Hello, everybody.

Welcome to the Basu and Goday Notebook on this Friday, February 23rd. Hello, my friend. How are you today?

I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, doing well. It's Friday. But yeah, not doing so well.

Not too disappointed that you were not in Pittsburgh. It's a fun city to be in.

It is a fun city to be in. I'm not disappointed to not be on this trip. It's not a great trip, to be honest with you. I mean, just so our listeners and viewers know, basically, the way we evaluate a trip is not the cities that you're in. It's how much access to the team that you get as a reporter. And so on this trip, you had a morning skate in Pittsburgh, post-game. They were getting out of town after the game. Then they have a day off in Jersey on Friday. Then they have an afternoon game on Saturday in New Jersey. And so No morning skate there, so only a postgame avail. So yeah, not much access to the team on this trip. So I'm happy to be saying this one out.

They didn't even have a morning skate in Pittsburgh.

There was only-Oh, that's true. There was only a veil. That's right. They switched that, too. It was even worse from an avail standpoint. So it's glad that we could pick and choose the trips that are appropriate. But anyhow, regardless of that, we did want to talk a little bit about the state of the team. Obviously, the trade deadline is right around the corner. Two weeks today, if I'm not mistaken. Is that right? Is my math right?

Yes, it is.

Two weeks today. The countdown is on. Yeah, the Canadians are plummeting down the standings, which I'm sure to a lot of fans is good news. I'm not saying you're wrong, but there's a certain... This is the worst stretch the Canadians have had. They've had another four-game losing streak earlier in the season. This matches that. This is the worst stretch they've had this season. It's the first time all year, they're five games below 500. In fact, it's the first time all year that they're more than three games below 500, if I'm not mistaken. So they've had this all year, they've managed to be within striking distance of 500. No more than two games above 500, no less than three, no more than three games below 500. And now they have slipped below that threshold. Kind of at the perfect time. They have a difficult schedule in March, and it's the possibility. We had on a previous episode, we were talking about how low can they get? We said that the floor was... They weren't going to get into the top five is what we gathered from the way things looked then. Now, not so sure.

I remember Remember last year, at some point, we were making fun of the fact that they had big games coming up, four-point games against Bottom Dwellers. They got one of those games coming up next Tuesday when the coyotes will be in town without party guy Adam Rzeziska for all intents and purposes. But that will be one of those games for those, though, who are the proponents of tanking, they'll look at that game with great interest because if there's one team right now, when you look at the schedule, one team that's plummeting just as much or even worse than the Canadians, it's the Coyotes. They're the team most likely to prevent them from getting a top five ranking at the lottery, top five pick. That's a big game. Before that, they're going to play against a team that's really fighting for its life. You get into second half of the season. At this point in the year, you get teams that it's a lot... Who's got the most urgency in their game? The Devils are really fighting for it, and they're on the outside looking in. But this is definitely a game that they're going to try to win.

We could easily be talking about next episode about a five-game losing street with the Coyotes coming in.

Yeah. And just if you look at... Just in terms of the Canadian's potential to move down the standings, if you will. Right now, they're sitting there. So they just had one of those four-point games against Buffalo, so they lost that. Buffalo is two points ahead of them. We're recording this, obviously, Friday afternoon, so before Friday, it meets games. Buffalo, I believe, has a game this evening. Ottawa is a point back with three games in hand. They're playing They're doing much better hockey under Jacques Martin right now and making a bit of a push. The Coyotes, as you mentioned, have lost six in a row, but they're only two points back with a game in hand. Even Columbus, who are sitting right now with the fourth best laundry odds, they're at 46 points. They're six points behind the Canadians with two games in hand. So let's put that as the possible floor, even though it's making up a six-point cap is pretty unlikely when you're the Columbus Blue Jackets as bad as the Canadians are playing. That's going to be tough. So getting into the top five is a definite possibility here, especially if the Canadians were to lose on Tuesday.

But you look at the schedule. So after that, that coyote's game is going to be the last home game before the deadline. So it could conceivably be the last home game for one, two, three, who knows how many, maybe none. But it could be the last home game for some of the players on this team. Then they go to Florida, who is a powerhouse, Tampa, Nashville, fighting for their playoff lives, Carolina, Toronto. Then you have another four-point game against Columbus, and then it's Boston, and then it's Boston, and then they go out West. Western Canada, where they never perform well. But you also have teams that Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver used to be a bit of a cream puff trip through Western Canada. Couldn't be further from the truth now. Then you have Seattle, Colorado. That's like a two It's a week road trip that they're going to be on, almost two weeks. It's 12 days, for not to say again. That's going to be tough. And then you have Philly and Carolina. So by the end of March, how many of those games can the Canadiens conceivably win, especially if they get gutded between now and March eighth.

It's not hard to see a reality where by the end of March, they've lost a lot of games and have positioned themselves quite nicely for the draft lobby.

Yeah. Well, I don't think that they're going to get gutted that much. The likely candidates to be traded are very few. I'm not sure that the Western candidate trip is as bad as you describe it to be. I think I would take... If I'm the Canadian and I'm looking for wins, I'll take a Western Canada trip over a trip to Florida any day. Yes, but it's... I think that-You're going country as in Vancouver.

I mean, yes, but I mean, it's...

I think that if member research Edmonton, Vancouver.

That's tough. For sure.

Yeah, because they're good teams right now. It's not necessarily a historical thing, but for sure, Edmonton is on...

Yeah. And even Calgary. Calgary is playing well. And so who knows by then? That came on March 16th, so we'll see what happens.

Speaking of teams that might be gutded.

That might be gutded by March eighth, exactly. So that Calgary It might look much different. But anyhow, point being is that schedule is difficult. They have no back to back. That's the only good part of it. It's actually very well spread out. But yeah, it's a difficult schedule. The Canadians are playing... The weird thing about this is that they've lost four straight. They're in this predicament, but I don't feel they're playing as bad as that would suggest. An interesting side note here is I was looking at their game log on natural stat track. And all season, the Canadians have not been doing very well when it comes to expected goal percentage. I think for the season, they're one of the worst teams in the league by that metric. But generally, you look through their games, and most of them, they were in the '40s, and they weren't doing all that well. Over their last six games, according to Natural Stat trick, they've won the expected goal battle at five on five against their last six opponents. 57 %, 52 %. I'm rounding here. 57%, 52%, 55%, 54%, 64%, 62. Those gains were a 7-2 loss to the Blues, five-nothing win against the Ducks, but then 7-4 loss to the Rangers, 4-3 loss to the Caps, 3-2 loss to the Sabers, and then 4-1 against the Penguin.

I think after the game in Pittsburgh last night, Marty mentioned, and he looked distraught in the sense that... He said, I'm paraphrasing, but basically it sounds like It sounds like he keep saying the same thing, but I thought overall, we played pretty well, but they just had this two-minute lapse where they gave up a couple of goals, and Brenda Gallagher takes an absolute brain dead penalty in the neutral zone for no apparent reason, which, again, has been a theme for him. We've gone over that a lot, but it's really, overall, I think the Canadians have reason to be somewhat encouraged with the way they're playing of late, even though they're not getting results.

Yeah. But it's true that Martin Saint-Louis has been saying over and over. I think for For the most part, I like what we're doing. It's only lapses, and we can't convert, but any mistake comes in the back of our net. It's really more of the same. It's Groundhog's Day when it comes to the result. But there was a one point in the season, well, early in the season, where this team was saved a lot by their goal tenders, and it's not the same anymore. Only in February, The Canadian safe percentage is 875. So that's in eight games. It's not great.

No.

Or as Guido Meng would say, after eating spicy pork and broccoli, not the best.

Not the best, yeah.

It's intriguing, though, that you've got four straight losses, and yet the team stays above water in terms of high danger chances, shots, shares, and whatnot. But I don't know if it's enough to say, Okay, we're building something that's solid there. Because it still looks like even though you play well, but you've got Those little moments. What do we hear from hockey players all the time? Any mistake can end up in the back of your net. Well, if you make two or three of those mistakes, but the rest of the time you play well, those two or three mistakes turn into goals, and that's it, you're done. I think that there's really into this the fact that it's a young blue line. There's only two really NHL veterans in there with Mathieson and Salah. Mathieson himself, even though he's got an amazing offensive season, has been prone to mental lapses, to turnovers. He's not the best defending defenseman in the league. I think that they're being exposed in that sense. But I'm just concerned with to which extent is this a personnel issue or is this just letting time for the teachings and the learning that they're going through to really set in and for those young players to learn from it, not only the defenseman, but really the five-man unit, and eventually it will pay off in the future.

It has to because otherwise, we He keeps hearing from the fans that this team needs more scoring, that they need at least one more bonafide top 6-4s and all that. But the truth is, they also need to be able to defend. It won't matter if They go fetch a superstar up front. They need to be able to defend. So natural statute gives a certain portrait of the situation, but I feel like sometimes the eye test gives another.

Yeah, well, definitely. I mean, listen, the Canadian's mistakes are big mistakes. That's the thing. That's what natural statute doesn't catch, is the glaring nature of it. To me, the one that jumps out, and to me, if I were Marty St. Louis, this would drive me bonkers. So the Canadian's play on Saturday against the Caps. Martijn makes the unusual call, or the team makes it. I don't know who did, actually. But the team makes the unusual call of practicing on Sunday after. Then they get the Monday off, then they practice Tuesday, and then they played Wednesday against the Sabers. So over those two practices on Sunday and Tuesday, the obvious focus of practice both days was net front, slot coverage, battles, getting sticks tied up, things of that nature. Drill after drill after drill, where it became obvious that that's what's going on. All these drills when shots are coming in from the point and people have to defend their net front and tie up guys and do this, and they were not doing it for the offensive benefits of it. It was quite unclear, especially if you looked at their previous games, that being loose and being leaky in the net front was an issue.

So Marty wrote it off during, I think, was it Super Bowl weekend? No. After the Blues game, I asked him about net front, and he's like, which one? And whatever. But I think it became obvious. So there's two practices on it. They play the savers, they're up one nothing after the first period on another Arbor Jackai bomb, who we should discuss at some point. But it's They come out of the second period, and they give up a tying goal to Zemgis Gergensons. How does Zemgis Gergensons score that goal? By standing in front of the Canadian Net alone, unbothered, and just left to his own devices to tip a shot from the point past the Canadian Netminder. If I were a coach who had just devoted two days of practice Almost the entirety of the practices to that specific situation, and to watch that happen when you lead 1-0 in the game, it ties the game. The Canadians eventually took the lead just a couple of minutes later. But still, regardless, situational Personally, for that to happen after the two practices the Canadians had, that's what I would be concerned about, if I'm Martin Saint-Louis, is that how is it that...

And in the past, he's done this. He's spent multiple practices on specific areas of the game in the past, and the team has generally responded well to those. You remember the trip out to California?

Yeah, when we practiced in Anaheim.

On the four check. The whole emphasis was the forecheck, and it It was two straight days of practice on the four check, and the four check markedly improved from that point on. This was two straight days of practice on this. The first chance they had to show that they had improved in that area, they give up a goal in that exact situation. When you say the personnel is that this is that, I think it's a mixture of everything. I think the coaching staff can wear that a little bit. Obviously, the message didn't get through or there were other aspects of of defensive zone coverage that they needed to address more than what they did. But the players, these brain farts are on the players as well. I think it's a mixture of both, but there's definitely something there that needs to be addressed because Marty's not wrong when he says, When we make a mistake, it's in the back of our net. When they make a mistake, we can't finish.It's a deadly combination.That's it.

It summarizes the situation situation pretty well. No one's going to play mistake-free hockey. But that Gergenson's goal is not a matter of them not getting a save. That's a matter of them leaving a guy alone in front of the net to tip a shot past their goalie with no one even coming close to bothering him. And that's exactly what Marti St. Louis tried to address over two straight days.

Yeah, that level of awareness. And Martí mentioned on more than one occasion that the capacity of this team to correct direct themselves quickly was something that he was happy with when he takes a step back and looks at the positive of the season so far. That's meant to be one positive. But I feel defensively, in their own end, not necessarily off the park, because there's aspects of the park where they've gotten markedly better. But I feel like in their own end, you try to fix something and it slips not too long after. You know, rush coverage has been an issue in and out throughout the season. We had another example against the Penguins on their third goal on Thursday night. But I want to go back to Gallagher because it's true that we mentioned Gallagher on a few occasions, but that new mistake, do you think that we're entering a different territory in terms of the level of patience that Marty can have towards Gallagher and the balance between the feistiness and the effort and whatnot? Is there a real benefit to continuing to trust him or playing more or playing less? I feel like he's getting out of runway by the way that he's been playing this season, and that Listen, he's getting a lot of benefit of the doubt.

Let's be honest. Brandon Gallagher is a player that Martien Samu will be played against. He's getting benefit of the doubt. I think there's a lot of parts of him that Marty appreciates. I mean, you looked in that game against the Penguins on at least two occasions that I can think of. Gallagher took just shots on goal because he just seemed out of ideas. And he's done that historically throughout his career. But I feel like now it's happening just more out of exasperation or just not knowing what the better option is. Whereas before, it was like genuinely trying to score. He was just a shot volume guy, and that's how that line played when he was playing with Dino and Tatar. But in that Pittsburgh game, there There were two occasions where he shot the fuck and Jarry stopped it and smothered it and got a face off. And I was like, What was the point of that? It might as well be a turnover. Now you got to win the face off. And it's definitely not what Marty wants this team to do. Just take hope shots that you hope... The notion that throw the fuck on net, you never know what will happen, yes, it's true.

But I don't think that's how the Canadians want to play offensively. They would like to create scoring chances and not just shoot and hope. But I think it's telling of where he's at with his game right now. I think that the penalty on Jeff Carter in the neutral zone, skating by, tugging on his arm for no reason is another sign of how he's just exasperated with what is happening for him on the ice.

Judging by Marty's look, the coach, too, is exasperated.

Yeah. Listen, he resisted again after the game to call him out and said, I think Ali knows that that was wrong, except how many times are you going to say that before you He realized that he clearly doesn't know because he keeps doing it. It's at least three times that I could think of this season, but it's probably more, where Marty's given that answer about Brandon Gallagher. Gallagher is a veteran. He knows. I look at that penalty and I'm like, he doesn't know. He just got back from a suspension where he did something reckless and needless in a neutral zone far from his net. I know he explained that he thought Pelik was going to wind up with a breakway if he didn't catch up to him and all the things that he justified in his mind. But the reality is that it was a non-threatening situation, and Brandon Gallagher did something needless to put his team in trouble. Everything I just said there applies exactly to what happened in Pittsburgh with that Jeff Carter penalty, which this is going to sound weird since Gallagher pegged He had the pellet right in the head with a nasty check.

But you had less chance of getting away with the Jeff Carter thing because it wasn't... If Gallagher had just hit Pellet in the chest instead of the head, he probably wouldn't even have gotten a penalty there. I mean, it It was a little late, but it was... So he might have gotten an interference penalty, but probably not, if we're being honest. He had just had the buck. The Carter thing, there's no way he's getting away with that. There's just none. And there's no reason to do it. And then a few seconds later, the Penguin score. And it's just like, you can't be a veteran who knows and then continuously does the thing he's supposed to know not to do.

Well, we've discussed the timing also of those penalties that put the team in trouble. But it's not as though... It's not as if those penalties were really penalties of being just a bit too aggressive on the forecheck, or you're trying to prevent a goal and you take this good penalty, those are terrible. There's just bad penalties. The reason why I was asking about The risk and benefit, it's just that as he progresses in his career, he's giving you less and less, but he's costing you more and more. So at what point does that equation becomes untenable for the Canadians?

What is the alternative? What do you do?

Well, Right now, there's not a lineup full of superstars in front of him. He can still hope to play in the third line once in a while. He did against Pittsburgh. But on average, since he came back from his suspension, he plays roughly 12 minutes a night. I think that's how things are going to be from this point on. I don't see it changing anytime soon.

That's what I mean, is that there's nothing more to do. He's already not playing a lot. No. I don't think they're going to take out of the lineup. He was playing on the fourth line, he came back out of the suspension, he got moved up a little bit. I don't see what the options are this season. And then you got to hope that he resets over the offseason. And the positive for Gallagher is he's played every game so far, other than the five that he was suspended for, obviously. That's true. But he's managed to stay in the lineup. I still believe, and I know I'm repeating myself, but I still believe that there's something to be gained by having a Brandon Gallagher in your lineup, even when this team becomes good. Down at the bottom of your lineup, it's still there, except it's hard to make that argument when you keep doing costly, silly, careless things like this. That's the problem, is that that argument becomes harder and harder to make when the one thing you're supposed to be bringing, which is a veteran discipline and showing an example of how to be a pro in games in certain situations and not do anything reckless and not put yourself in a position to be called for penalties, even if you don't think they are penalties, if you're putting yourself in a position to be called, veterans tend to not do that, not give the refs an opportunity to blow the whistle.

And Brenda Gallagher has given the refs way too many opportunities to blow the whistle this season. So for this season, I don't really see any any other consequence than what he's already got. He's already got pretty minimal, maybe could be taken off the second wave of the power play, which plays like 30 seconds a game anyway. But yeah, it's something that he needs to look at over the offseason and be like, Why is this happening? Why am I doing this? And really get his head around the notion of being a lower in the lineup veteran leader for this team. And I think if he can do that effectively, Then there's some good to be had with Brenda Gallagher as new players come in, young players who can learn from him. But you're not going to be learning from him now if he keeps doing stuff like that.

No, he That does not equate to what Marty has been routinely saying about Gallagher, which is he's bringing his teammates into the fight. That's not bringing his teammates into the fight. That's That's in his DNA as a hockey player. That's how he's been throughout his career. That's his identity. But right now, we're not seeing that.

No. His identity was always... Listen, he's always taken penalties, but they've always been penalties you can live with. They've always been penalties where you say, Okay, well, once in a while, that's going to happen when you play like that, but we'll take the overall package. So if he gets called for goal interference, we're like, Okay, well, we'll take the 10 times where he disrupts life for the goal tender and creates offense that way or creates goals without actually getting credit for them or scores himself. We'll take that goal interference penalty every now and then because that's the cost of doing business that way. Whereas now, there's no correlation between the penalties he's taking and the benefits of his style of play. So he needs to shape up. Honestly, he's at a bit of a cross roads as far as his career goes. I think he has a lot of good years to offer if he could stay healthy, but he just got to get his head around this new version of himself that he needs to adapt to.

We'll see if there's, in terms of accountability, if he ends up being on the fourth line against New Jersey on Saturday. But the Montreal Canadiens have a new fourth-line centerman in Colin White.

It's-former KFU's client.

Yes. He's one of many. Yeah. One of many. There's another one who got injured. Jaden Straubel got injured late in the game against Pittsburgh. We'll see a bit later on if it's serious or not. So Colin White, it's an interesting movement that happened in the past few days, past couple of days, with first, the Canadians claiming White on waivers off the Pittsburgh Penguin. So it's always fun when you see a guy basically going from one locker room to the other during the same on same day. That's the best.

Absolutely. It's the best.

Yeah.

My favorite types of transactions.

It doesn't beat Joel Youngblood, though, in baseball.

No, it doesn't beat Joel Youngblood in baseball. But you want to tell the story? I think some of our listeners might not know what you're talking about.

Yeah, because we were kids back then. So 1984, if I'm not mistaken, the Montreal Expos are playing in San Francisco. Yes. They are playing this utility player named Joel Youngblood. Then after the game, they trade him. They were playing an afternoon game, and they trade him to the New York Mets. Joel Youngblood managed to play two games on the same day for two different teams.

Yeah.

I think I've got the sequence right, but that's pretty much what it is.

I believe that's correct. But yeah, definitely the end result was Joel Youngblood playing for two different teams on the same day following a trade. So yes. Yeah.

Because I got mixed up. Yeah, because the other thing is that I think that he played for San Francisco afterwards.

Afterwards, yes.

Yeah. But I think in this instance, it was Montreal and the Mets on the same day, which is bunkers. I was trying to figure out. I thought for a moment that what happened to Colin White had happened also to Devante Smith-Pelly, but I was wrong, it did not. Do you have any instance of something happening with the Canadians?

Well, Glen Metropolit. Glen Metropolit was with the Flyers, I believe, when the Canadians picked him up. Montreal was in Philadelphia, and they picked up Glen Metropolit on waivers, and he crossed over and played for the Canadians that night. So, yeah. Okay. Oh, wait a minute. Here, I actually pulled it up.

Good old Metro.

Good old Metro.

A cool dude.

What a cool dude that guy was. Loved him. I'll never forget him just crapping all over Jacques Martin. I think it was before... During the Capital series, I think it was before a game. It would have been before Game 5. So the Canadiens were down 3-1. They were in Washington Washington, and I hung around afterwards, and I talked to Metro for a while, and he was just like- Because he was scratched. Because he was scratched. And so he had a bone to pick, and did he ever pick it? This guy doesn't know what he's doing, this and that. It was just a tirade. I couldn't believe it. I was like, God, this is gold. But yeah, it wasn't actually an interview. I didn't have a recorder out. I didn't have a notepad out. It was just two guys talking. I never actually used any of that stuff because to me, it wasn't clear if he knew we were on the record or not. I don't like it. If I don't make it clear that I'm going to use this stuff, then I prefer not to. But it was so true. I couldn't have known that he was going to just spout off like this.

I was honestly just having a conversation with him, and it turned into that. But then the Canadian is one of the next-But you can tell the story 14 years later. I could tell the story 14 years later. I feel pretty confident that Glamotrapla is not going to mind me saying that He wasn't happy with the coach at that time. He wasn't the only one. We did that story telling that playoff run. There were meetings with players and coming up with strategies, and so a whole bunch of stuff happened. Maybe he wasn't all wrong, but the Canadiens did win their next three games and knock the Capitals out, which is the grand metropolis angle of crossing dressrooms. But the Colin White thing, to get back to our original point. Yes. It's interesting because this was done This was largely for Laval. This was probably done more for Laval than it was for Montreal. And so that's interesting to me because Laval is playing... So think of Brandon Gignac in this situation. I was at Laval the morning skate this morning, and they said... So this was at 10:30 or 10:45. I spoke to J. F. Huh, and he said, well, if Gignac gets through waivers, which now he has, and he gets here in time, then we plan on playing him tonight.

So the Rocket are playing the Marleys, the this evening, and again tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. And they're putting them right back in the lineup because Brandon Jean-Yack has been the Laval Rocket's best player this season. From start to finish, they're most consistent Their offense goes through him, as Hul said, and he's ecstatic to be getting him back because they're in a race, and it's important to the organization that LaVal make the playoffs. They're getting Sean Farrell back tonight after a 19-game absence, if I'm not mistaken, his second major injury of the season. But the young guys that are in Laval, this playoff race is going to be of utmost importance to the organization. And so Brandon Gignac is what I might suspect will be the first move meant to help the Rocket, but I can't imagine it'll be the last. I don't know if they're going to go out and trade for players to get to the Rocket, but I think the other moves are going to happen that are going to prioritize the Levant Rocket over the Canadians, I would imagine between now and the deadline.

Yeah, I think that I wouldn't be surprised one bit if at some point, despite the fact that he does not deserve it, Joshua Ruo would be sent down again. He's proving right now that he plays at an NHL level. There are nights, just like yesterday against Pittsburgh, where he's one of the better Montreal forwards. Despite that, because they will They will want to prioritize the rocket. They might make that move. Because we used to hear the expression nowadays is to say, We want to be playing meaningful games. Well, there are no more meaningful games for the Canadians at this point where they're at in the standings and the schedule. It's extremely meaningful for the rocket, though, and they want to keep it that way. It might not all be like future stars in the the NHL, but there's a big enough group of players in Laval that could become the supporting cast of the Montreal Canadians in the next few years. Absolutely. Yeah. So Gignac He'll end up carving up a fourth-line role as a regular in the NHL. He's got a chance to do that. But I'm thinking mainly, obviously, Logan Mayu, but Emile Heinemann, you mentioned Farol, who's got an outside chance of making it to the NHL.

Trudeau has got a chance to. For now, Justin Baron is there. I don't know if he's going to stay in Laval. He's going to be called back, and there's going to be like a one goes up, one goes down type of situation on defense. Obviously, in Jacob Dauwesh, too, we could add his name to that group. They want to make sure that this team is able to have success, that they win those meaningful games so that there's an investment, there's a chance at a learning experience in a winning environment. Granted, it's not at the NHL level, but they're going to take the next best thing because those guys are all part of the same organization. They're all on the same team in September. They're all mixed up. They're going to help the team that needs it the most. Honestly, Colin White, it could be him, could be another guy, but they're just taking a guy who can just make the job or do the job for the Canadians on the fourth line. Because they know him from his personality, he's a really outgoing, easy to deal with type of guy. They say he's going to be really a low maintenance, and we can plug in there for the last X number of games that we have and really help our farm team to do what we want them to accomplish.

Yeah. That's the They basically made a trade for Laval. They traded. When you talk about the supporting cast, when I think of what the Canadians hoped to accomplish in LaVal, I think of what Tampa did with Syracuse Crunch. Alex Kalorn, Andre Palat, Tyler Johnson, all these guys all came up. John Cooper as their coach there, all came up together. And no one would have looked at Andre Palat at that time said, wow, that guy is going to be a future important piece of multiple Stanley Cup final teams and winning teams.

Radko Goudas was there.

Radko Goudas was there. They had just amazing group of unheralded talent, not all high draft picks. Tyler Johnson wasn't drafted. Palat, I think, was a seventh-round pick, if I'm not mistaken. The hope would be that you create that environment, Laval, and you unearth or you develop guys like that, guys that you did not expect to become key players, but wind up becoming key players. So it's important that they get into the playoffs, have those experiences. And so Laval has the two games against the Marlies, one tonight, Friday night. We're recording at 3:15, so Friday evening. And then Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM, they play them again. So the Rocket enter this game one point behind the Marlies. The division is bonkers, right? So you have Cleveland at the top with 64 points. You have Syracuse second with 59. And then from third to sixth, you have Rochester at 54, Belleville at 53, Toronto at 52, LaVal at 51. Then you have Utica at 47. Those four teams are three points apart, Rochester, Belleville, Toronto, Laval. So these two games against Toronto are obviously quite significant. Toronto has two games in hand on Laval, so that skews that a bit.

But they're significant games, and they definitely... The organization has a lot to gain. If they want to recreate that Syracuse Crunch experience or some version of it, their own version of it, they need to be playing play in the last games. And so a critical time, and honestly, two weeks away from the deadline means that we're two weeks away from knowing who the Canadians are going to paper to make them eligible for the AHL play-off. And that whole dance has has to happen. And while we're on the subject, I know we didn't plan on talking about this, but I spoke to Justin Varen this morning, and he's talking about... He seems good, actually. He's fully invested in what's going on in La Val, that's for sure. That's his team. He hopes to be called up to the Canadians. It's not as if he's given up on being called up by the Canadians, but he is not sitting by his phone waiting for that call. It's the impression I get.

A little bit like Jacky earlier, when we embraced the situation.

Well, that's my point, is that you see what's going on with Jacky right now. You look at the games he's played recently, the confidence with the Puck, striking the right balance between his own identity and the version of him the Canadians want him to become. Really, I think, is a feather in J. F. Hall's cap, but not only J. F. Hall in Laval, but the development staff, Adam Nicolas, Scott Pellerin, Paul Byron, all the guys. I was at the morning skate today, and Adam Nicolas was on the ice with guys. It's really an organizational thing. And to see Jacky come out the other side, If you're Justin Baron, I think you should look at that and be like, okay, well, look what he's doing now. Now he's playing impactful games. He's had what-21 minutes against Pittsburgh. Yeah, but yet not in the top four defensemen. Somehow, Marty took exception with our colleague Luc Gelina, referring to him being in the top four, even though he was third on the team for defensemen in ice time in that game. But if I'm barren, I'm looking at that and I'm like, Okay, here's the result of the process I'm in right now.

And that, frankly, is a healthy thing for an organization that you have a guy who was confused, was not playing well, looked to be going through the telltale signs of a sophomore slump and everything that it entails, the mental mind meld that goes on after you have a successful rookie season, goes down there, does his work, works on his game, gets a lot of help from a lot of different areas of resources of the organization, goes back up and succeeds. And now, Barron is trying to do the same thing. So I think he's in a good place. He It feels... I mentioned to him how Marty St. Louis mentioned that when he got sent down, his confidence was really down, and it was starting to impact different areas of his game. And while he didn't like hearing that, he did admit that that is basically what happened. And so now This was funny. So I was like, So what is the process like of getting your confidence back in the AHL, which in and of itself, being here, you would think would be a knock to your confidence, like a further knock to your confidence.

Like, Oh, I've been sent down. How is it building? And then so he started giving increased tuck touches and more time with the tuck and this and that. At one point, he whispered, he's like, You're also not playing against the best players in the world anymore, and so you feel better about yourself. Yeah.

Well, yeah, he's probably their best defenseman down there.

Well, and that's just a fact. You were literally in a league with the best players in the world, and now you're in a lower league, which is still an excellent league, but the level of quality goes down. It's just the way he said it. I felt like he was embarrassed to say it or just didn't feel the good saying it, but it's a fact. You're playing against worse players. But I think that there's a whole lot more to it when it comes to what the Canadiens were able to do with Jack Ky and to see him come out the other side is, I think, a really encouraging side for the organization. But if I'm Justin Varen, I'm looking at Arbër Jack Ky and saying, I'm going to keep my head down and work down here, and that could be me. I think that's what he's doing, to his credit.

I think as a sidebar to that, I'm not sure to which extent it's a big factor, but it must play in the player's psyche somewhere. The fact that Laval has a bigger building, a full building. They've got very professional, NHL caliber infrastructures. It makes it so that when you go down, you don't feel like all of a sudden you're in a dump. The gap is so huge that you remember day after day how huge the gap is. Because when you're in Laval, the environment is refreshing. If you're not in the NHL, it's the next best thing. I think that for those players, it helps soften the a little bit, the fact that they're so-For sure. They're looked after so well.

We heard Arbër talking about how great it is to play in Laval while he was there, when we were both talking to him that day. He was blown away at the contrast between Laval and some of these other buildings. I think you mentioned, Lehigh Valley and some of the buildings that they play in where it's just night and day. I believe his quote was like, Are we even in the same league? How is it possible to play games here in Laval and it feels like this, and now we're playing this game in an empty building with no life? Definitely an advantage as far as that stuff is concerned.

I just wanted to quickly go back to the Jean-Jacques and white thing because the Canadians did gamble a little bit, or I assume that they must have made the proper estimation automation and calibration that they would not lose Jean-Jacques on waivers. But if they had lost them on wai, it would have looked bad on the organization. Yes. Because trading Zineak for Colin White.

Would be awful. Yeah, that'd be terrible. Yeah, 100 %.

They must have known what they were doing because you're testing. Very often, you tend to test the waters and you understand in advance who is likely to be interested in your player. You send fillers, you get as much information as you can. So that when you put someone on waiver, either it's because you want him to be picked up or it's because you know that he's not going to be picked up. But either outcome should not come as a super surprise if you've done your homework beforehand.

Yeah, but it's at the same time, you can't know. That's why I think, which still strikes me as odd, but the Kenanians knew that they were going to lose this to Livstrom, to the ducks. They had to have. How could they not have? They did that for a reason that I still haven't quite figured out why they just gave a player away. But it seemed obvious that that's what was going on that time. Livstrom, that was right after the Jamie Grysdale, Cutter Goatey trade, the Ducks needed a right shot D. All of a sudden Gustave Lindstrom's on waivers. I'm like, Oh, look, there's a solution to our problem right there. After not going on waivers for weeks and not playing and not getting in the lineup, but the thought being that we can't send him back to the Ducks, we're going to lose him on waivers. And they put him on waivers on the very day where he is most likely to get picked up on waivers.

Something weird there.

But anyhow, I do think they did have to have an inkling that I mean, the main thing they had going for them is that whoever picks up someone on waivers has to keep them on the NHL roster. You could do a quick analysis around the league and say, Okay, who even has a roster spot that would make sense to replace someone with Brenda Gignac? If you look around and you do the calculations, be like, Okay, well, he's not likely to get picked up because there's nowhere for him to go. But you never know with the bot. But anyhow, you're right. It would have been a bad look, but I think they felt pretty confident that he was going to get through.

Hey, Arpid.

Is it time? Yeah, it's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. Okay, so it is Friday. It's Friday. So last week for our Future Friday segment, Marc-Antoine, because I'm a big child and Marc-Antoine is not. So Marc-Antoine allowed me, after cutting me off previously, we had readers and we had listeners, sorry, comment that, Marc-Antoine, let ARPEN sing the Future Friday jingle. So I did. And it was awful, but it was fun. So we had a listener by the name of Greg McPherson who heard that and was like, You know what? I'm going to make you a jingle for Future Friday. Now, Greg McPherson is a musician. He actually is playing a show tomorrow, Saturday evening at the Broom factory in Kingston. He's a recording artist. He enjoys the show, sent us an email, and included five different versions of a Future Friday Jingle, some of which sampled my singing of the Future Friday Jingle. So today, on February 23rd, big shout out to Greg McPherson for doing this for us. We are debuting the Future Friday Jingle. Here it is. Enjoy. Future Friday. Future Friday. Future Friday. Future Friday. Future Friday.

It's great. I love it.

I love it. Got like a reggae downbeat vibe I love it. Greg McPherson. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Greg McPherson. That's phenomenal. You'll hear that every Friday from now on. That is the official theme song to Future Friday on the Basquet Good Day Notebook.

All right.

Let's get into Future Friday then.

Yeah. We're combining two things because there's a listener who sent us a question for the Monday Mailbag that was about a prospect. We decided to answer that question on Future Friday. It was the Gargoyle who sent us a question regarding Philip Erickson. Philip Erickson, he said, he wrote to us, this is what, a six-round pick last year. He started in the SHL and has 17 points in 15 games in the Alsvenzkan. Should he be someone to watch? And have you heard anything from the organization recently about this prospect? I did a bit of digging. I actually spoke to his junior coach in Sweden. Wow. Yeah, I did. This is real devotion to Future Friday, I got to say.

I'm really impressed. I like it.

People ask questions. It turns out that Harrison was one of the top U20 players. I mean, on the U18 team where he was playing in Troja, he was playing over 25 minutes a game, but he's considered a bit of a late bloomer. Traditionally, in Sweden, the way that they do, like they're a national teams. Usually, the U16 that they identify, they let them grow together and they basically remain pretty much the same group until the U20. They remained the same national team. It's hard to crack the lineup if you have not been identified early on, and Erichson was not. He's perceived as a bit of a late bloomer. Definitely someone who flew under the radar, but In his Julian team, he was an assistant captain. He was really the guy, certainly not a Rauwau guy, more like leading by example. He was playing center there. But right now, he's playing in He's playing for Nibra in the Elsvenskan, and he's used more as a winger. What I was told was that it's definitely his hockey sense that stands out the most. I watched a few of his games. But his junior coach told me that for the Canadians to draft him in the sixth round, he felt as though it was a potential steal for them.

Now, he might be biased because he coached him and he really liked him. He was really He's a difference maker on his team. But you got to recognize the fact that he's playing right now for Nibro. He's playing a 16 game with Nibro, and he's the only player on the team who's at more than a point per game clip. He's only 18 years old. So that's very encouraging.

He's getting massive ice time.

Massive. Massive. I mean, he's playing over 20 minutes with Nibro. So the Gargoyle, our listener, mentioned in his tweet that he had started the season in the SHL where he was playing only 9:30 on average per game. So it's really a matter of opportunity with Nibro. He's playing both the power play and the PK, but he's mainly an offensive guy. He's used in the right circle on the power play, and he's definitely a lot more of a passer and a playmaker than a shooter. I saw him score a goal, though, against Calmar. Not Calmar, Calmar, where it was an amazing back-end shot, like top He's really nice back-end, but he doesn't use his shot a whole ton. But anyway, that's where he plays on the PP. But even though he plays on the PK, he's definitely an offensive guy. He's He's not yet a 200-foot player, but he's committed at blocking shots if need be. He's a guy that uses his speed also to press on the forecheck. He seems to be a pretty good forecheck checker. But it's what I've seen from him, and it was confirmed by the coach over there, is the fact that he's got very good anticipation at identifying the empty spaces, the pockets of The pockets of ice.

So as soon as he passes the pocket, he goes to those pockets, so he becomes an option again. So he gets the play moving a lot that way. But he's skinny. I mean, he's 6 foot tall. He's not a small kid. But he's really, really skinny, and he's never going to win a ton of battles.

Elite prospects has him at 172.

Yeah, that's it. So We always talk about European players, how the game could translate. That's an issue where there might be a problem of translability of his game because he's not bound to win a lot of buck battles. He doesn't engage physically almost at all. He always uses his stick. It's going to be a challenge. For a player like that, it's really a long-term investment where no matter if he's putting up a lot of points and he's really impressing a lot of people, in the Alvarezkan this year. It's a project that you say you might play in the Alvarezkan next year and then play another year or two in the SHL, and then we'll talk. But if the Canadian start getting all excited because he's putting up a lot of points in that second division in Sweden this year, and they think that they need to sign the guy and bring him over quickly, it might be a mistake. Especially with the fact that he doesn't have a big build, let him get some maturity both in his play and his body.

I don't think they feel any urgency. It actually reminds me of something that J. R. Full was talking about today, because with Farrell coming back in Laval, I asked about... Because prior to the season, when it was thought that Philip Meshar was going to play in Laval, Huhl expressed some concern that they would have Meshar, Kidney, Farrell. He didn't mention him at the time, but he does now. Jared Davidson, he puts in that group and was worried that he have too many smaller guys on his team. So today, when I asked him about that, how do you think Farrell and Kidney are learning to play at their size in the AHL and be those complete players that you need to be at the pro level. He said, They're progressing well, but it's going to take time, and you got to be patient. That's when he threw Jared Davidson in the mix, who was gone on a scoring tear, basically ever since Gignac got called up. He's been driving the bus, offense-wise, in Laval. And so that's another guy who was a fifth-round pick last year, in 2022, I should say. So he's like, These kinds of guys, later, picks Davidson Kidney, Farrell, they're longer term projects.

And so the more of those longer term projects that wind up in Laval at some point, the better off the organization will be of unearthing a potential pilot, let's say, to use the prior analogy. And maybe Ericsson will be someone like that. Who knows? But probably not. But the fact that they have someone showing some potential is a good sign. The other thing I want to say is that if you think back to last year's to the last draft, 2023 draft, starting with the Ryan Backer pick, going right down to the bottom of the Canadian's docket. A lot of draft experts were puzzled by what the Canadians did at the draft. A lot of fans were upset, not only with the Rheinbacker pick, but the fact that they put three goalies, the fact that they didn't really get any elite offensive talent in any way, shape, or form. But you look at the draft now, just a few months later, obviously, Rheinbacker is a whole in the corporate category. Jacob Fowler is kicking ass, and Boston College has been one of the best goalies in the NCA. Florian Jackai, we talked about last week. Bogdan Konyushchov is borderline.

He's really intriguing He's making prospect for this organization. What he's doing in the KHL at his age, at his size, is quite promising, an offensive defenseman. Then you look at Velokin, the goalie they took in the fifth round, the Russia goalie who's ripping up the MHL and has the organization quite excited. And then you have Erichson in the sixth round. I guess sometimes you got to let things play out. And you know what? Maybe none of these players make it that I just mentioned, but every player I just mentioned, with the exception of Fowler, I think everyone recognized that Fowler was a very good pick in the third round and that he had a lot of promise, and no one really questioned that. But the Jacky pick was definitely questioned by you and I as well. Konyushchov, no one had ever heard of him, really. Vlokin was the third goalie of the Canadian pick, so he had elicited some outrage. I don't think the needle moved much when the Canadian called Philip Erickson's name in the sixth round. But still, the initial reaction to a draft pick, the initial draft grades that are given out at various publications, the initial analysis, sometimes you just got to let it play out and see how things play out.

Frankly, that draft, perhaps with the exception of Ryan Backer, that draft is just because of all the... That's a whole separate story, but there's a lot of good stories coming out of the players the Canadians drafted in 2023, at least at this early stage. And Phillip Ergson is one of them. He's just another one of them.

For sure. He's been splitting his season between the SHL and the Jens Van der Straeten, as I was saying earlier. In the SHL, he's playing for Wekle. Is that how you pronounce that? Yeah.

I didn't want to say it because I didn't know how to pronounce it. It's not Vaxxel. No, it's not Vaxxel.

It's Vekle.

There's no L. Anyhow, it's okay. I know. I know. You've gotten it from good sources.

Forrestberg should be Forzbre Then still, the R is not before the E. There's all sorts of things that we don't understand.

It's Wexley? I like it because I'm a Lakers fan and they're It's called the Lakers, so I like that. That's clear, Lakers.

That team is not playing there a lot, but that's the thing with the SHL is that the top teams traditionally don't play their youngsters a lot. And the worst teams either, because the worst teams that are fighting against relegation, they're going to try to load up as much as possible on older and capable players that can provide immediate results. In that sense, it's not really a development.

Well, it's not a development because it's not a development league. It's literally not. Yes, there are players developing in the SHL, It's not a development. I just had the same experience in Switzerland with the Swiss League. These are professional league where they have concerns about selling tickets, about paying salaries, about making money, their businesses, and they have to win in order to make money, in order to get people in the seats. So the SHL, just like the Liga in Finland, just like the National League in Switzerland, just like the KHL, not development league. They're European professional league, and they're not They have no interest in playing a kid up the lineup just because the Montreal Canadians want to see him in a top six role and play him on the power play because no, they don't do that. And they shouldn't, frankly. It's They're not their job. But I think 17 points in 15 games in the Yawlspenskin is pretty decent for a six-run pick.

Yeah, and he got an ear in the assist today also. So it's 18 and 16. There you go. It's excellent. It gets people excited. My point was that even though he split between two league, so he's got a lot less games played in the Jollsvenskan than the other rookies, but his name is starting to be mentioned for an award called the Golden Cage. Basically, when you wear a cage with your helmet. The Golden Cage is basically the top rookie in the league.

Because the UA team players have to wear a cage. Right. Got you.Yeah. Okay. I like that. That's a good award.

Golden cage. He played a lot less than the other ones, but he's been so dominant that he's forcing himself into that conversation despite the fact that he might not quite meet the threshold of the numbers of games played just yet. But he scored in 12 of his 16 games, so he's been very, very effective. I like also, he's got good pace to his game, too. Quite a good skater. He looks a little bit... It reminds me when I was watching him, it reminded me a little bit of Lars Seller in terms of the way that he moved. He was skating and a bit bouncy in his stride of the Lars Seller. The Montreal days, maybe not the way he's skating now. But yeah, he's got quick edges and whatnot. Anyway, that's Philip Erichson for you guys.

All right, great. All right, well, that'll wrap things up for this week's episode. Thank you all for listening. If you made it this far, a reminder, if you're watching us on YouTube, you can subscribe to the SEPN channel and follow us there, obviously on Apple or any other podcast platform. If you give us a rating, give us a follow or a subscription on that platform so that you will be notified every time a new episode comes up. We would appreciate that. Would help keep the lights on in here. So thanks so much for listening, and we'll be back on Monday for a new episode. Until then, have a great weekend. Marc-antoine, enjoy your weekend. You too. Sure.

Let's go get a beer.

Sure.