Hello, everybody. I'm Marc-Antoine Godet, and welcome to the Basu and Godet Notebook. Our pen, always enjoyable to hear that new jiggle from Greg McPherson. It's-catchy. I'll get used to it. I'll easily get used to it.

Great response to it, too. I think a lot of the listeners enjoyed it. It's a banger. It's a banger. I like it. It's got some beats. I really like the energy coming into the show with that. So thanks again, Greg McPherson, who responded how thrilled he is that we're using his stuff. But we're more thrilled, Greg, that we have your stuff to use. So thank you again.

There you go. So the Canadians won a third game in a row on Thursday night against Philly. Caden Primo came one minute close to earn a third consecutive shutout at home, which we have not seen in a Montreal-Canadian uniform since Jacques Plant in 1954. So that would have been quite a feat, but Yeah, it didn't happen that way. Let me start with this. Do you think that that late success, late in the season, the fact that they can really get on the role here, is going to be something that collectively they can truly build on? Or you look down the 417 to Ottawa, where year after year, the senators are so good late in the season when it doesn't mean anything for their season anymore. They don't seem to build from those late-season successes and carry it over to the next year or so. Which one of the two do you think is going to be for Montreal?

I don't think I don't think you can carry late success collectively over as a group. The group changes over the course of the off-season, even if the core elements are still there. But I think individually, you can carry that over sometimes. It's Especially as a young player, and especially players, a lot of the players that are in uniform with the Canadians now, I think of a guy like James Strubel, who went through some ups and downs, confidence-wise and just effectiveness-wise, and caught himself, corrected himself a bit. He was talking yesterday before the game about how he felt he had slipped into normalcy or complacency. And so going through that process this season and finishing strong, I think, will be important for him, especially going into training camp next year when the rodeo on defense is going to be just a very compelling element. Wild. Yeah, wild, according to Mike Matheson. Very wild element of training camp next year. Jordan Harris, I think you could say the same thing. I think there's individual guys, obviously Slath, Suzuki, Caulfield. There's a number of guys who I think individually, you carry some of this over. And I think that one of the differences, or not a difference, but one of the elements of how the Canadians are ending the season is just the quality of teams they're facing.

They have one of the most difficult schedules in the league going down the stretch. And So last night, they beat a Philadelphia Flyers team who are scratching and clawing and trying to get into the play-off, performing, obviously beating Colorado in Colorado where no one wins. That effort in Edmonton. There's some signature games here where the Canadians are proving something to themselves that I think can be valuable. But I think there has to be some There has to be some... Not concerned, but you have to be wary of overstating what this stretch of games could mean. But when you're in a process like the Canadians are in, every little element helps to, I guess, reassure what they're doing. So I found interesting. Yesterday before the game, I asked Marty, you and any other coach always says, sometimes the guy just needs to go upstairs and get a different perspective on the game. So Marty going home to be with his family, to be with his son, Mason, as he was going through some health issues, gave him that chance. Basically was the equivalent of him going up into the press box and watching the game from a different point of view.

And I wondered if he got a different point of view or a different perspective. And what he said is, I found it reassuring. I found it was validating basically what they were working on. He thought it was a good exercise, and it did give him a different perspective. But that perspective just confirmed what he thought he was seeing from ice level or in video sessions or what have you. So he found that reassuring. So I think there's a certain level of confidence that you can gain as a group in terms in terms of how you play, in terms of what you're trying to do on the ice, the concepts or systems or whatever you want to call it. Knowing that that's effective could help going in the next season.

I like the fact that he says that he finds it reassuring. You're mentioning the signature games. The one against Colorado is definitely one of those games where the team can say, We're raising the standards. We're showing our coach what we're capable of doing. They're not at a point where they're able to show it every night, but they can show at least that they've got it in them. And then it's their job and the coaches' job afterwards to take it out of them on a more consistent basis. But this idea that they would go over there and it would be just a slaughter because nobody that he wins in Denver, it didn't ring true this time. It was an impressive performance from that perspective. But we've heard Martin saying we talk a lot about how he's proud of his group, how we're so close, and when we're good, our good is very good, is that it's excellent, things like that. It's elite.

He called it elite.

Yeah, it depends on the day. Sometimes it's very good, sometimes it's excellent, sometimes it's elite.

That was a bit of an exaggeration on his part, but yeah, he used the word elite the last time he mentioned that.

Yeah, but he sees the glass half full. And you could argue, looking at the in his standings, Hey, guys, you're 26th, 27th in his standings. You're far from the play-off. Are you going to lower the bar and content yourself with so little? People could perceive things that way. But I think that Martin Saint-Louis is looking as a very realistic view and has a realistic pulse on his team and where it's at now. But I think it's going to be interesting to see how time goes on, how he's going to be able to go from a coach who readily admits that he's a player's coach right now, who's going to be able to Baby Titan his grip on his players a little bit and start becoming more demanding. Albert Jackai told me yesterday morning, he says he's already more demanding than he was last year, because last year, there was a bunch of us who were first year players. Even though they had certain expectations toward us, they didn't know exactly what they would get from us. So as they played us over the course of the season, And they said, Oh, this guy can do this.

Oh, he can do that. So everything was a little bit gravy. But now there are certain things that's been set in stone, and there are expectations now. Show us now how you can take this to another level. So there's more higher expectations this year than last year, and it's going to continue to grow as seasons will go on. So I'm in intrigued to see our head coach, while remaining true to himself, is able to adapt his message and slowly but surely, tighten the grip and becoming more demanding after being so understanding and welcoming and a glass half-full type of guy in his first couple of seasons behind the Canadian's bench. So It's a trajectory that you could say, Well, of course, it's going to be like that. But you look at certain teams, when they reach a certain level with their progression, they say, That coach is probably not the right guy anymore for us. We need a different type of message, expressed a different way. But in the Montreal Canadian case, it's going to be up to Martin Saint-Louis to slowly but surely modify his message and tweak the delivery so that it adapts to where the team is at.

So I look forward to see that.

I don't know if he has to adapt his message necessarily, but he definitely has to adapt how he handles out, how he handles accountability. I remember there was a game... Well, I think the flyers are actually a great example of this and a great example of what the Canadians might one day have to do and what Marty might one day have to do. Listen, Taylor Pearson has been out of the lineup for a while now. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened after the trade deadline. But it's clear that Taylor Pearson is going to be leaving at the end of the season, and you'd rather get Michael Pizzetta and Yasi Oulunin, some reps, and Raphael Harvey-Pinard, and whoever else Pearson would potentially come in for. And that's not to say that Pearson is not going to play for the rest of the season, but that's a developmental decision, an organizational decision based on where they're at. Well, you look the Flyers and St. Louis mentor, John Torterella, what he's been doing. Sean Couturey played fourth-line center last night. Cam Atkinson played because they needed a body, but those are the two highest paid forwards on the Flyers.

Two highest paid players, actually, flat out, if I'm not mistaken. And they've been scratched of laden. And Torterella explained, again, before the game yesterday, that he wants to put together the group of the 20 best players he feels can win a game for them that night because that's where they're at. They're in a playoff race. Points are important. They're more important than development, or they're more important than nurturing a veteran or giving the veteran a benefit of the doubt. No, it's a very clear-cut message from him that we're after points. I don't care how much money you make. I don't care how many years you've been in the I don't care if you're the captain. You're coming out of the lineup if you're not helping us win.

He said we're not at a stage where we try to get guys going. No. We cannot.

That's it. We're in the business of getting points. We need points. It's very simple. It's very cut and dry. The Canadians are not there, so Marti St. Louis doesn't have to do that. It would be interesting. Let's say right now they were in that phase. Let's say they were in the playoff race right now or they were on the fringes of the playoff race. Is Josh Anderson still getting the minutes that he gets? Would he have been scratched at some point? I thought he had a great start to last night's game, and then as the game went on, he just slowly got worse. And then at one point, he had the puck in the neutral zone last night. He just gave it back to the flyers. He pucked in his own end. He had time to make a decision with the puck. He just flipped it literally right to a flyer's defenseman and said, Here's the puck back, guys. It was just little things like that that grow aggravating when you watch him play, and he's clearly not the best version of himself. Under normal circumstances, you would think he would have sat at some point because he wasn't helping the team get points, but that's not their priority.

Prior to Pearson getting scratched, Marty went through a phase of two or three days where he was very insistent on how well Tyler Pearson was playing. This was a case... I remember we were in in Tampa, and he was talking, and he's like, Well, listen, that's what I see. I don't know what you guys see. And I said, Marty, I'm going to be honest, I don't see it. I'm going to give you the benefit. Obviously, you're the coach, but if you want my opinion, which he did, he asked for it, I was like, I just don't see what you're seeing with him. I really don't. And maybe it's just my untrained eye and you have a better eye. It's possible. He's like, No, you have a right to your opinion. I have a right to mine, and that's fair. I can see why you would say that, but he does a lot of little things, blah, blah, blah. Those kinds of decisions where he gives the benefit of the doubt to a veteran player, which I think is what he was doing with Tana Pearson, and he was looking at elements of Pearson's game that maybe go unnoticed, but the parts of his game that should be noticed were not noticeable.

So I think it's a different calculation. And I think if he had to make the same decisions with some of these guys, I don't think Gallagher is in that conversation because I think he's playing some pretty effective hockey of late, and I think he's been good. Again, discard the salary, which is what Tori Rele has done in Philadelphia. He's been good enough to be in the lineup. Tana Pearson, clearly not at this point. Josh Anderson, some nights yes, some nights no. You just don't know. Josh Anderson is probably going to be here next year. Could the Canadians be be in a position similar to the Flyers next year? Maybe. Who knows? I don't think anyone predicted the Flyers to be in this position. No one predicted the Knux to be in a position they're in. Maybe the Canadians could be on the fringes of the playoff race. And is Marty going to be able to make those tough calls? Because the thing with Josh Anderson and Marty is, Marty is heavily, personally invested in his improvement. He has spent so much time trying to adapt Josh Anderson's game and has been so public about it, Josh has been so public about it, that him not improving moving or not making those adjustments that they've worked on with him on a consistent basis, I could see that being difficult for the coach who's so invested in it to admit in a way and be like, Oh, well, it hasn't worked what I'm doing with this guy, so now it's time to pull the plug.

That's a tough admission when you're such a proud development style coach.

For sure. But I think that a difference between those two guys is that Torterelli came came in and from day one, behind Philly's bench, the players knew what to expect from him, that he would be a hard ass, he would be hard but fair. He would be the guy that would squeeze the lemon as much as possible, put the accountability level to 11, and that what you see is what you get. I'm not sure if there's an awareness and a willingness on Torterella's part to make his young players better. But I'm not sure if his handling is necessary all that different than what it would be with a more seasoned group. For Saint Louis, there's clear that... He says, If I was coaching a team that's much older, a team full of veterans, I wouldn't act the same way. I wouldn't coach the same way. I have to be aware of the fact That it's a young group and I have to deal with them the same way as I would as a parent, as a father, where you look after a baby and what you expect from a baby when he's two years old or a kid when he's two years older, and then six and then twelve is not going to be the same.

But as you say, it's not about the message itself because he's going to be consistent with his message. Because right from the beginning, Martin Saint-Louis, I think, has been very clear and very good explaining what he wants, what he believes in, and what he expects from his players. But it's the margin of, Okay, this is enough. You can teach. You can hope that your players are going to stop making the same mistakes. But as you get better, the margin of error and the acceptability of, You've done that same mistake again, this has to close. And as you raise the accountability, It's your relationship with the players. It's a delicate interactions and sociological dynamic at play because when you become harder on people after you've been friendly, I would say, then they might start looking at you and say, What's going on with him? You cannot do that overnight. It's like those assistant coaches who end up being the head coach overnight. They stay on the same team and they've been almost the typical friend of the player or whatnot. And now they're the guy in charge and they feel the need to change their voice, change who they are because they're in different roles.

Now, it's not exactly the same, but for Marty, if he was coaching a good team, the expression of the accountability, I would assume, would make it so that he would be getting more strict. It's a fine line to walk to be able to do that. Again, I think that he's got what it takes to do it, but it's an interesting balancing act. And in the meantime, just to prove my point, Jackai said Marty tells us very often, Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. Basically, I'm kind with you guys. I'm friendly and all that. I'm open. But that doesn't mean that I'm soft. So when it's time to be tight, to be serious, and to be demanding, I'm going to be there. But that's going to ring true even more as the team goes from a bottom feeter type of team to a team that's getting more and more competitive.

So I remember asking John Cooper about this because John Cooper, if you remember, came into Tampa, rookie coach, no NHL experience of any kind, walked into a room that included Marte St. Louis. But a lot of veterans, but a lot of guys that he coached in the NHL that he had a relationship with. And it took him time to get that authoritative accountability aspect to him and not the chummy-chummy coach thing. And he said, well, he gave an answer when I asked about this, and it was a little wishy-washy. I don't even remember what he said, but it It was unsatisfying. I was like, Okay, fine, whatever. I was like, You don't feel like answering the question, frankly. That's fine. And he grabbed me after the Scrum. He's like, Listen, the one thing you can do as a coach, if you want to, is you have to... It's ice time. It's the one lever you have. It's the only way you can send your message or to maintain that accountability. If you remember, just over a A year ago at this time, John Cooper was playing the Buffalo Sabers, and he benched in that game, Nikita Kutroth, Steven Stamkos, and Braden Point.

We had this conversation earlier this season. So it was like, or it might have actually been at this time last year. I think it was at this time last year. It was a very similar type of conversation. And he was like, Sometimes that's the bomb you got to drop. John Cooper never played in the NHL. John Torterella never played in the Sometimes it's maybe easier if you haven't played in the NHL to do that. You don't have that perspective of how the player is going to receive this message. And so that's what I'm interested to see if Marty will have the ability to do or how he will do it in his own way if he needs to. For sure, you're not going to have all your best guys going at all times. But that's a gutsy move. John Cooper sat those guys, said after that game, they weren't the guys who were giving us the best chance of winning. So I put out the best guys who gave us the best chance to win. That was a calculated move. You do it in-game, you know you're going to be asked about it, and you decide in the moment, I'm going to go out in public and I'm going to say what I have to say.

I'm going to explain my decision. Torterella has not done that. He still refuses to talk about benching Sean Couturier, did it before the game yesterday. And Sean Couturier even seems to be in the dark as to what he's done so wrong. But the only explanation John Torterella has given is very similar to what John Cooper said, is I'm going with the 20 guys to give me the best chance to win that night. And it's a different level of coaching that we haven't seen from Marty because he's not in that position. And even he said earlier this season, our coaching staff is very developmental-based. It's based on development. That's the The identity of the coaching staff is that. And clearly, Martin St. Louis development chops should not be in question anymore. He's done just tremendous work. Just watch you, right, Slavkowski, play on any given night, I think Marty deserves a lot of credit for how he navigated that whole thing. And Sotkowski deserves the most credit, let's be clear. But the way Marty handled it, I think, is a real feather in his cap as far as what he can do with young players. But then it's a different thing.

And they're either going to have to develop that or at some point, the Canadians might have to consider bringing someone onto that staff that has that experience, the experience of coaching a winning team and having those standards applied and having that accountability applied. But the Canadians aren't there yet, but it might be something they have to consider down the Don't you think that Marty could say, I've been on winning teams, so I've got that experience.

I've seen it- Sure he could.

Absolutely, he could. 100 %. And you know what? He might not even need that help. But the thing is, it's just a question because we don't know. We haven't seen it yet. But when Marty got hired, we hadn't seen him. He's done nothing but good things, really. I can't think of anything major that Martin San Luis has done that I really disagreed with since There's been minor things. I thought Brandon Gallagher should have been benched after that string of bad penalties he took. There was a game in Florida where Yola Armeya took back-to-back bad penalties, and I thought he should have been benched. But in both cases, they required him to sit a veteran, and he refused to do it. That just makes you wonder when the time comes or when it's appropriate, will he be able to do it.

That's it. Yeah, because he has not done that from day one. But it's a progression, right? The guy matures as a coach exactly as the team grows, too. That's pretty fascinating. You know the guy? Yeah, you can use the image of the baby and the young kid as much as you want. God knows that Marty has been using it a lot. But if the team that he's coaching started as a baby, he himself as a head coach started as a baby, too, and they're growing together. And there's certain things that he must be- The one thing I wanted to ask him when he said that was, how old do you think the team is now?

But I couldn't use up. I had actual questions I wanted to ask him myself. But he used a baby to a two-year-old to a six-year-old, to a 10-year-old, to whatever. Where are they? Are they six? Are they 10? Are they nearing adolescence? I don't know.

I think 10 is a good number.

Yeah, something like that.

I think that, yeah. They're guys still going to go. They're going I wanted to go through growing pains of teenage hood that's around the corner.

They have a serious growth spurt that's necessary, that's coming. Puberty is coming. Puberty can be awkward. So we'll see how awkward their puberty is.

It hasn't hit a few of their guys. I mean, I wonder if Caden Primo is ever going to have a hair on his face one day.

He's got such a big hair. If ever he's going to shave, yeah. But I wanted to be that.

Okay. One guy, though, who's been growing up fast is Slavkowski. You You mentioned it a couple of minutes ago, the fact that he's been... Marty has done a great job in terms of development. The level of buy-in from Slavkowski has been evident. He's been embracing Everything that's been thrown at him, a lot of openness into becoming a better player. It's exciting. I don't think that when we look at this season, then we're going to say, Well, What are the main positives? Because we cannot say it's a lost year in the season when their first overall pick from a year and a half ago takes such big leaps forward to the point where he went in the span of a few months, a guy that we considered sending back to the AHL to becoming a bona fide first-line forward. Again, against Philadelphia, taking Thinking matters into his own ends on certain occasions. There was this amazing drive that he took the buck at the top of the defensive territory and then carried it all the way, made an amazing move just to protect the puck against the defensemen and managed to make a shot on Ersson.

But I think that everything's coming together right now. I know it's Earth-shattering. Everybody, every Canadian's fan in their living room watching him, must have said in the past few weeks, If he's like that now, what is it going to be in three or four years? But here I am saying the same thing. It's super exciting to see.

Yeah. It's hard not to write about him every game. Honestly, I'm going to be flat out with you. It's just like he does something. Actually, it's not even something. He consistently does things over the course of every game, seemingly, that impacts the game. I thought his forechecking against Philly was top-notch, man. The physicality of his forechecking is really starting to come in. He's finishing hits, and he's been doing something. The last few games that I've noticed, you remember last season, there was a huge thing about him playing with one hand on his stick. He was losing his stick a lot. It was getting flipped in the air and stuff.

Then he would look at the ref like, What is it?

Yeah, exactly. He would look at them. He stopped doing that, which I think he recognized he had to stop. In Colorado, he generated a chance where he He whacked the fuck away from a defenseman in the offensive zone with one hand, pang, gets it down into the corner, works its way around, slaff goes to the net, shot comes in, slap's there for the tip, but winds up blocking the shot instead, gathers the fuck and sets up nick Suzuki for a one-timer. So that one-handed whack, which David Reibacher is really good at, by the way, was to me, I was like, Oh, look, he's learning how to use his reach. He did it four or five times against the flyers. Same thing. On the forecheck, he's maybe a stride short of where he needs to be, throws his arm out, wax the buck, knocks it off the stick, maintains possession in the offensive zone. So it's just a little wrinkle. So I asked him about after the game, and he's like, it's something I've always tried. I was like, is that something new that you're incorporating into your game? He's like, I don't think it's new.

I think I've tried to do it a lot. It's just you're noticing it because it's working. I'm actually doing it properly. I'm actually putting my stick in the right place. I'm actually positioned in the right place. He's like, I'm still learning where the fuck is going. And this is an example of me learning that. So it's really not about the move. It's everything else that goes with the move. And it goes back to Marty talking about touches with him, right? The more touches you get is more evidence that you know where to go on the ice and that you're in the right spots. Well, those are touches. They're effective, fuck position, changing touches. And I thought that element was so effective. And I just feel like there are other things that Slavkowski could do with his reach that will make him even more effective as an offensive player, changing the angles on his shots, reaching out to make passes, to change passing angles and stuff like that. So this was, to me, evidence that he's starting to get that his reach is another advantage that he can exploit that he hasn't fully exploited yet. So yeah, when you say, what's he going to be like in two, three, four years from now?

I think in two years from now, he's going to have a full grasp of his entire palette of advantages and how best to use them in a given situation. And just the more information he gathers in his head about the NHL and how it works and where his place is in it and how he can best use his gifts in a given situation, that's a lot of information to compute in a split second. But the difference between his ability to compute it now to his ability to compute it in November, I mean, He's gone up five grades of processors since then. He was using an old Pentium processor from seven years ago in November, and now he's up to whatever the hell the newest processor is now. So it's impressive. And he's honestly... He himself was talking in very frank terms after the game. I think it was Steu Callen. Steu Callen mentioned to him after the game, You seem to be getting better as the season goes along. And he just smiled. He said, I'm just warming up. It was a good line.

Well, you remember We spoke to him before he was drafted, and he was ooosing confidence back then already. And so, okay, that's the personality that would work well in Montreal. And he might have had a dip in confidence at some point before getting hurt last year, and even again at the beginning of the season when things didn't click right away. But I think that he never stopped doubting his own ability and the fact that he could adjust. And that's the thing right now. He's adjusted to the speed of the NHL, and he's developing his anticipation a lot in reading the play and expecting where the fuck is going to be acting in a way where he's going to make the next play like Marty likes to say. He's not always in the reaction mode. He's very much into anticipation so that when he takes his reads, he takes his information and makes his move One of the results that we see is that sometimes his passing play is super fast. The puck doesn't stay on his stick very long. In situations where he could be shooting because of how he's positioned, he's going to beat the goalie and the defenseman, not only by deciding to pass instead of shoot, where he would be in a position to shoot, but also by the quickness that he decides to pass.

When he finds an open teammate that's ready for that pass. The goal in the power play yesterday, the Suzuki goal, yes, the pass was maybe not exactly very precise, and Suzuki very deftly adjusted with his skate, but he still scored the goal. But it was just a bang, bang play where Slavkowski reacts so fast now, and he passes quickly. He sees the ice. When we talk It's about the game slowing down, that's what it means. It's because it's not the game that's slowing down. It's just you process it faster and are able to act faster.

But on that goal, you'll notice Matheson has the tuck up top, and Slavkowski's tapping his stick on the ice really fast. He saw that lane to Suzuki was open, but with Matheson still having the And he's like, God damn it, give me the... If you give me the fuck, there's a goal there. You could see it. And that's why it was on his stick and off, because he'd already seen it, and he'd already seen the lane, and it was closing. And so the urgency was getting ramped up. And he's like a 19-year-old telling a 30-year-old NHL veteran tapping a stick on the ice, Give me the damn fuck. That's a good sign. And it worked. And he pulled it off and the goal was scored. So he was right.

And how often do you see players tapping their stick because they see a pass? Usually, they tap the stick because they think that they got a good shooting lane. Whether in that case, it's more like, No, I see a pass. There's an option here, so give me the fuck so I can pass it. That's great.

Yeah, it's good. There's nothing Something bad to be said about that guy. And honestly, every game, it just seems... It does literally seem to be getting better and better. And so it's really... So when we started the show, we started the show talking about how can you bring what you do over the last 12 games or 10 games now over to next season, a guy like Slavkowski, I feel, it's just every game seems to be leading up to something better next season for him individually. And just the The level of insurance and excitedness that he has for his own future and the team's future is a huge game changer for this organization. For the longest time, It's been a question like, we don't have elite offensive talent. I still don't think Yureis Lashkowski is ever going to be in the Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid stratosphere of elite forwards, but He's going to be a pretty elite offensive talent. I feel pretty confident saying that. He is going to be one of the top wingers in the NHL at some point. And that's a very interesting piece for the Canadians to have because no one in the league right now is built like him and could do the things that he does at that size.

That player doesn't exist. He's one of one. He's really the Canadians have that guy. And that's why they drafted him because they believe that that uniqueness would be a benefit. And it's looking more and more like that every day.

I know that you say that he's not going to... I agree with you that he's not going to be that guy who can be the top echelon of the forwards. But at the same time, I don't I don't want to get carried away because I agree with your premise there. But there are a few examples of players who have consistently gotten better over the course of their career, Brad Marchand being one, Martin Saint-Louis being one. If he's got that X factor in him and he continues to get better past 25 because of the unique package that he's got, it could unlock if his upward trends continues until he hits 32 years old, for example, if he keeps getting better, there's a chance that he could become a superstar based on the attributes that he's got. But again, I find it... Marchand and Saint-Louis have something that very few players have, and it would be great if they were all like them, but It's not the case. But we just don't know if Slaff is going to be one of those guys. And if he is, honestly, with that package, this guy is the limit.

But for the time being- I look at Rick Nash scored 41 goals as a 19-year-old. But I think Slaff's ideal ceiling, if he hits and does exactly what you just mentioned, I think he can be like Rick Nash. That's I think that's the best case scenario in God. If that works out, then the Canadians would be thrilled. That's a solid 30 to 40 goal score point of game guy, physical, imposing, difficult off the handle, good power play guy. It's 20 minutes a night player, top-line player in the conversation for maybe a Rocket Richard award at some point. Who knows? Possibly. But just a strong, skating, highly skilled power forward with a really imposing frame and a guy who knows how to use that frame to his advantage. I mean, Rick Nash, there was no one better than Rick Nash, skating down the wing, cutting to the middle, defenseman on his back, and just driving the buck to the net and scoring a crazy goal. Again, so if Yurais Lkowski can be that with probably a bit, I would not even a bit, probably a higher playmaking floor than Nash had. But if you can be that style of player, high shot volume, just an offensive force every net, I think that's a good goal for US, Lovkowski to set for himself.

It's something that's, I think, realistic at this point, which I think the Rick Nash comparison was there in theory when they picked him, but it seemed far fetched. It seems less and less far fetched, I think, with every game he plays because it just looks like he's a kid who could turn into that.

Yeah, because he can be a actor every day.

Yeah, Nash had it figured out far quicker than Slav did, but But he's not someone who got better significantly after he reached that stardom level.

He didn't continue to improve a ton.

He was consistently good for a very long time. He scored 41 goals goals as a 19-year-old. He scored 42 goals as a 30-year-old for the Rangers. And in between, had another 40 goal season and multiple 30 goal seasons. He set a high bar early and then stayed at that bar. He basically just remained consistently excellent for 12, 13 years. Yeah, maybe 12 years. So it was a pretty remarkable career His career, 437 goals in his career, 800 points.

We'll see how Slap will develop in the long term, but in the short term, I suspect that Slovakia would be very happy to have him around for the World Championships. He led them as an 18-year-old, even as a 17-year-old.

He played on that team at '16.

Yeah, but the real difference maker was when he was '17. But yes, he was there at '17. Yeah.

The Canadians- But he was- He arrived on the Canadian's radar Because he played in that event at '16. I think that was a big factor for them.

Yeah, so few of them play at 16. But I wanted to transition to the World Championship because it That discussion is coming at this late stage of the season. We brought it up a couple of weeks ago when it came to, or was it maybe last week, when he came to Caden Gouly because he's in the hockey Canada universe, and basically, he's been on their radar before. He would love to play there. But I would like to look at a few other guys that could be candidates and if it would be relevant for them to go. We could start with nick Suzuki because there's this tournament, the Four Nations Face-off, that will serve next year as a warming up competition before the Olympics. And I view it as a possibility maybe to change the guards among the Canadian team. Maybe give a last hooray, last chance of some older players to see if they still got it at the international level. And if not, if there was a possibility to transition for the Olympics to maybe a newer generation. But you look at Suzuki right now and you look at Team Canada, I mean, McDavid, McKinnon, Crosby, Reinhardt, Point, Marner, Stone, if he's healthy, and Bada.

To me, those guys, that's eight guys. To me, they would be locks to be part of any international competition, whether it's the Four Nations or the Olympics. Then you got high-quality candidates, Bayfield, Ryan O'Reilly, Thomas in St. Louis, Marzal, Verhege, Hyman, Kenechni, Horvath, Marchesou. That's That's a lot of guys. And who knows, a year from now, if kids like Seth Jarvis or Y. Johnson will have elevated their plate to the point where you really can't go without them. And you've got those oldies that I was telling you out, like Stamco, Tavares, or Marchand. It seems to me like... I mentioned Cid right off the top.

Okay.

I think Cid would be... No, to me, It sends a lock. Stamco, I mean, especially Tavares and Marchand, they're on the brink of a decline that would force Team Canada to make tough decisions and say, Sorry, guys, but now we've got to turn to younger heads and crazier heads. But that's a lot of names there. So for Suzuki, looking at that, I think it would be a mistake to, even Even though he's got a great season and he's continuing on this upward trend, to think that he would be one of those locks for either the Four Nations competition or the Olympics. So in that sense, wouldn't it be wise for him to go to the World Championships?

Well, so we've had, I guess, some development on this dossier this week, on Monday or Tuesday. I think it was Tuesday at Morning Skate in Denver. Actually, no, it was Monday after practice in Seattle. Luc Gelina, I've already asked nick Suzuki about the Olympics, and he said, It's something I think about a lot, something I'd really like to make that team. I want to be there. Any player would want to go to the Olympics. I think I have a shot. I'd like to try and make that team. Then a few days later, Michael Ruso at The Athletic, wrote a story talking to Bill Garen about Team USA and how he will look at who decides to go to the World Championships, especially for bubble guys, as being an indicator of how committed they are to USA hockey. And I think the quote was, If you'd rather go to the Caribbean than play in the World Championships, then maybe you're not that committed. Something to that effect. In that same article, All, Doug Armstrong was quoted, the general manager of the Canadian Olympic team and the Four Nations team, was quoted as suggesting something similar, not quite as harsh as Bill Garen was, which is no surprise, but saying, Well, it couldn't hurt.

Basically, if you're on the fringes, if you go to the worlds, that'll help. We'll be able to see you in an international environment. International hockey is different. So then that happens. Actually, Michael, in his story, specifically named nick Suzuki as saying, so, Canadian Captain nick Suzuki, if you want to go to the Olympics, maybe you might want to go to the World Championships. Well, nick Suzuki hadn't been asked, as far as I knew, about the World Championship. So after the game last night, I asked him about it. I said, listen, I saw what you said about the Olympics and everything. So would that influence your decision if Hockey Canada came and asked you to go to the World Championships this year Would that influence your decision anyway? And he was pretty... He was not in the middle about it. Less than thrilled? Less than thrilled, I would say. He started by saying, That's a tough question. Olympics are two years from now. And I was like, Yeah, the Four Nations is next year. It's coming up. And you would want to be on that team. That's the best... Well, it's not the best on best, but it's the best of those Four Nations best tournament tournament.

So he said, If I feel like I need to go to prove myself, I can go to the tournament. I think a lot of the scouting of the players, we play against the top talent in the whole world here. It's hard to say. So he said he hasn't made a decision, but to say that he seemed unenthusiastic about the possibility of going to the Worlds would be a bit of an understatement. But I really do think that if he does want to go to the Olympics, going to the World Championships would not Would be a smart thing for him to do. Same with Sam Montembeau, by the way, and same with Cole Caulfield, actually, which I haven't had a chance to talk to Cole Caulfield about it. Sam Montembeau, I asked him in, I think it was Edmonton, and he seemed also non-committal, saying he'd have to see how he feels at the end of the season. I would want to talk to his better half and his family and what have you. But obviously, he had a great experience last year and put him on the radar for this team. He's Doug Armstrong, I talked to him when they were in Montreal, and he was really impressed with Sam Antel at the World Championship.

That performance left an impression on him. So he's got a leg up because of what he did at the World Championships last year. Does that I mean, he could blow them off this year? Probably not. While the competition isn't great in goal, Binnington is having a good year, Aiden Hill is having a good year, even Tristan Jari, there's Stuart Skinner, there's guys, it's not the best of the best, but Montemble is in a bit of a dogfight if he wants to make that team. Suzuki, with all the names you just mentioned, is the same deal. I was looking at it because he mentioned how he thought his role would be a PK two-way guy. Among Canadian forwards that are maybe possibilities to go and And guys who play more on the penalty kill than Suzuki does, Suzuki averages a minute a game on the penalty kill. Sarely, Anthony Sarely, who's probably not a candidate, but could be, 2:11 per game. Sam Reinhardt, 2:07. Seth Jarvis, 2:03. Mitch Marner, 203. Brandon Hagle's probably not a real candidate, but still 203. You mentioned Mark Stone.

O'reilly must be there?

O'reilly is up there, 147. Phil Deneo, who you didn't mention, who I think maybe is on the fringes of this conversation as a role guy, 151, a role guy, face-off guy. If you're building a team, having Phil Deneo as your fourth center wouldn't make you a bad team. I guess him and O'Reilly and others would be competing, and Suzuki, frankly, and Sarely would be competing for that role. But there's a lot of guys here. Mark Stones at 135. Nick Suzuki is way down the list. So Bo Horvand, I guess, could be considered for that role, too. I don't know. It's a possibility. I think any chance that Suzuki can get to prove his chops, like when he says, If I have to go there and prove myself, I think the answer to that is, Yeah, I think you do. I think you do because the competition ahead of you is tough. It's really, really tough. It's going to be a tough sledding for him to get in there, especially considering Getting the bar, the offensive bar is so high now. You're a 90 point player, you're 35 points, 40 points out of the scoring race, whereas it used to be you were a 90 point player, you were winning the scoring race.

Not That was not long ago, 20 years ago. So it's going to be a tough road for him. So I think going to worlds, if he's healthy and if he feels up to it, then I think would be beneficial for him reaching his goal of making the Olympic team.

Yeah. So he played at the U17 tournament with Canada, the white team. And then he was at the World Juniors, obviously, that one year in January 2019. That didn't go so well. No, five games. But that's it. So sometimes showing that you want to be part of the club can be a good thing. But since you mentioned Bill Garen and And talking that way from the American perspective, let me just quickly do a similar exercise with Caulfield because it's going to be tough for Caulfield, too. Yes, for sure. There are 13 guys that seem to me like they would be locks. Matthews, JT Miller, the two K'Chucks, Jack Eichel, Jack Hughes, Jake Genzel, Vincent Trochek, Kyle Connor, Clayton Keller, Dylan Larkin, Jason Robertson, and Chris Kreider. So that's 13. And then you got a mix of Brock Baser, Matthew Boldy, Tate Thompson, De Brinket. You got Nelson there, Maybe not as much, but it depends on the personality they want to give their fourth line. So Nelson, nick Schmals, maybe Pavelski if he's still around, maybe Cain if he's still around. But that's already... You're closing in on 20 guys that are candidates that are all of them almost as deserving as Caulfield.

I think that with a push and the improvements he's made to his overall game this year will help him well. I think with a very good season next year, he could become more of a front runner in that conversation, but that's almost a reserve spot among a group that if you've got to beat Besser, Boldy, and Thompson, that's a tough ask already. So again, he'd be in a good situation if he chose to go to the worlds this year.

I mean, the thing about it is-My view would be easier for...

Yeah.

Well, it's just that you're talking about probably a fourth-line spot because you look at it. I mean, the Ruso story has a mock-up of the US team. The way that they have it lined up here It's like, Connor Matthews, Keller, Katie Kchuck, Jack Hughes, Matthew Kchuck, Gensel, Eichel, Miller. So then you have Robertson and Larkin. They even have Trochek out of the starting lineup. It's a 13th forward. And You got Tate Thompson here on the right wing. So you look at Tate Thompson, Cole Caulfield. To me, the guy that's the best fit for that role is Matthew Boldy, personally, just because of the all-around nature of his game and just the combination of size and everything. Thompson is having a bit of a come back to Earth season this year. He's obviously not scoring at the same rate as he did, just like Caulfield. But that's why Caulfield is in tough. Caulfield is going to have to take one of the other spots. He's going to have to take one of Connor or one of the K'Chucks, Gensel, Miller, Keller, one of those spots to be higher up in the lineup as a scorer. And And so, yes, the improvements to his all-around game are going to help, but it's a tough road ahead.

He's going to need one hell of a season next year to get on this radar. But again, in his case, just like Suzuki's case, you can help that process along by going to the World Championships, especially with how explicitly Bill Garen talked about the World Championships.

And how would he fare for a player of his style? How would he fare on the big ice? If he was given a chance to play in the Four Nations face-off, it would be in North America. This is your chance now to show in the World Championships that you can be very impactful on Olympic ice, where it's going to happen in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2026 or in Milan, actually. Cortina d'Ampezzo will be, obviously, the skiing- Will they be playing on international ice?

Or will they be playing on NHL ice?

Well, I don't know. I think it's gone in June. That's a good question. I assume that at the Olympics, you play...

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, but with the inclusion of NHL players, I just wonder if they would I would wonder if they would play on NHL ice. Because the NHL players haven't... Yeah, I don't know what they did in Nagano. I think it was Olympic ice. And Lillehammer also had NHL. No, Lillehammer did not. Well, actually, it was Torino had NHL players. I don't know if they played on Olympic Games, right? Anyhow. Okay.

Let's go to- A guy that might have a better chance is Caden Primo because Caden Primo It's interesting because you look at the American goalies that won't be in the playoff this year.

For the World Championship, not the Olympics.

No, sorry. Sorry, the World Championship. It used to be a third goal. Yeah, he's got no chance for the Olympics.

He has no chance to make the Olympic team.

No, the World Championships. No. I mean, there's Dustin Wolf, Alex Ly, Joey DeCourt. Good old Charlie Lingeren, if Charlie doesn't make the playoffs with the Caps. Gosh, who knows at this point. But it's a thinner group. You wanted to move on. That's a good idea.

I wanted to go to... Yeah, I wanted to go to... So let's go to Future Friday. Future Friday. So So on a future Friday this week, we wanted to... Well, obviously, there's various playoffs going on all over the place. Owen Beck is guaranteed a spot in the Memorial Cup, obviously. But he's having a hell of a run here in the OHL. He is scoring goals at a ridiculous rate right now that I find very interesting.

And he started Well, his first playoff game, three assists, and he was second star of the game. And he was very impactful in his first playoff game with Sagana. So it looks good.

It does look good. And I think he's going to be He's going to be an interesting player to watch in camp next year. But he finished the regular season, 51 points in 32 games with Sagana after getting 30 points in 25 games with Peterborough. So being surrounded by talent helps. It's definitely made a difference for him. But you look at a lot of his goals and they're just Snipes. His shot, I feel, has taken a step. And so it'll be interesting to see. Well, I think what's interesting here is you had a chance to chat with William Trudeau recently, and he's become the forgotten man in the whole defense mix after having such a An impressive training camp. Last year was it? Yeah. Wasn't this year, was it?

Well, both.

Well, both, really, yeah.

I remember in Buffalo this year, Jean-François Hull was saying, he was running the whole show. It looked as though he would be ready to continue on the trajectory of last year. But really last year was a coming-out party for him. You remember, he had the possibility of going back to juniors as a 20-year-old or to move to Laval. They took him with the rocket, started off there as a seventh defenseman, and by year's end, he was on their top pair. That's the growth that they saw in this kid. So a guy, I mean, a fourth rounder that I don't think anybody thought too much of to begin with. He was a decent prospect, but nothing that would make him That would put him in the conversation along with all the other defensemen that the Canadians have. But he had that season last year and forced himself into that conversation. But here's the thing, though, with Thouydau, is that there's so many guys in the system, and he's a left-shot defenseman, that you really... A player in this position where he's a bit of an underdog in that whole inner competition thing. He's a bit of a step behind.

He cannot lag. He has to continually improve. I bring him up today because we haven't discussed, we haven't named him at all this year. William Trudeau started off the year very slowly in Laval. The first half of the season, he lost his confidence at some point. Instead of keeping things simple, he would try, sometimes too hard, to join the rush and wanted to be involved offensively. But you had Mayu there who basically took his spot on the power play. There was always one of Jacky or Baron there that also took time away on the PP for him. So he was reduced basically to try to generate points five on five. He started doing a bit of PK, which he had not done last season. So it was a year for him where he was not going to really necessarily showcase himself offensively a great deal via the power of play, but a year where he needed to round out his game because he was one of those many rocket defensemen that are more offensively minded than really defensively astute. So I guess at some point, he had to learn to not force plays, learn to let the game come to him, be more patient with it.

And something clicked, and at some point, he got got into a rhythm. And he said, Yeah, sure. I mean, I've started playing on PK, blocking shots, cutting passing lanes, too. And I feel like overall, I've improved myself defensively compared to what it was in the past. And Jean-François Hull told me about Trudeau. He said, What I like about him is that he's aggressive. He wins most of his battle. And gosh, that's something that in Laval, they keep harping on that point, winning your battles. That's something that Trudeau does. He's also a guy that really shows up every night who battles every night. Some guys also have had issues with that. He says, I think that there's more to him than what we've seen so far. I would not say that he's declined or there's something he unraveled in any way this year. I still think that he has continued to develop himself this year. But he remains in He's a tough spot because he might be a victim of the numbers game despite the fact that he's been such a pleasant surprise since he was drafted and since he joined the professional ranks.

Yeah, he is in a tough spot, but he does get a little bit of a reprieve, just in closing here, for those who weren't following, Rogla completed their sweep of Fariastad in the SHL play-off, which means Adam Angstrom has another round of play-offs ahead of him, so he He will not be heading over to North America. He's not going to be here in time. I mean, it's basically, if they were to sweep or get swept, game four of their series, their next series is against your favorite team, Marc-Antoine, against the Vaxjo. No, I'm not. Vaxxo?

You tell me.

Vaxjo Lakers. I don't know how to say it, but I know it's your favorite team. Game four of that series between Rogla and the Lakers, which is my favorite basketball team, would be Wednesday, April 10th. That's the earliest that series could possibly end, which leaves a bit of runway for the AHL schedule, but I don't know, it just doesn't seem like a realistic timeline. I mean, it could end as late as April 16th, and so it doesn't seem like a realistic timeline in terms of getting them into the Rocket lineup, which would probably not come at Trudeau's expense, but would come at someone's expense that's been an important part of the team, maybe Galipo, That's been an important part of the team all year. So that's maybe one headache.

Can I get Gallupo scratch for Nolinder?

Well, there you go. So there's already a log jam, so this would just only add more pressure on Hul. So it doesn't look like that's something like Jehef Hul is going to have to manage in any meaningful way for at least another week or so.

Yeah, but when you talked the other day about How Mike Mathieson told you that next training camp will be wild because of the sheer number of defense prospects that are going to be at camp vying for spots. Well, Trudeau is just one on that long, long list. And he seems to me like the guy who will probably not have a career in Montreal, but has a chance to showcase himself so that he finds an NHL spot somewhere based on the work that he will have He will have done within the Canadian organization. Who knows? He might be... Who knows if one day he won't be a François Bauchemin type?

Yeah, maybe. Who knows? All right. Well, we're going to wrap it up there. Thanks for everyone for listening. Remember, Monday is our mailbag episode, so you can send your questions in to basuandgodang@gmail. Com or send them in on X. The handle is at basuandgodang. Have an excellent weekend. I will be in Laval tonight to watch the Rocket take on the senators, and then obviously the Canadians, the Rocket take on the senators again on Saturday, and the Canadians take on the Carolina Huracan's. It's a Bell Center. Then we will talk to you on Monday. Thanks a lot for listening..