Yeah.

It's crazy.

First of all, I'm lucky because Alan, I was six years old.

Can you imagine six years old? It's really, really young.

But my father was an anchor at French CBC in Ottawa.

Okay.

And he was bringing me, uh, when I had a, uh, I didn't have like, it was a, a off school day, I guess we were supposed to be, uh, to go at school that day.

What was that like being the new guy, the young guy on the block, dealing with all these old-timers who've been around for 25, 30 years?

Qu'est-ce que le Canadien fait en retraite à Pittsburgh cette semaine?

Bien, c'est le calendrier qui est fait comme ça.

N'oublie pas que...

Le camp d'entraînement de maintenant, au lieu de durer 21 jours, dure 13 jours.

Ça veut dire que normalement, les équipes avaient le temps de faire des retraites fermées.

Puis effectivement, du côté du tricolore, on a décidé de le faire à Pittsburgh.

Quand on a vu le calendrier, on s'est dit qu'on va prendre le temps de venir à Pittsburgh après le match à Toronto.

D'ailleurs, toi, tu ferais quoi, Renaud, en partant, Crider?

En tout cas, de ce que j'ai pu voir.

Écoute, Jeff, ce que j'ai vécu, c'est une vague d'amour euh inimaginable euh, et, et, et incroyable.

Puis en même temps, euh c'est, c'est-- moi, au-delà de la, le gars qui fait de la télé depuis plus de trente ans, tu sais, je vais te donner un exemple de la personnalité ou de la personne que je suis.

Quand je m'en vais au dépanneur me chercher une pinte de lait, là, puis quelqu'un me reconnaît, encore aujourd'hui, je fais le saut parce que je me dis souvent, je suis habillé casquette.

Je ne suis pas habillé du tout, du tout comme quelqu'un qui, qui, qui est présentable, presque là.

Puis tu sais, les gens me reconnaissent, sont toujours très polis, mais ça me surprend toujours parce que je suis dans ma bulle, je suis dans ma tête, etc.

Quand je suis rentré au-- je suis retourné au Centre Bell, euh puis j'ai vu tout de suite, tout de suite les gens dans les, dans leurs yeux, là Visiblement, il me regardait d'une autre façon.

Tu veux dire que ce n'est plus comme avant, là.

No worries

... um, that being said, uh, yeah, I was impressed with, uh, you know, Claude's reaction on Monday.

Um, and to hear the news this morning early, uh, it was a shock.

Uh, I, I talked to, uh, his brother, uh, Jocelyn, uh, this morning, and obviously it was not a, a good morment for- mo- moment for him personally.

Uh, and it, it's a shock.

It's a real shock for all of Montreal Canadiens hockey fan.

Uh, you know, before the start of, uh, game one against, uh, the, um, the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, I, I mentioned that I felt like the Montreal Canadiens of, uh, today look really like the Montreal Canadiens of, of 1986, right? With, uh-

Mm

That's okay.

Um, that being said, uh, yeah, I was impressed with, uh, you know, Claude's reaction on Monday.

Um, and to hear the news this morning early, uh, it was a shock.

Uh, I, I talked to, uh, his brother, uh, Jocelyn, uh, this morning, and obviously it was not a, a good momen- for- mo- moment for him personally.

Uh, and it, it's a shock.

It's a real shock for all of Montreal Canadiens hockey fan.

Uh, you know, before the start of, uh, game one against, uh, the, um, the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, I, I mentioned that I felt like the Montreal Canadiens of, uh, today look really like the Montreal Canadiens of, of 1986, right? With, uh-

Mm

Yeah.

Obviously, we're getting late in the process here, okay? Uh, I feel like this is a team with a lot of players that are injured, but at one point, the mental aspect of the game needs to take, um, needs to take another step.

I understand the injuries.

I understand the problematics of being tired.

But if I go back to my memory lane, 2021, game four at the Bell Centre, the Maple Leafs are playing the Canadiens.

It's the exact same day the next day.

It's over.

... will it really affect the way the fans will feel about them going into next season?

Just like, like, like going in, Renaud, um, you know, I, I think this was the rest versus rust game, right? Like that game one of a team coming off a game seven versus team with 12 days of layoff.While I do think people would have picked Montreal in game one, do you th- could you have imagined it going the way it actually did?

In a way, uh, I know it's, uh, easy to play a Monday morning, uh, quarterback, even if we're Friday, but in a way, yes.

Um, and what is even better for Montreal Canadiens right now is obviously they're in, uh, the Hurricanes' head quickly in, uh, these, uh, uh, playoffs.

Um, you know, there is some issues with the, uh, Hurricanes in the conference final, as you know.

There is some issues with the Hurcane- Hurricanes against the Montreal Canadiens.

So now for 24, uh, to, uh, what, another, another at least 24 hours, they're gonna think about, "What's going on right now with us? Why, uh, we can't beat the Montreal Canadiens? Why we didn't expect them to be so fast?" Uh, this is what Rod Brind'Amour said.

Um, and, and I looked again, uh, this morning at, uh, you know, all the goals that the Canadiens scored, and I understand the rust part, but I don't believe in the rust part, to b- be honest with you.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

You need to slow down.

You need to stop at some point.

You need to be available for your teammates, and that's what I believe changed for Cole Caufield, understanding that there's some soft spots in the offensive zone that's gonna help you.

And I see exactly the same thing with Alex Newhook.

Alex is a north-south type of player, but at the same time, he realized by slowing and, by slowing down on the ice, he's more available.

And when it's time to move his feet, he's, he's one of the fastest skater in the league.

Yep.

On t'écoute.

Exact.

Donc c'est simple.

Je, je m'entraîne moi après les entraînements.

Il y a deux entraînements le matin, la journée d'un match comme aujourd'hui.

Les Canadiens et les Sabres vont s'entraîner.

Alors les Canadiens et le Lightning s'étaient entraî-entraînés le premier mai.

Oui.

That's right.

Yeah, totally.

And, you know, what's interesting is I've been told after that deadline that us media will never know who that player or players were involved in that trade that the Canadiens said that they were really close to do.

So, obviously, I don't expect anyone from the Maple Leafs or the Canadiens to say that, you know, Matthew Nyes was traded to Montreal.

At the same time, I've heard a lot of Matthew Nyes last week, maybe discussions with the St. Louis Blues.

Was Robert Thomas involved in those talks? I don't know.

Maybe.

Like, does it not feel like they have kind of hit the timing of this thing? Just, just perfectly both the, the, the Sabres and the, and the Canadians.

Or is there some larger comment that we can make about losing that game to the Americans?

Well, if you look at, you know, the Americans, they were in a way due to to win that you know gold medal at one point or or to win the four nations last year crazy hockey works sometimes because i believe that you know usa was the better team in boston last year during the four nations especially in the third period and in overtime but the the hockey gods decided otherwise and i felt like canada was way better than the us team Like everyone else, you know, a couple of days ago, but, you know, things happen.

But at the end of the day, if you look at the USA program, you know, they were at junior level, junior championship, getting their gold medals.

These guys were, they know each other pretty well.

It's a young team when you look at it.

I understand that there are some older players, but the vast majority of the players that played Sunday for Team USA are going to be back in four years.

We cannot say that about Team Canada.

And what does it mean for Matthews? And what did the Four Nations mean for Marner, for Nick Suzuki to kind of firmly throw himself into that conversation? And you guys know it well, you know, captain of the Montreal Canadiens is no joke, but it does feel like he's kind of entered a different place in the minds of NHL fans after this tournament.

Do you feel he's kind of taken another step this year? It just feels like from the outside looking in, this is a guy that's kind of consistently built year over year over year in this league.

I believe that both statements here are right, are the right one.

Because if you look at, you know, since...

Since the Four Nations, Nick Suzuki is one of the best players in the league, point-wise.

And if you look at the way he's playing at 200 foot, his game has stepped up too, defensively.

So that's why now he's in the Celtic conversation.

And yes, for sure, the fact that he didn't play for Team Canada at the Four Nations was a slap in the face.

Uh, as this thing continues to spiral in the complete wrong direction for them at what point do you think they have to have an honest conversation about quinn hughes because look it's never a fun thing to trade away probably the guy would be the best defenseman in the history of the franchise for a good long while but you also cannot let that guy walk for nothing do you think that's more of an off-season trade is there any world where you could see that happening at the deadline