Let's join Dr. Stats, who's going to set the table.

I love it.

So let's set the opener tonight between the Abs and Maple Leafs.

And first, let's go on the Abs side.

There hasn't been many changes since last season for the Abs.

If you look at the opening game last year, there was Liney and Gallagher who are not there anymore.

And there's Kapanen and Gouli who are injured this year.

Let's hear what Dr. Stats has to say about the two captains.

How do you split the net? Well, I

think for the first month of the season, if I'm Sam Montembeault, I'm not thinking about number one.

Like, I wanted to have a good start of the season.

The training camp was a good start, but now you have to bring it during the season against NHL shooters every night.

I mean, Samuel had a great outing on Saturday, but he was playing pretty much against the Belleville Senators, you know, a lot of guys from the American Hockey League.

Yeah.

So it's all positive.

And, you know, so, yeah, I think he's ready for – for another step, another level, and with the skating ability that he has, and if he gets, you know, like you said, he worked hard off the summer and got stronger, and it'll be a lot harder to take the puck off him as well.

what are you going to do? You know, you're not

expecting.

And, you know, hockey and the military is always close, you know, with the NHL.

A lot of personnel, they come to the games.

Before games, you meet, like – all bunch of great interesting people so it can be great we'll we'll catch up hang out with these guys and have a couple days of practice but we get there the first day and then the bus just enters the base and kind of takes a right turn towards like something that wasn't really go nothing going on and there was like kind of a building and i hear in the back of the bus is like this looks abandoned so anyway he says we can't be there there's no way we're sleeping there so there's obviously there's a general there or a soldier well waiting for us to welcome us and i'm i'm like 23 years old and you know i'm princess like my nickname is well established on my teams and i'm a Louis Vuitton bag on the military base and i'm like okay hi sir so you doing son uh how do you how do you feel and i tell the guy you know to be honest like i feel like britney spears on a camping trip right now like i'm not really comfortable so we get in the building and like it's it's a dorm it's a dorm for the rookies that get into the military and uh there's a couple guys there we they're all happy to for us to be there we chat and i i grab one of those one of the kids that's like look like a can i change room because the There was no there's no blanket on my bed.

There's no sheets on my bed.

And he's like, Hey, buddy, like, Like you have to do it yourself here.

And I feel like, you know?

the good solution to send Fowler in the minors and start with Dobesh as number one and Montembeau as the backup?

It is the easiest solution, especially with the contract situation, because Fowler is still on a two-way.

And then you got Sam Montembeau in this last year of his deal, around just south of four million.

I think he's around three points.

3.5, something like that.

So the key here, I think, for Montreal this year is that Dobesh needs a good start of the season.

I don't really care about the training camp, but he's going to get the first start of the season.

But I feel like, you know, like Pascal.

Ça laisse des traces, ce match-là.

Ça donne beaucoup de confiance à Buffalo, pour moi.

Eux autres, étaient dans la merde, puis on va se le dire, les Sabres de Buffalo, je vais dire hockey immature, très indiscipliné.

C'est sûr que le Canadien force.

Des fois, tu dis : OK, tu checkes une équipe, puis elle joue pas bien, mais c'est parce que des fois, l'autre équipe te force à mal jouer.

Elle expose tes faiblesses.

Moi, je trouve qu'encore, le Canadien, c'est une meilleure équipe de hockey que les Sabres de Buffalo.

Absolument.

Um, how, were you surprised by how the first two games of the series played out?

Uh, not really.

Uh, we, uh, I think everybody knew that Tampa Bay was gonna be really physical and test, uh, that young Montreal Canadian team, 'cause, uh, uh, Montreal had, uh, some, uh, some issues last year with, with Washington.

That's, uh, that's where, like, the, uh, the Capitals really took advantage.

Uh, so you could see Tampa Bay be really, really physical in the first couple games, uh, trying to test their best players, and, uh, really trying to find that limit, uh, like, uh, between whistles, behind the plays.

Uh, and they got themself, uh, to be honest, in trouble a little bit.

Like, uh, Montreal's best asset is the power play, and so far in the series, I think they're, they're 4 for 9.

So talk to me a little bit about just how tough it is in, and again, in a, in a tough market like Montreal compared to other playoff cities.