OverDrive - Gervais on the Canadiens' new playoff era, the matchup against the Capitals and Demidov's large impact

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

RDS Hockey Analyst and Former NHL Goaltender Bruno Gervais joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Canadiens, the matchup against the Capitals and how they can stack in the series, Ivan Demidov's role on the lineup, Nick Suzuki's importance to the success for the season and more.

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Join today and be part of something amazing. Here's a guy that's very familiar with that. He's a former NHL or RDS, Canadian's analyst. Here is Bruno Gervais. How you doing, Bruno? I'm doing great. How about you guys? We're doing very well.

What I guess, you know, paint us a picture of the mood in Montreal among Habs fans. Is it nervousness? Is it excitement or their expectation? What kind of feelings going into game one? Well, getting into the playoffs, it felt like Christmas came around twice with the Habs punching in. Like you said, they're getting their ticket and getting demidoffed, that nice little surprise, that little extra too at the end of the year. So a lot of excitement and it's always been

a hard thing and it's the challenge here in Montreal to manage expectation and not get the emotions, get ahead of everything. But they really finished strong and if you look since, you know, the four nations, the way they've been playing and that's a pretty big you know sequences of game and they they're top six in the NHL for that period of time and a lot of positive can they maintain that and it's gonna be fun to watch because as you guys know like during your regular season when you catch a heater it feels like you can kind of keep it going for a while and that's what Montreal did they were tremendous down the stretch but now that you're facing a team that's actually going to park the

bus and analyze you and you know like trying to expose your weaknesses and make little change and tweak their system tweak little things left and right and make some adjustment it's going to be that little battle of adjustment between the two teams that's going to be fun to see because they were just rolling full of confidence. They were getting goals. They were getting, you know, goals from the depth up front. They were really lucky too with injuries. I think they managed that pretty well and they stayed healthy the whole year. So that's a big aspect for our team obviously. But now the fact that you got to face a physical team, a team that's got a big body for best of seven that's gonna be quite of a challenge. Bruno talk about you know you've

mentioned Demidoff the just the effect that he had you know the games that he played and and maybe what he could be you know what he could bring to the table maybe as an x factor because really the league doesn't know him so you're doing pre-scouts if you're the Washington Capitals you don't really know this kid and what he's capable of. Well he's really impressed me and that's the big part because we've heard just great things and amazing things about him the whole year from the KHL and from everybody that was over there and it was always a dimmy-dove watch and highlights were coming this way and you know how it is, if you scout a player based on highlights you're in trouble.

But so many positive from the KHL about the human being behind that, about the way he played 200 feet, about everything. But you want to see him in an NHL environment, in actual NHL game. It was amazing and electric when he did this rookie lap. I would say over 50% of the building was full. People were standing up cheering. It was the loudest rookie lap I've seen in my life. And then the second he got on the ice, it was a standing ovation. People compared him to Guy Lafleur. People were so ecstatic about him here. He didn't really disappoint.

I mean, the goal and an assist within the first four or five shifts of his NHL career. He's got tremendous skill. One aspect for me that really stood out is you're going to see him change direction and the way he explodes off of that, the way he creates space for himself and he's always getting information of what's happening around him. So he'll spin on a guy and then half a second later the puck is already gone because he saw the play develop before. So that for me he kept doing it and kept doing it and no one could kind of keep up with him in the corner from that he's got a big body protects the puck and he'll

spin off guy and create something out of that so the guys around him were getting a little more hop in their step because they know the Pucks gonna come there and they know if they find a spot on the ice they're available they'll find them. Do you think that this Demidoff kid might keep Slavkowski on his toes? Because if he dips, maybe Nick Suzuki has a little chat with Marty St. Louis saying, maybe put the kid on our line because that's what you have. We always talk about internal competition. I'm sure Slavkowski is paying attention saying, I can't kind of float off and disappear because

this kid wants to play all the time and wants to play with the best players And I think you're right but you you actually kind of need that and great for To be in that point where you got two guys that want to play the right and they can bring some You know offensive part of their game, but They're different players and I know the second they meet like within five minutes of the first game you played, everyone was like, let's get him on the first power play. Let's get him on the first power play because Montreal's power play has been kind of fading

out right now, even with Laney on it. But they're going to be playing two different styles on that power play. Slavkovsky is really trying to get his game what's around the net. Like he's going to look at a Brady Kachuk, how he plays around the net and that's what he wants to bring to his game. I mean that was gonna be a different player but to be on the first line or trying to create a spark, here's an extra card that Marty's got and he hasn't been afraid to mix and match like during the game and tweak some things and get someone going. I don't think he had

anybody that was really barking at that first spot and getting a chance on that first line that could have really made a spark until they got dimmied up. And is he going to use it? Is he going to wait for it? How is he going to kind of manage that? Because the third and fourth line, the new hook line and the Evans line stayed together for most part of the season. And I think that's kind of glued together, Stayed together from you know most part of the season and I think that's kind of glued together Especially with the Dvorak line. Sorry Dvorak line the third line and Heaven's line. They've been together They've been trying to get someone with new hook and Laney and try to get a spark try to get someone there They're the young kids. Joshua came up for a while as well

And I think they meet up there got these two kind of going a little bit. But are you going to mix and match and see how things are going? Because it's just such a short sample with the two games that he played. But once you need a goal, once you need to press things, it might be a Dimitrov that gets on the right there once in a while. Can you speak to Nick Suzuki, the job he did coming down the stretch? I think, you know, we've always thought, like everyone says, oh, he's a good player out there in Montreal, but I think everybody focused on the Habs coming down the stretch. He really established himself as like a superstar type of player in the league,

like the leadership, the clutch goals, all of it, situational play. He did it all for the Habs coming down the stretch. He was tremendous. And from the four nations and with everything, all the noise that was going around, especially going into the four nations, Montreal was kind of out of it. And coming back after, there was a meeting between Suzuki and the organization. The word was to keep the guys around a bit, give them a chance. I mean, like they've been selling for so many years, they got so many drafts fixed, like give them a chance I mean like you they've been selling for so many years they got so many drafts like give him a chance keep that group together you don't need to be adding and selling I mean buying but keep that group together and he backed it up and he backed his words and the

way he played every aspect of the game he Marty's throwing him out there more and more for the PK. Every situation he plays a little bit like a vegkin to two minutes on the power play. But the amount of you know, the workload that he's had, the quantity of ice time, but with the quality and his compete level went another up a notch. Everything that he did in big moments, everything went up a notch. And I mean, for awhile, they were on a roll for awhile. And I think he had three or the four game winning goals and he assisted on the fourth one.

Like he was in the mix for every big moment for the Canadians. And there's so many big moments during the year that brought the Canadians to make the playoffs at the end there. But one of them was like a couple of weeks ago when Florida was up by a goal here in Montreal, and he scored for Like six seconds left to the game and then ended up scoring in overtime and getting to two points that was humongous for them So every big moment Suzuki was right there Absolutely, and you expect it continues tonight game one Habs capital see us Bruno Gervais former NHL and RDS analysts

Enjoy the game. Enjoy the series. Thank you for doing this, Bruno. Anytime, guys. Enjoy the night. You got it. That just happened with me, Vashi Kapelos. Candidate decides 2025. Stay informed with my exclusive I Heart Radio podcast, available Friday afternoon, straight through till Election Day and beyond.

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