Habsworld podcast episode 102

The hosts of the Habsworld podcast discuss the recent performance of the Montreal Canadiens. They mention standout players such as Justin Barron, Sean Monahan, and Jesse Ylonen. They also talk about the team's record and upcoming games. One of the hosts suggests that Monahan's strong play could lead to a potential trade for a first-round pick. They also discuss Tanner Pearson's surprising goal-scoring ability and his speed on the ice. Overall, they are optimistic about the team's performance so far in the season. Okay. Oh, there. I see it. All right. It is recording. Let's see. I didn't ever ask you guys. Do you prefer a certain order that I introduced you? Oh, I like to be last. You like to be last. Okay. I'm fine. I love you. And are we dialed in on Sean's last day for this one? We did practice. I practice, I mean. Can I hear it? Sean Kiewiet. Nice. It's beautiful. Nice. Okay. Sean, I'll start with you then. How about that? I'll introduce you. Sure. All right, guys. You want to be first? No, I was giving you the thumbs up. No, no, no. I heard Paul. I was joking. I was joking. Okay. Okay. I don't want to put anybody off here. I just thought I'd ask because I never ask you guys. I just do it on a whim. Okay. All right. I'll refocus and get started. Hello and welcome, everyone, to the Habsworld podcast. I am your host, Lawrence Zarek. First up of my three co-hosts is Sean Kiewiet. Sean, how are you tonight? I'm great. Thank you. We're just one point out of the playoffs, so I'm pretty positive. Positive. Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it. It's definitely the way our head coach is thinking when it comes to positivity. So, yeah, I got to adopt that. Okay. Next up is Paul McLeod. How are you? I'm great, Norm. Happy to be here. And, you know, despite last night feeling pretty good about the team, the way they're playing, and, you know, it's kind of what I expected. Just got to do maybe an exorcism at the Bell Center to get rid of this curse of injuries. I don't know. Yeah, that is a possibility. I was going to bring that up, too. Okay. Last but not least, though, is co-host Jonathan Rebello. Jonathan, how are you? I have to say I'm just impressed with Justin Bennett and the Montreal Canadiens' performance so far. So I'm pretty happy. The games have been, for the most part, entertaining, except for the Jersey game a little bit dull. But, yeah, they've been fun to watch and picked up a few wins early in the year. Let's keep it going. Okay. All right. Before we get rolling too far, I have to mention that we're recording this the evening of October 25th, and this is episode number 102. It is 102. And we're doing a little bit of trivia on the Habs around 102 since we've run out of Jersey numbers. And there are exactly zero players in the 109, 110-year history of the Montreal Canadiens that have scored exactly 102 points to start. The Canadiens played their 102nd game on the 17th of February, 1915, and they lost 6-2 to their archrival Quebec, but not big Nordiques, the Bulldogs, on the road. And the other trivia I was able to find around 102 was that there are actually two players who played exactly 102 games in a Montreal Canadiens' uniform. And I'm going to remind you about these immortal Habs. The first one up, I'll just do them in alphabetical order, is Brett Clark. Some of you may remember him from Réjean Houlle's Reign of Error. Three goals, two assists, and five points in 102 games. And number 102, also Jonas Hoagland, also from Houlle's Reign of Error, both of them 97-99. Four goals, 15 assists, 29 points in 102 games. So, not a lot of glory around the number 102 for the Montreal Canadiens. Hopefully we'll have better luck next podcast with the number 103. But you confirm that no one's ever worn 102 before? Yeah. All right, guys. Yeah, so, let's see. Habs record since the last podcast. Well, yeah, well, as Sean, as you already mentioned, they're at .500 right now, correct? So, they've had an interesting start to the season. They had that overtime loss against Toronto. Then they followed up with a home win against Chicago. Loss at home against Minnesota, which is a bit of a stinker, especially since the Wilds only dressed 19 skaters. Then two wins in a row against Washington and Buffalo. And then, sadly, last night's loss to New Jersey. So, I'm going to start things off with, although it's kind of early in the season, I thought it'd be interesting for each of us to talk about which player you'd pick as an early standout and an early disappointment. Well, I think I'll start, then, if that's okay. And I'll start with Justin Barron. What kind of gave that away? Yeah, I'm really happy he made the team out of camp. He's scored a couple goals early here. Really like how he's jumping into play. And I think he's been well above par in the defensive zone. So, I think, you know, have him having the confidence of making the team out of camp this year, starting up with a big club. He stepped up quite well. And, you know, he's going to be asked to do a lot more here now that Savard is out long term. So, he's going to be playing the inflated minutes. And so far, so good. And I guess, I think, just last night, he equalized the pace, or maybe was near it, on P.K. Subban's goal pace for young defensemen to score goals for the Canadians of recently. So, yeah, I'm impressed with him. And that'd be my pro happy guy of the early start to the season. Okay, that's a good one. Yeah, Barron's one. I was surprised to read that bit of trivia, too, that he was first Hablu liner since P.K. Subban to score six goals before their 22nd birthday. So, that's impressive, especially considering the group of youngsters they've got right now. Although, I guess, Caden Gooley has the chance to at least match that. Yeah, another band-aid. And after a rough pre-season, too, Barron. Because I know when we're down on him, that's why he didn't start. But it goes to show you what pre-season means. Because, I mean, I don't want to jump into disappointments right now, but Josh Anderson looked great in the pre-season. And anyways. Yeah, no, that's good. Yeah, I mean, so. My promising player is Sean Monahan so far. Because 58% on face-offs, five points in six games. You know, he makes just under $2 million for one year. So, if you retain 50% of that, it's a $1 million cap hit for a team in the future. Let's say he stays around, you know, half a point a game. I think that's realistic. Assuming he stays healthy and maybe around 55% on face-offs, I think you might get a first-round pick from a team. I wouldn't be surprised. Like, a contender like the Avalanche need probably another center. I don't know who else, but yeah. I mean, every team needs a center. But he's really looking good. Yeah, I love the Sean Monahan thing. I can't believe he didn't get a star in the Capitals game. He was the best. I thought the best player on the ice for the Canadiens. Outside of maybe Jake Allen, he didn't get a star in the Caps game. It was crazy to me. Yeah. Given Kent Hughes' negotiating history, I wouldn't think if Monahan keeps playing this way and stays healthy that a first-round pick would be outrageous. It might even be a first-round pick plus. But let's get the trade down now and healthy before we start speculating on that one. You guys are both so out the door on it. Maybe. I try to be optimistic, but every time I try to get extra optimistic, somebody else gets hurt. So I'm trying to temper it. Good choice. For me, picking the standout's actually a little harder than I thought. Obviously, I love the way Monahan's playing, and Barron's been great. But I think one player that doesn't get enough kudos for what he's doing right now is Jesse Ullinen, because he's suddenly gone from a fairly one-dimensional kind of offensive player to a really good, or at least a decent penalty kick. Considering he's only been doing it for five games this season, him and Jake Allen have played really well together on the PK. So I would pick him, or maybe Tanner Pearson. I know I'm not supposed to pick two, but I thought I'd give a shout-out to Pearson because if I could shoot the puck like he does after wrist surgery, sign me up. He surprised me with that. The other thing about Pearson is I heard an analytics bit on TSN 690 the other day, and they said that Pearson is actually at peak speed going the same rate as Josh Anderson. So that either means that Pearson's a lot faster than we expected, or one of the reasons why Anderson's being a little bit disappointing so far is he's not going as fast as he could. I don't know which one of those is true. And Pearson is on pace for 41 goals too, so getting a 41-goal score for a third-round pick and a backup goalie is a pretty good trade if that works out like that. Actually, we got the third-round pick. They just got the goalie. Oh yeah, that's right. We got the 41-goal score and the third-round pick. That's pretty nice. It'd be kind of amazing to see him score 41 goals, but I'd be pretty happy with 15 or 20. Yeah, I'd be happy with 11. For sure. I'm surprised he's never actually hit above 25 actually in a season, which is surprising looking at his shot and stuff. And he plays for some good teams. I mean, he was playing with the good Kings teams, right? Well, he was on that 70s line, right, with Toffoli. Who was the third guy? I think it was Carter. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Wow, you guys picked some good ones, and I was going to mention Pearson, but that's fine. That's fine. No, that's fine. In fact, in Pearson's case, I'd even make a case that maybe he even deserves some time up on the first line. Although they've been jumbling a little bit, I don't think Harvey Bernard's working as well as I was hoping he would. But okay, I'll pick Newbrook for my surprise player. Not so much surprise, I guess, just an early riser. I mean, considering he played an excellent first game, obviously. That line with him, Dock, and Slipkowski, and I heard a great line name for it that somebody used, and it was, New Kids on the Dock. That's it. I thought it was pretty good. So for him to quickly adapt and score a couple big goals in that first game was really impressive. But then when he had to shift out of that comfortable wing position over to the center one after Dock's injury and still make things work, yeah, that's also been quite impressive. There's little times with Newhook's game where his defensive awareness serves him well when he's the center. I'll say that. He's made some smart plays at times, and obviously his speed is great. I mean, man, if he could teach Pearson how to improve his first couple of steps, that would be impressive too. To me, that's the knock against Pearson. His first couple of strides are just terrible, but once he's going, he's pretty good at moving. But yeah, Newhook, definitely on the plus side. Do you guys want to go into or mention anybody that you're a little bit disappointed with? Yeah, we can do that in a second, but nobody mentioned Jack Eye, and I do want to as well say he's had a great start to the year, in my opinion. And actually, the way, just to reflect back on game one against the Leafs, how he was out, sat out for like 17 minutes. And then within his first shift with two back, that back check he did to separate the Leaf player from the puck and turn the puck up ice in like one foul swoop was very impressive. And I still, I'm just thrilled that the Canadians signed this kid to try out when I come to training camp because what a free addition he's been, and I love everything about him. So Arbor Jack, I do know what you're doing. But yeah, now it's time to dunk, so who wants to shit on somebody first? Oh, there was also, nobody mentioned Jake Allen. I mean, we have to give kudos to him. I mean, some of the 10 bell saves he was making in the, what game was that against? Capital? Yeah, the Washington game. I mean, it was ludicrous what he was doing. And he's got a 9.30 save percentage in three games played. I mean, this is, you know, I think he's just propping up his value. I mean, they've still got three goalies on the roster, so clearly they want him. Now, Sean, you and I were chatting outside of the podcast, though. What does Jake Allen have which hurts his ability for Montreal to trade him? 17 no-trade clause, which means? Which means all of the Canadian teams plus one city in the U.S. he hates. So you have your choice of there, Columbus or, I don't know, who else does everybody hate to go play? Columbus. Detroit's kind of exciting now. Buffalo's kind of exciting now. Those would be the other two places I would say that players would avoid in recent times. Arizona? Yeah, Arizona, so maybe one of those two. Columbus or Arizona probably plus the Canadian teams, so Allen probably can't go to the Oilers, which stinks. Yeah. The Oilers would be killed for a goalie right now. Well, yeah, but the Oilers also still need defense. Yeah, I think Allen... And be kind of a pivot back. I would see Allen wanting to compete, so not wanting to play in front of a small Oilers and a junior V game in Canada's crowd in Arizona. So I could see Arizona being on his list. Okay. All right, well, for early disappointments, then, I'll pick on Brendan Gallagher. Only for the first three games of this season, because really I can't follow him for the last three games. I picked him for the last three seasons, not the first three games. Okay. It's the first time he's been healthy in three seasons. There's that, yeah. Oh, he's healthy and he skates like that? Wow. That's very disappointing. Again, referring back to that same analytics piece I heard on TSN 690, which came out of the company run by Shane Kelly and Aaron Mords does work for them. I forget the name of them. They used to be Edge something, but they have to change it because NHL came out with NHL Edge. Anyway, they said that Gallagher was hitting up to 22 kilometers an hour on... In his car, before the game. On almost half of the shift. So, he has an awkward bend over, you know, crunched gnome skating style. However, it's not as ineffective as it looks. Well, yeah, because it looks like I love Brendan Gallagher and I love that you brought him up, Norm. What he's done for this franchise, what he's done to his body, I feel so terrible for him, but he looks terrible out there. He looks so far behind the play and yet he scored two goals. And I love where he scored the two goals from. Both of them within inches of the goal line. It's just pure Brendan Gallagher hockey. One was a rock-and-roll goal, eh? Yes, exactly. Just hacking and whacking. And I love Gallagher, but he definitely should not be playing game-in, game-out, back-to-back games like you could see against New Jersey the night after the Buffalo game. Yeah, again, I know that he scored a couple of goals, but his body can't take that. He needs time off. And this is when Montreal should be taking advantage of the fact that the team pressed right up against the cap and using all 23 players that they're carrying. Because Gallagher can't handle that, I don't think, anymore. I think he's going to get better the more he plays, as long as he doesn't get hurt again. But a couple of his injuries were getting hit by Shea Weber's slap shots. Or actually, one was Johnny Boychuk. So, I mean, you can't really do much about that if you're going to hang out in front of the net. Yeah, that's true. My disappointment is Suzuki. It's just... Oh, yeah. Okay. It doesn't look like there's anything happening there. It looks like David out there. What's that? It looks like David Suzuki out there. Yeah. He's not making good decisions with the puck. He's not setting up his line-mates. He's not scoring goals. And his defense is just... Meh. So, I don't know. Somebody said, is it time to split up Caulfield and Suzuki? Maybe, for a couple games. See if it gets them going. But we already know that Josh Anderson on that line doesn't work. I liked Harvey Pennard there better than Anderson. But, again, you know, you need a little bit more... Look, I'm the last person to be, you know, pro more bigger. But, in fact, you need a little bit more size on that wing. You do. You're right, Paul. You need more size. I would try Carson up there. I'd even bump Slavkovsky up there and see what he does for a game or two. Why not? Not going to hurt his development. If you're going to keep him there, you may as well play him in a top offensive role and see what he can do. He's been playing reasonably well. I think Suzuki is going to sound harsh, but I think he needs to take a long look in the mirror. Because, either A, he's hurt, right? And, at this point, F your streak. Because it means nothing. You're never going to catch Jarvis. Even if you did, it's meaningless, right? You're not going to win Cubs like Jarvis. It's like a Patrick Marleau. Like, oh, wow, you played a lot of games. You suck. Like, you were never that good. So, sorry, Suzuki. You're putting yourself ahead of the team, if that's the case. If not, if you're just playing poorly, then just, like, you're the captain, man. Just kind of. Well, he already did own up in the press to the fact that he's not playing well. He needs to do more. Sure. Oh, yeah, he's acknowledging it. He knows. Him and Marty, it's public that they've had some conversations. And, yeah, I agree with Sean. If he is hurt, then it's crazy that he's not taking care of his body. Because, like, this is in the season where Montreal is guaranteed to make the playoffs. It's crazy for him to be playing if he's hurt. Because, like, last year, he hurt the draft position because he played hurt. Like, I mean, at some point, I guess you want to put yourself out there for the team, but you're hurting the organization, you know? But, again, they revamped the medical staff because of the injuries. You can't have. That's going well. Well, the medical staff can't prevent, you know, David Savard getting hit 17 times with slapshots and one of them hitting him in the arm, you know? Yeah. And the doc thing, he just got his leg tangled up. I mean, no amount of conditioning is going to keep you from a fluke like that. But what my point was is that the coaching staff has to take some responsibility. If he actually is hurt and he's laboring like that because he's hurt, he should be sitting. Right? And that's a coaching decision. That's true. Marty makes the lineup, right? That also is definitely a factor as well. Marty's the one who writes the lineup in. Yeah, I haven't heard that he's hurt, but if he is, then there should be more communication between the medical staff and the training staff and the coaching, and the coaches should be holding them out. They're making the right decisions, like not pulling Joshua up from Laval because he's just, he's had a hot streak. Not picking up Mayu instead of, you know, instead of putting in Lindstrom because they want to prioritize development. Well, playing hurt is going to hurt your development and hurt the team and isn't going to help anything, so stop it. Yeah, you guys brought up the two guys I wanted to talk about for poor play. I would have brought up Savard, too. I know that he's, you know, stalwart defensively, but he's out now, so it's none of our concerns now at this point. So I have a disappointing player. I was going to pick Anderson, but then I realized I don't have any expectations for him because he's been like this his entire career, so he doesn't disappoint me. He just is what he is. So my disappointment is there's actually a player that is an ex-player. He's retired. It's Alex Burrows. Fix your effing power play. What are you doing? We are getting scored against more than scoring on, it seems. Like, it's just like, it's ludicrous. At some point, A, take Josh Anderson off the first wave. Good player on the rush, good player on the counter. If he has to fuck on a stick for more than two seconds, he has to think. Terrible player. Can't one-time it, whatever. Take him off the first unit. Do something new. Put Newhook there. Put Slavkovsky there. He's actually been looking good on the second unit. He can actually make passes. I don't know. It's just like, do something different. This drop back to a player that's skating behind, it's not working to enter the zone. Yes. What if I said to you, like, to kind of spin that around, Sean, just to look at it from the other side. Would you argue that, like, I would argue that the Canadians probably have, as their first unit power play, probably the least in the bottom five in the league for skill in that five-man unit. I would say 25 to 27 other teams would have at least two more, way more superior elite puck carriers. Well, you know what? I knew we were going to be talking about this, so I did look that up. So as of today, the Habs penalty killing is ranked 19 in the league, which surprised me. It's at 75.8%. Their power play is number 18, and it's 16.7%. So together, it's still not – there's that magic number where most teams tend to combine those two numbers, and if they don't make at least 100%, then it's a failing grade, basically. You want to be in a superior position if you can have 100% between the two or more. But I'm just saying – So what is the league ranking for the Canadians' power play? I think you said 18th. 18th. It's 18th overall. Sorry. Yeah, but what I'm saying is, like, I think that the Canadians' power play is incredibly frustrating to watch. Oh, yeah. Especially with that constant drop-back play. It feels like it takes so long to enter the zone. And a lot of better teams with more skilled players – and they don't have to necessarily be, like – when I say skilled players, I don't mean, like, the players that score the most points. Because it's just – there's some guys in the league that can just stickhandle the puck into the zone, gain the zone, and then, you know, like, make a pressured pass or hold it and protect the puck, but they do a really good job gaining the line, and then setting up, where Montreal is still doing that drop-pass thing. I know there's still a few teams that do it occasionally, but it seems like that's Montreal's only play to gain the zone, and if it doesn't work and the other team plays aggressive, Montreal just gives the puck up too early, and they seem to lose every first face-off in the power play. You've got to find somebody that can win some of those drops. So, Damani hand's out there, right? So, he's sending this pretty good. I don't know. I think it's a coaching thing, because the drop-back, that's a coaching decision. Yeah. But, I mean, you still have Suzuki on one side and Cole on the other side. So, you have the classic play, which they do all the time. They're telegraphing it as Suzuki goes in, fakes a shot, and he passes to Cole. But I don't remember Suzuki actually taking a shot on the power play. Is he actually fooling anyone right now? No, because he doesn't shoot. Exactly. He was last year at the beginning of the year, but he's stopped doing that. So, for some reason last year he hasn't been shooting on the power play, which is a problem. And, really, I see that the problem is not the drop-back pass. The problem is it's always a drop-back pass. Yeah. Right? So, if you're being obvious about what you're doing, it's going to be easier to defend. Right? Correct. And that's why Madison scored that goal last night. Exactly. Because the Devils thought they were going to do the drop pass on the six-on-five. And then Madison's like, oh, you're just going to give me the lane right down the middle? Forehand, backhand, forehand scores. Yeah. That was impressive. I really liked the third period from Madison last night. Not just the goal, but the couple of forearm smashes he did to the guy getting in his way when he's going with the puck. And I'm like, oh, you want to interfere with me? And, you know, as good as he is throughout the entire game, I don't think he's the best power play quarterback on defense either. No. I don't see a lot of quick passes and stuff. No. But I agree with you on that. And, like you said, you've got to change the – even try the classic dump it in. If you've got Josh Anderson on the power play, all he does is skate really fast and really straight. Dump it in. Get him to go after the puck and tie it up a bit. Or hammer the defenseman. Hammer the defenseman. Exactly. That's what I was just going to say. Right? If you're having trouble getting the puck, Anderson will make them gun-shy. It works in the playoffs. It worked in the playoffs last time we were in there. He was just a missile-smashing defenseman and they got gun-shy. It will help. Yeah. But I 100% agree with you, Sean. New hook should be on the first wave of power play because he is that guy who comes in with blazing speed who can gain the zone and keep possession, et cetera, et cetera. And even if he dumps it in, he can often get there before the defenseman. I don't know why they don't change it up. Yeah. Yeah, those are good points, guys. Like, they really are too static. I'm only trying to adopt Coach Marty's positivity by just using – or by putting those numbers out about them being number 19 and 18. I'll just add that I'm pretty sure those numbers are better than they were last season. How about that? Oh, yeah. But they still need improvement. And it's a small sample size, too. Yes. Very small. But it's not good. It was a 5-on-3. What game did they have, like, two 5-on-3s in a row? And they had one in overtime, too, a 4-on-3, and they didn't – Toronto. Yeah. I think you're right. But the thing is, 18th, I'd be less surprised if you said they're, like, 30th, because it just seems so ineffective. So it's funny how sometimes the analytics and the eye tests just don't match up at all. It's the curse of getting rid of Markov and not bringing him back for those, whatever, 15 or 20 games so he could get to 1,000. Yeah. My son said, Dad, when was the last time the Canadians had a good power play? And I said, when was the last season Markov played for us? That's the truth. Yeah. Those power plays with him in strike or him in survey or him in Weber, it just goes on him in soup hand. Yeah, it was always him, though, because he could pass the puck properly. And when you have a threat to shoot from the back end, it opens up everything down low. So when you have Markov who can thread the needle to the guy on the half boards or a guy on the point, it creates so many more options for guys to score, and we don't have that now. But it's not just the passing. It was the deception. They didn't know where it was going. Right. And that was before the drop-back pass, and he could thread it to a guy in a neutral zone that was going in. He was just so good at everything. Yeah. Not to mention knowing when to pinch. He was so good at that. Yeah. Bring him back next year, 45 years old, 10 games, and start the season, and then get to 1,000. Did you have a disappointing player, Norm, that we haven't mentioned? Oh, I thought I'd mentioned him already. Norm said Gallagher. I did Gallagher. Oh, you did Gallagher. I did the first three. That's okay. And Paul did Suzuki. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, so I think we kind of exhausted that. And since we kind of touched on some of the injured Habs players, I figured I might as well just list it out. And I wanted to ask you guys for some updates, too. So, obviously, we know Kirby Doc's season is gone. What did he last, four periods or five? Four. And now he's gone for the season. Four. Okay. Caden Gooley is in a day-to-day situation, or game-to-game situation, I believe. And now we know, as of yesterday, they announced David Sabard is out six to eight weeks because of that fractured hand. And then there's also the two prospects, David Reinbacher and Emil Heinemann, both have had injuries. And I could use some help because I didn't have time to really look and see for those two prospects, if there was any news about them or what the injuries were or anything more than that. I think David Reinbacher was a knee or foot. It was some lower body thing, I believe. Yeah, but it wasn't serious. Yeah. Heinemann got his concussed. He got the referee or linesman was in the wrong position and some, for some God forsaken reason, tried to jump over him and ended up smashing him in the head with his knee. And he's concussed. And also I heard Lane Hudson. I don't know if he's back, but he was hurt as well. Yeah, he got concussed as well. Oh, okay. Now that I did not hear, but I was, when I was looking up his stats the other day, I noticed he had played one fewer game than the rest of his teammates. So I was a little concerned about that. Okay. Yeah. I didn't see it, but it doesn't bode well for the future if he's getting, if he's starting to get smashed in college, right? Hopefully it's just a shitty college player that was taking advantage of, there's no fighting in college. And once, once, once young Lane gets to Montreal and has the sheriff controlling things, I don't think anyone's going to be touching Lane Hudson. Or yeah, they might, but then the sheriff will be putting them in a body bag. So. That would suit me fine. Yep. The dog thing hurt my prediction because I said that he would surpass Suzuki. And the way Suzuki was playing and the way he started his first game could happen a lot sooner than we thought. Yeah. Yeah. I think if he hadn't got hurt, it might've happened already, honestly. But, you know, say would be. Yeah. Unfortunate. Well, maybe Lane Hudson's concussion is linked to some sort of fluke situation like Heinemann's. Like we can hope for something like that. I hope so. And that it's not serious. Speaking of prospects, how's Joshua Wah doing? Oh yeah. Small sample size. He's okay. Leaving it to me, it's all in scoring. I love that he's got a hat trick. It's really great that he's having success. So really playing, playing with all men and I guess, you know, we expect him to play well based on his pedigree of, you know, being a late riser in the queue and having some success playing on the world stage with Team Canada. But it's great to see him leading the AHL in scoring and putting up a hat trick too, not just secondary assists. He's driving the offense, which is fun to see. And I also, I would imagine that the Canadians probably had a deep conversation with him and a lot of the prospects about not calling them up too soon no matter how they performed. Because obviously with Montreal, I've been called up both the forward and the defense now already this year and not be players that are performing in an excellent way. Like Logan Mayu is also playing well down there from what I understand. But to not call Joshua Wah up, I would imagine they probably said to him, you know, even if you score 30 points down there in the first five games, we're not calling you up for X amount of time. And I think that's fine to let him, let him really get his feet under there and learn how to be a pro and then come up and help the Canadians. Because even though he's excelling at the NHL level, it doesn't really mean that he's going to do great in the NHL level, but it is wonderful to see him having that early success. He's been a player that's pretty much constantly improved since his draft year. And I agree. Like, well, they haven't, they called up Armia, they haven't played him yet. So that doesn't make me sad. But if they called up Wah and he was sitting in the press box or getting five or 10 minutes a night, that would be disastrous for his development. So I'm quite happy to have Yoel ride the pine in Montreal and Joshua Wah continue to score in Laval. Okay. Well, if he's still leading or among the league leaders for the AHL, do you think he might get a call up, say, by mid-season? I do. Yeah. If he's still producing like that by mid-season, I would think he'd be on the list. I hope they don't call him up too soon. Actually, when I was looking at his, like, thinking of players that he reminds me of is, you know, he's not that big. He just does a lot of things well. Like, he scores goals, but he's not a sniper, technically. He's a good playmaker. We clearly see that it's, if you watch him play, it's all smarts, right? Him knowing where to position himself. Not the best skater. It reminds me, and the production engineer reminds me a lot of Claude Giroux. Claude Giroux had started in the AHL, and he had 34 points in 33 games. Then they called him up, Philadelphia, on a really good Philly team that actually made the playoffs. You know, those Jeff Carter, Mike Richards teams, and he just stuck around. I could see that for, I could see that for a while, for sure. I mean, at some point, you can't deny him. You can't, like, Paul, you have to stay there for the entire year. No, I mean, I'm better than him. Yeah, if he's point a game pace after 30 games, that's a lot more work to do for him, because he's consistently played three and four games a week, like he's playing right now. You know, he was playing in junior, and yeah, maybe there'd be some compressed schedule, doing some international stuff, but he's used to playing two games a week. Sometimes they play a three and three, but mostly two games a week, and then having five days off from the body to recover, and only playing 60 games. So, we'll see, like, under the compressed schedule, how many points he has in late December, early January. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, those are good points. I hope that he can keep it up, and we'll see. Maybe, maybe another, maybe there's a chance we'll see him this season. Joel or Mia, I don't, I mean, you guys probably remember what I had to say about him last podcast, so I'm not going to repeat that, but the fact that he's called up, in a way, it also kind of gives a bit of a nod to the fact that one of the comments I remember, coach or the GM, I can't remember which, saying is that he was hurt during, training camp or exhibition, so he didn't get much of a chance to show what he could do. So, at least they're trying to be a little more fair to him, or Mia, that is. But, if he's going to stay off, off the lineup, I won't be, I won't be sad. I would actually play him. Really? I don't like the way the penalty kills looking and stuff, and at least, at the very least, he brings that, and I think he could play a second unit power play, better than Gallagher. Yeah, I would, I would take on me in both those roles over Gallagher, yes. I don't know who you'd fit, exactly, like, because Ulin is playing well, right? Yeah, you mentioned Ulin, and I'm not a big Ulin guy, but that goal he scored against the Leafs was, was pretty spectacular. And he, he has been, much more physical. He's more engaged, so he's more engaged in playing on that fourth line with Jake Evans, and even Pezzetta, now, now, not on that fourth line, I think they're a nightmare to play against. They're all, like, Pezzetta's not slow. He moves, and he hits everything that moves, and that's annoying to play against, so I like that fourth line the way it is right now. See, I wouldn't, I wouldn't touch that, you know, I think the fourth line was the best line they had against Jersey last night. It was the only line they had in the energy. Someone's bound to get hurt, but I, I, I think, I mean, but really, so I think Armia could, could bring something, actually. Okay. Well, that, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I 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