Norris voting for the next three or four years straight.

He was.

A fantastic player.

Tremendous. The favorite jersey I have in my very small, limited collection of three or four hats jerseys is my 2016 Winner Classic, SK Subend jersey, which is just gorgeous. And he was definitely one of my favorite players growing up as well. I started watching the Habs a year or two before SK came onto the scene. I really watched with curiosity and enjoyment in his entire career play out and the amount of racism that he faced for being flamboyant and not being a quiet black man and being loud and being a human being with a personality. Yeah, it definitely should have shown a lot of light still on the extent of racism in the hockey establishment, whether it be within the Habs organization specifically, or the refereeing, or so on, so forth, Hockey Canada, and basically every single level that he played at. So we've seen this very visibly in his case, and I think that him talking out about it and being a vocal is important to make sure that this generation of young black hockey players have somebody that is talking back to power. I think that's very important.

Yeah, it really is. All right, thanks, Sebastian, for joining us here tonight. Thanks, everyone, for coming in live. We had a great stream with you all. It's so fun to be back on. Even though I can barely get words out and I'm just trying not to cough the whole time I'm on here. I feel like I've done all right. You did great. Yeah, I've muted the mic a few times to try to get one out. But for the most part, I think we managed. Thanks, everyone, for showing up. We'll be back tomorrow night. It's a back to back. I don't know, maybe I'll hit Sebastian again. We'll be back to back, but we'll see. All right, everyone, have a good one. We'll see you tomorrow night.