Transcript of Why Are The Montreal Canadiens Struggling? | SDP

When it comes to Montreal, another fan group who are known for being some of the best fans in the world. I saw legitimate tweets this weekend with people going, Hey, I don't remember Dom Dushan being this bad. At least he had a system.

The whispers about St. Louis are getting loud.

Let's just call it what it is. When he was hired, everybody was like, But he has no experience at any level. At any level. Yeah, How about he played in the show at any level.

The stuff about him working with Cole Caulfield and making Caulfield better, I love that. That's an assistant coach.

That's a performance coach. It's a performance coach. That's not an assistant coach. Assistant coach has systems.

I know. I don't have a problem with St. Louis being in the Habs organization. Head coach?

I'm not sure, bro. The thing was, when he took over, Dom Dusharm was coming off of a different... You got to remember, they came off of a Stanley Cup appearance, and then instantly the next year, they were bad. And people were like, Well, wait a second. It must be the head coach. And then the objectives of the situation changed very, very quickly. Berjavan has gone by Christmas, so Dom Dusharm has The guy is gone. The new crew comes in, and the vibes are terrible. You're scratching a guy like Cole Caulfield, which honestly- It was horrible. Horrible idea. And at that point, you're still like, you've signed Hoffman. You have You have these guys that you expect to do well for you. Josh Anderson is still in that contract. This is three years ago. And what does Marty St. Louis come in and do? He comes in and does what Sheldon did when Sheldon Keef came in. Sheldon Keef came in and was like, Hey, guys, let's just focus on vibes.

Let's all feel good about ourselves.

Yeah, we should start there. Caulfield starts scoring. Suzuki looks better. Look at that. It's amazing.

He's done some good things.

The problem is, the problem is Last year, you go through it and you go, Well, the mistakes, they don't matter as much. We expect to be bad, whatever. Guys, it hurt. And nick Suzuki comes in and says, Before the start of the year, this year, I'm looking forward to the mistakes mattering, which I think is a really important microcosm of what's happened.

If you're trying to make the playoffs, they matter now.

Well, they're not trying to make the playoffs, though.

Sure they are.

Sure they are. They can't be.

Sure that this is what I was fighting You got to be kidding me.

This is what I was fighting against. That you think that this roster could ever have made the playoffs?

Absolutely.

Absolutely not. They could have competed for it, for God's sake. No way. They could not have competed for it. They were never that good. That was all media hype from the get-go. I got a bunch of shit from Habs fans earlier this season before the season started.

I said they need to take a step, and you were like, Bullshit.

And then I said, Listen, they've got this guy, they got this guy, they're improved, whatever. People were like, You left out Kirby Doc. You mean Kirby Doc who's got five points in 14 games, that Kirby Doc? Why does he have that? Is it because he's a bad player? No, it's because he missed most of last year with an injury, and it takes a fucking minute. And you also, when you realize, Oh, man, okay, the mistakes It's better now. Our fans expect us to win. The media expects us to win. You need to have a guy who has a solution for that. I'm not sure that they do. It's not just Marty St. Louis. It's his coaching staff, and it's the defensive personnel are awful. And by the way, do you not think some of those mistakes that they had last year were covered by a very good goalie in Jake Allen, who is no longer there? Jake Allen is a much better goalie than people give him credit for.

Man, the last we saw, Montembeau, he made a 47 save shutout. His season since night one has been horrendous.

It's amazing how the Leifs, they changed the way they play and stop making bad goalies look good. And he's not a bad goalie long term. No.

Well, the shot Okay, let's look at the goals the Lefs got. Did Montembeau get the slightest bit of help on any of them? No. The defense aren't helping the forwards. The forwards aren't helping the defense. A lot of people are goofing on Lane Hudson and his defensive ability and all that, and the knee lander goal, he got turnstiled and everything.

It's a rookie. It's a rookie. That happens.

It's a rookie. And you got to insulate him with...

What exactly? David Savard.

David Savard-Who won't go Domi, who is way bigger than. Matheson was... It's similar to the conversation. I mean, maybe not totally similar, but with Matthews, I keep saying, what's the expectation here? That he scores 69 again? No, you got to have a contingency for if he gets less than that. Matheson, how many points did he have last year? A lot. Or over the last couple. Okay, so what if he doesn't pull that off again? The The personnel back there is brutal. Kent Hughes has done a really good job. You got to fix that, dude.

I think it's been interesting because Suzuki is a good centerman. Of course. But what do you have after him? You got Evans, you got Dvorak, and as of today, you've got Kandata. I look at this and I go, Okay, so the rest of the lineup, you don't even have Caulfield playing with Suzuki. Oh, man. Oh, wow. The puns are outrageous today. Caulfield. You have Doc playing with Suzuki and Slavkowski. You got Caulfield-Evans-Newhook. Newhook, who, by the way, was traded to Montreal to be their second-line center behind. And then Doc, who was traded to Montreal to be their second or third-line center behind nick Suzuki. Neither of those guys today are playing center. And then you got Christian Dvorak and Gallagher and Anderson. And by the way, Gallagher and are part of the furniture at this point. Gallagher is a heart and soul guy. Gallagher has got seven goals. I know. Anderson is an untradable deal. Yeah, unfortunately. And unless you're retaining.

Dude, Anderson... Or no, not Anderson, sorry. There's three players who are minus 10 or worse on the habs who have played 15 games. That's insane.

That's insane.

New hook, four goals, zero assist, negative 10 in 15 games. So these guys have played every game.

How many points does he have?

Four. Oh, my God. Joel or Mia Haneia, who has some points, two goals, four assists, six points in 15.

It's about what you can expect from him.

Negative 11. And Kirby Doc in 15 games, one goal, four assists, five points, negative 14.

Yes. And I give him a pass because he missed most of last year. This team, so I did a little deep dive quickly. Team is currently last place in the NHL. That's right. Behind the Ducks who are somehow worse this year than they were last year. And the San Jose Sharks who got Mclin back.

And Lucas Dossal is playing Absolutely out of his frigging mind.

The Ducks had a good win last night over Columbus.

Yeah, he is playing... They have one of the best goalies in the NHL straight up in Lucas Dossal.

And so I looked into this and I thought, Okay, this has got to be... What is this? Here's what it is. It's interesting because you'd think it would be special teams. But currently, the haves are 15th in PK percentage, which is really good. That's fine. For a team like that. Middle of the pack. 13th in power play percentage. Above middle of the pack. But they're allowing 4.13 three goals per game. And their shot differential, and this is where it's a five on five issue, their shot differential is tied with San Jose and Anaheim. And what do you think it might be?

In 15 games, Negative 75.

Negative 103.

Sheet. It's a lot.

This team- Goodness gracious. This team has got to figure out... You look at the habs even as a developing team, team. And I go, What are you? What are you aspiring to be? Are you a fast-paced, high-opportunity team? Are you a grind them out, slug them out team? Clearly not. You're soft as baby shit.

Well, they're not good enough I don't have to do anything right now.

But you have to have a goal to aspire to be. So what do you at least want to be?

Arbër Jackai, I think we can agree, is top five toughest guys in the NHL.

He's not playable on any team that's going to win.

This is the thing. I feel like part of the reason he's not fighting, one, people probably don't want to. Two, they probably want him on the ice. Three, he can't prove how good he is to the team, and he can't be in the lineup every night unless he proves how good of a defenseman he is, and he can't do that from the box. Most teams, I feel like, don't really want their defenseman fighting on account of there's only six of them.

I think he's going to be a forward at some point.

Yeah, and I I don't think it'd be the worst deal. But we've had the conversation with the Leifs where, okay, we're tough now because we got Wayne Simmons. No, you're the Leifs, and you have a guy who is tough. Same with Kyle Clifford, same with Ryan Reeve, same with Matt Martin, same with blah, blah, blah. Now we're looking at them and we're like, Hey, you have toughness throughout the lineup. That's great. I look at the habs and wonder about the same thing.