The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Marco D'Amico on Suzuki, Goaltending & Canadiens Game 7 Victory

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Season 3 rolls on as Jeff Marek is joined by Marco D'Amico to break down the Montreal Canadiens thrilling Game 7 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, powered by elite goaltending and clutch playoff moments. They dive into the standout performances, including Nick Suzuki’s dominant two-way play, Alex Newhook’s gritty goal, and how Montreal found ways to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy in high-pressure situations. The guys also discuss frustration from stars like Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel, plus what it all means moving forward. Then, they turn their attention to the Canadiens’ second-round matchup with the Buffalo Sabres, breaking down key storylines, matchups including Tage Thompson, and what to watch as the series gets underway.Subscribe for more NHL breakdowns, playoff coverage, and daily hockey insight.#NHL #Canadiens #GoHabsGo #Lightning #StanleyCupPlayoffs #Hockey #JeffMarekChapters:0:00 Canadiens Game 7 Win Reaction2:30 Goaltending Duel Breakdown6:00 Newhook’s Clutch Goal9:00 Lightning Frustration (Kucherov, Hagel)12:00 Unsung Heroes for Montreal15:30 Sabres Series Preview Begins18:30 Key Matchups vs Buffalo21:30 X-Factors & Predictions24:00 Montreal Buzz & Fan ReactionReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They continue to be a great story and a fun story as well. My favorite line from last night when Marty St. Louis was asked about whether the players are going to go out and enjoy themselves. He said, I would assume some of the young guys will, but me, I'm going to bed. Marco D'Amico is our good friend who's always kind with his time. Editor of RG Media joins us now. What did you do last night because Martans St. Louis maintains he went to bed while his players may have gone out to the evening to enjoy themselves as much for all Canadians players like to do on this team.

What did you do last night, Marco? Well, because my entire day was hockey, I spent the entire night having to take care of my newborn son. So, hey, that's awesome. Congratulations, first of all. That's the best one. Listen, I've gone through it three times. You're never more tired and more happy in your entire life. So welcome to the club.

That's great. How old is your son? Two months now. So left hand shot or right hand shot? We've got to establish this early. If it's a right hand shot, yeah. He's got a stronger right hand. and I think it will be better for his career.

If he's a right-handed, he might have a better shot in negotiations. So we'll see if we can push him to the right. Have you started agent shopping yet? Have you gone that, Rudy? You're looking at CAA? Yeah, yeah, I've had a conversation with T-A and Port. Yeah, okay, good.

You got all the biggies covered off too. That's Sabian Saw, Sabian Saw. Nine shots on goal. I don't know where to be good other than that stat. Like, first of all, Jakub-Dobish, especially in that second period. None of this is possible. The Sabres series is not possible

if it's not for Dobish. Listen, the Montreal Canaanans have had an embarrassment of riches historically going back to the beginning of the league in 1917 with outstanding netminder. That is one through line all throughout the Montreal Canadiens organization and another command performance

by a Montreal Canadiens goal tender. I'm guessing he's not going to see a bill in Montreal for quite some time. Your thoughts on what we saw from Doeby? not just in this game, but in this series as well. Yeah, I mean, first of all, up until game seven, Jacob Dobish and Andre Vasselowski were basically even in terms of the amount of goals allowed. But Jacob Dobish had a higher goal saved above expected.

And in my honest opinion, was more conducive to them being able to keep Tampa at bay during crisis situations and when Tampa started to pour it on from a pressure perspective. But last night was the cherry on the Sunday. Last night was just out of this world. until I would say the last 10 minutes of the game, and then the Canadians began to play what I thought was some of their most structured defensive hockey of this season in front of Jakub Dobish.

So they kind of came in right at the end to help him out, but he is the one and main reason why they stayed in that game for as long as they did. And I felt like in this series, one of the elements that Jakub Dobish has greatly improved on and, you know, tip of the hat to interim, I don't know for how long, but interim goalie coach Marco Marchiano.

Yeah. Really helped him when it comes to his. Interim, huh? Explosivity. Interim, huh? You think like, we'll see about that. I know,

technically, you're right, but sorry. We'll see about that. I just laugh when I hear interim in front of his name after what we've been seeing. But anyhow. Exactly.

He's been great. Exactly. You look at the way that Jakob Doeus jump from the NCAA to pro. He broke the record in the HAL for the most amount of games for a rookie goalie. In the, in the HAL, then it gets called up to Montreal. What you're seeing or what we've seen since Marchiano has come in is the complete control of his technique.

He's less adventurous in the offensive zone when it comes to trying to block a shot. He's more aggressive but controlled aggressive when it comes to one-on-one situations. And his movements from lateral movements are far more controlled. He's going away from trying to just toss himself to the park. He's doing it in a controlled fashion to allow himself to recoup and go back. back into position. So his combativeness combined with the improvement in his technique allowed him to be, again, as he is or as he has been at other levels,

an elite performer because, and as you saw with Tampa Bay, the more the series went on, the more they would spend a second or two more to look for the perfect shot because they knew that if Daubech saw it, he would block it. And so that's where this game kind of, it went, it became a goalie battle by the end of it.

And I feel like what ended up happening last night is Montreal got the lucky bounces, and Jakob Dolvish was able to shut that door. What did you think of the new hook goal? Like, I've maintained, like in the regular season, I want my goals to be pretty. I want like a ribbon around them. I want them to all be highlights. But in the playoffs, I want the opposite. I want really ugly goals.

And that's why I loved that new hook goal last night. That was a nice, ugly playoff hockey goal. Your thoughts, Marco. I think that's the way that this team. is going to have to learn the difference between success in the regular season and success in the playoffs. It's like you're not going to have the perfect play. It's going to be plays like that where it, you know, Hudson's shot that hits off the boards, corrals in front, is able to deflect it mid-air, and that's what ends up beating Vasilevsky because I've said this on multiple shows,

9.5 times out of 10, if Vasilevsky sees a shot, he's going to stop it. So it's going to take chaos to get him off his game. And there's no bigger. chaos, then reaming a puck off the side of the boards and it bouncing back in front. And that hand eye, I mean, you got to give them credit, that hand eye to be able to flip it out of midair and get it behind Vasilevsky. Those are the kinds of clutch scoring, non-traditional means of scoring that you see more so in the playoffs, because when time and space is taken away from you, you have to be able to attack that high danger area in any other way you can.

and if it means having to attack it in mid-air, and that's what you've got to do. It was great. It was funny. Like throughout that beginning of the third period, you're just saying to yourself, Montreal is going to win this game on six shots. Now they ended up winning the game on nine shots.

Like you just sort of did get that feeling. And we just talked about Dobish a couple of seconds ago. It's like you got the feeling that everybody on the Montreal Canadiens, the blue line, the netminder just picked up a side gig. as a part-time job as a wall. Like you just got to feel like, like, no, nothing, nothing's going in here.

And you know who really wore it on Tampa? Kuturov. Like when you saw Kuturov going at Dobish after the period, that's how you know you're in, and it seldom happens this way. That's how you know you're in Kuthorov's head. When he's like, that distracted, then all of a sudden, like, if I'm Marty St.

And then I'm seeing that, I'm just like, that was like that moment when Alfredson shot that pocket, Niedermeyer and everyone in Anaheim said, we got him. We got him. When I saw Kuturoff going at Dobish, I'm like, Montreal's got him, as they said in slap shot, right in the mind. Got him right in the mind. That's where they seem to live.

I also noticed it from Hegel as well to a degree who was just an absolute demon for Tampa Bay in the first five games of this series. You saw later part of game five, game six, game seven, a lot of hesitation in his game. Same thing with Gensel. It was the

bottom six, like Gonzalves, or Dominic James, who I've thought had fantastic game sixes and sevens, that were the ones really pushing it. If you look at the way that the Canadians went about shutting down the top players on Tampa, they were all supremely frustrated by the end of game seven, because they couldn't make that difference. And even on the power play, the Canadians kept them all to the extremities

and made sure to clog up the high danger area so they wouldn't be able to do those cross-seem passes into the slot for Hegel or point to take advantage of. So frustration all around, and when you get frustrated, you make mistakes, and that's exactly what we ended up seeing in the third, is unfortunate mistakes, and the Canadians would take advantage, clear the puck out. And one comment you made, Jeff, that I really wanted to bring up, you said that the Canadians' defensemen are now part-time walls.

Well, one guy who I also believe needs attention in terms of being a wall is Nick Suzuki, because who was there to block the last shot for Kuturav at the end? It was Nick Suzuki. Last night, Nick Suzuki, I know that the playoffs, don't impact trophies. But last light, Nick Suzuki showed why he should be the front runner for the Selke. That kind of two-way play. I think he's getting it.

I think that's well established. I think he's got the Selk. But I think tomorrow, like anything else that like cements the reputation from the year. But I think exactly. He's his. And I find it, I find it funny that or funny. It's always, hockey is a story, right? And I feel John Cooper coming out and saying, you know, Canada needed a goal.

Nick Suzuki answered. The Canadians needed a goal. Nick Suzuki answered. And to see Nick Suzuki be the player at the end of the game for the Canadians to eliminate John Cooper, I find almost poetic with the way that the season went between those two. After the last time, we saw him with the Bell Center just doing that one more game. One more game. Yeah.

One more game. One thing, I want to swing back to Hegel for a second here because there is one signature play. Like, Hegel is the like never quit on a play guy. And I still don't know why Slavkovsky didn't just backhand. it, but the Hegel play on the on the empty net. Did you not watch that and go, holy smokes, because you've seen it a million times.

It's the gimmee and the empty net. Brandon Hegel makes the incredible play to keep it out, and then Tampa goes back the other way and scores a goal. I was through my whole mind, I'm like, oh, man, and we're going to be like, again, it's going to be like microphones in front of Slavkovsky. I should have just backhanded it, got the puck up.

I wanted to make it pretty, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What went through your mind when you saw the Hagle play? Patrick Stefan. That's what went in my mind. The puck over the stick, Stefan. I just felt like, you know, the possibility of it going back the other way and tampa tying it was right there for them. And, you know, Slavkovsky, we're all going to be able to joke around with him now. But empty netters have not been his friend this season.

I think the only empty net goal he has was from a shattered, his stick got shattered from a slash. Other than that, he missed every other opportunity. So last night was no different. But you have to, you know, you have to have to have that killer instinct in those situations. That game would have been over and done, signed seal, delivered. All you required was, you know, a little bit of a lift on that backhand beforehand, pun intended, and it would have been taken care of. But again, you look back on those situations, you laugh at him, he'll learn from him.

He probably got ribbed a ton from it, you know, after the game. I will continue to probably for the rest of the year. But at the end of the day, who was, what was he doing on the ice? he was defending that lead and I think he did so quite well and has done so quite well in those two games, game five and game seven in Tampa Bay. Okay, a couple of more things here quickly about the Tampa Series and I want to ask you about Buffalo on the horizon.

There were moments where you're really happy for Texier. There are some moments, game one, were you really happy for Slavkovsky. A lot of it, you're really happy for Nick Suzuki. We mentioned the Alex Newhook goal. The Dobesh story has been well told. Was there a story that you saw in this series So we're like, hold on a second.

This isn't getting enough attention. Or this guy's not getting enough attention. Was there anyone outside of the obvious players in all the wins here from Montreal where you said, we should be talking more about X? Who's that player? What's that scenario? Is there someone that comes to mind for you? Yeah.

My automatic is going to be Lane Hudson, but we want to get granular. So I'm going to go with Zach Budzer. Okay. I like that. I think, I think Zacharie Balzirk, for me, truly elevated in the playoffs and in a way where he needed to play the game that was in front of him.

And throughout the season, he had trouble finding his identity. You know, was he that bumper shot, you know, that the Canadians need him in the power play? Was he more of a skilled winger that they can insert in their top six?

Well, he's kind of seemingly found his identity with the team, which is being that gritty, you know, in your face, pest-like, you know,

middle six winger that can bring pucks to the net, play with pace, and the game where Kirby Doc popped off in Game 3 in Montreal, a lot of that stemmed from great plays from Zachary Balzir, and he took that momentum throughout the rest of the series. And I think other than OT in Game 6, you know, he played with such a level of intensity

that he was able to, I would say, like after a Josh Anderson, he was able to come in and be that physical presence along the boards, winning his battles, getting pucks out, you know, being able to filter it to the points, sustaining offensive zone possession and pressure, which the Canadians had difficulty doing in pockets in this series. I thought he truly elevated in this series. And if there's a player that went from, you know, being a healthy scratch in and out of the lineup to a guy that you can say has given the Canadians information about his future,

guy like Buzzerk is a guy that I think that they think to themselves now and say, that's a guy we're going to be able to have on our bottom six that's going to be able to elevate when we need him to. Great trade. Great trade. Okay, so here's my question. We all know that Montreal Canadiens fans travel very well. Game one Wednesday at the Keybank. If the microphone goes down again, will there be enough Montreal Canadiens fans in the building

for chanté in French? I'm pretty sure. I mean, listen, there's already a ton of Montreal Canadiens fans in the Buffalo area. there's an even larger amount in the Toronto region and I know many, many from Montreal that are going to be making the trip to Buffalo so I think it's very possible but also just for the sake of it

tip of the cap to Buffalo in general for the classiness of playing both anthems I don't think they'll have any issue I don't think you'll have any issue and I think that what I do respect especially from the Buffalo Sabres fans is they'll get into it as well they'll help sing the anthems

so that's what I find is really cool about border cities like that is that at the end of the day it's the love of the sport and they'll sing both anthems. Sebray, what do you may? I'm having a hard time handicapping this one. I really am. Like, I'm looking at this and I'm like, man, Buffalo's hot and what a story this year,

but, you know, very little outside of the Bruin series playoff experience, and Dobish is on a heater. And, ah, they got like a Selky trophy, a major sulky trophy candidate here in Nick Suzuki, and that's probably going to be a layup that he wins it as we just talked about. it Hudson and Dobson is back. How do you begin to handicap this thing?

Like what are the questions that you have going into this one for Wednesday? Well, I think where the Sabres have a net advantage over the Canadians is down the middle. But that will bring up further questions because, you know, Thompson, McLeod. But then after that, Josh Norris and Josh Norris is health. And Josh Norris being able to play a full playoff round. Is that going to be possible? Because they already lost Noah Osland, right? Yes, he's going to walk in a boot today.

That's a center right off the bat, exactly, that they won't be getting for this series. Yuri Kulik is also out because of blood clot, so he's not available as well. Yep. So they have that structure. They have that ability to go up and down their lineup at center. And I think one element is their top line is very dangerous.

But that third line with Benson and Donne, that's the line to watch out for. That to me is the X factor. It was the X factor against the Bruins. I think it could be the X factor against the Canadians. And defensively, there's a lot of meat on that back end. They're a very big structured defensive core. And they didn't give Boston much when the chips were on the table.

I guess Boston did wins and were able to generate offense. But as the series went on, they just kept getting boxed out and boxed out and boxed out as they continue to gain that confidence in that experience. So I think the Canadians, having just gotten off a series against what I think is the most structured top forward defense in hockey right now, in terms of defensive ability in Tampa Bay, I think that they've been properly prepared to play a team like Buffalo defensively. Now it's going to be seeing their top guys elevate offensively.

Cole Cofield has to have a much better series against the Buffalo Sabres. Ivan Dmitov needs to take a step up against. the Buffalo Sabres, and Urii Slavkovsky needs to show that magic on a regular basis, not just in game one. So if their top six can match the intensity that the bottom six was bringing against Tampa Bay all series, this can be another long one that can go to six or seven. And it's very difficult to handicap. Even betting odds right now have them basically even, which says something about the quality

of these two teams. You know, one of the things, too, and they'll be able to get away from it in the first two games because they're playing in Buffalo, but I look at that because you mentioned that top, the Tage Thompson line with the Buffalo Sabres. And it was great to see the pizza out last night with Philip Deno by the way. This warms my heart seeing that again.

But nonetheless, the Philip Delo line with Evans and Josh Anderson. Like, that's going to be, like Marty's going to try to feed a steady dose of that line to Tage Thompson. Boston wasn't able to put a line out there like that, especially not with somebody Philippe Delo. That is going to

be one of those stories within the stories. that you fall because Philippe de no does not care about his points he does not care whatsoever he is going to live in tage thompson's hip pocket and make life just awful for him and then if all of a sudden if you can neutralize that top line with the buffalo sabers then are we looking at montreal caroline i'm like i'm getting ahead of myself here but that does that does make that does make sense like that's going to be like the story here can philip deno's line take care of tachshopson's line Yeah, I think there's three tiers of storyline here to look at with Buffalo. It's going to be how the Canadians are going to match up defensively, because the top line for the Canadians is still one of their better, has been their de facto shutdown line all season. And then you throw in the Phil de No line, which acts as the second, so they're able to kind of rotate them and not get stuck in the matchups on the road,

which we saw against Tampa. So it's going to be something that they can utilize against the Buffalo Sabres. second is going to be defensively, will the structures of both teams hold, considering the pressure that they both exert along the wings on the rush? And then for me, does Jacob Dobesh follow up that performance? And will the Buffalo Sabres find consistency if Alex Leon is in Nets? Right? Because that's where those three elements will really come into play.

And I think we're going to get an answer almost right away because those two teams this season, it was an all-out trench war between the two of them. Yes, in the stands too. It's going to be in the stands as well. Yeah, but I think that both of them are playing much better defensive hockey right now than they were back then. So it won't be the goal. It might not be the goal fiesta that we saw during the regular season. And that's where I'm intrigued because we saw the Canadians being able to buckle down and play a defensive oriented game.

We haven't had to see Buffalo do that just yet. And that's where I'm kind of interested to see on a full seven game series. Can Buffalo elevate on that side defensively to be able to match? the Canadians top six. Let me close on this. Give us a scene set of what's happening in Montreal right now with this team. Have they named any schools

after Jakob Doba shit? Or do we have to wait till the end of the Buffalo series? Give us how much is the city of Montreal in love with this team? Because we've seen this city fall in love with a lot of different Montreal Canadians teams.

How much have they fall in love with this version of the Habs? Head over heels. Head over heels, love of first sight. And, you know, the benefit is outside of Demadov, and they'll probably have to deal with that this summer, in my honest opinion, the entire core is signed long term. So you have, you're not only just investing in what you see right now, but you're investing in the future, a future that is guaranteed from a contractual perspective. And I think that's what's super exciting is that year over year, they've exceeded expectation. And so there's a lot of hype involved.

And so what does the scene look like? There were fireworks outside of the Bell Center last night after the win, a win that happened in Tamifax. not in Montreal. There are Canadians' flags and signs everywhere in businesses that normally wouldn't have Canadians' memorabilia. The entire city is watching these games. You couldn't go into any restaurant or bar last night without the game being on every single television.

And even in the media, radio stations are making all kinds of songs and merch about the team and about the players. So I was talking about it a little bit earlier on national. but this is probably in terms of a core, in terms of a team, in terms of a culture, the most easy buy-in that the Canadians fans have had of a Montreal-Canadians iteration since the 70s.

Wow. Okay, so here's, okay, I'm going to throw a couple of darts here. My guess is Larry Robinson, mainly because I'm a huge Larry Robinson fan, but who we've seen Savard, we've seen Cornwallier, we've seen Nylon, Who gets the torch for game three? I want Larry. I personally would love Larry Robinson, but my two cents.

What do you got? This guy. Oh, Bob Ganey. But listen, we started the conversation by talking about Nick Suzuki. Bob Ganey's the reason why they came up with the trophy in the first place. Bob's so good at doing this.

We need to come up with a trophy for. Here's the thing about, okay, can I go on a tiny little bit here? Here's the thing that pisses me off. Bob Ganey was a winger. They created this trophy for Bob Ganey, and we only awarded to centers. Yuri Latenin was the last winger to win the Selke.

We created the Selki for Bob Ganey specifically, and because Victor Tickenoff said he's the best player in the world. But we did this for a winger, and now wingers can't win it. Nothing for Mark Stone. No, Marion Hosa went through his entire career. Nope, nothing. It only goes to centers now. Pet peeve.

Got to talk to the PWA. Oh, man. I got beef. I got beef. All right, Marco, as always, thanks so much for stopping by.

It's great to have you aboard and sharing your expertise. And just like a fun time in Montreal, man. Like, you want to talk about, like, first of all,

you want to talk about a country that needs something like this. Canada does. Thank you very much. Edmonton has bowed out. Like Montreal is the hope right now. Ask your next guest, who Canada's team is.

Right now it's a Habs. Come on the Alphonsei, I'll tell Nick. He seems to think it's Buffalo. No, I mean, from the golden horseshoot, area. Maybe it is. But outside of outside of that, it's Les Abitans. You're the best. And you're

team up my guest too. You're a great host. You're the best, Marco. Thanks, pal. We'll talk again soon. All is a pleasure. Have a great day, Jeff. Be good.