The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Marco D'Amico on the Bolts Evening the Series, Series Animosity, and more

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Marco D’Amico joins the show to break down the Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning series after it evened up at 1-1. They discuss the slow start for Montreal’s top line, Juraj Slafkovsky’s emergence in the playoffs, what adjustments the Canadiens may need to make, and how the Lightning are responding as the series heats up.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach 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/@FNBarnBurner🚨 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-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With that, let's get back to our Montreal-Canadian's talk, which is always wonderful. Marco, D'emiko joins me from The Star of The Star and D'emiko's show. Sorry, first day with the new tongue, and I'm a little bit sick today here, Michael, so you have to excuse me. Oh, no. Yeah, I know. I just hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday, too, and I'm like, I don't even know if I can do the show today, but here I am. First of all, Marco, thanks so much for stopping by. Like, last time you were on, like the feedback was incredible.

People really, really like you, Marco, for good reason. You work hard. You present well. you do your homework. What did you make of last night? I don't know. I want to get to Suzuki. I want to get to Slafkofsky. I want to get to Anderson and Sabrin, all of it. But just wide-brushed thoughts. Like, what do you take out of last night? I think last night was a nice window into the difference between, you know, electric energy of youth versus the experience and the stamina that the Tampa Bay Lightning had. And I felt this was a game of two

of two halves, I would say the Canadians really took it to Tampa in the first half of this game and then you really kind of felt Tampa take over in the third and definitely into overtime. And it's, you know, there was the emotional side of it with the first half of the game, a lot of physical play, a lot of

post whistle, scurfuffle, a lot of head games. And then they started playing hockey really in the second half. And that's where Tampa just continued to take over. And the biggest difference between the two is a five on five, if they stuck to five on five, especially with the last change, Tampa always had that advantage because

their two top lines are rolling. Doesn't matter who's on the ice. If you're cycling those two in, it's very difficult for Montreal right now. It's not really getting that cycle going at five on five and that offense at five on five to keep up. And that's where Tampa really kind of took over the game. You know, it's interesting

to, again, if some butts were candies and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas. What if Lane Hudson scores? How different is this conversation right now if Hudson scores? Well, I mean, it would have been a very opportunistic way to win a game. And what Sabarin was doing on the ice with two minutes left

and in the decision that he took, that would have been nightmare fuel for a team like Tampa that was looking for their first win at home in the playoffs in, I believe, nine games. So a lot of questions would have been up there, going back to Montreal down to nothing. But again, it's a game of inches. Just before that, Tampa had also hit the post.

So it's really just, you know, being able to take advantage of that. And kudos to Lane Hudson for a player that in November would look at us in the dressing room and admit that he was still trying to find confidence in his shot. And here we are fast forward. He finished the season with 12 goals. And his scene is now a shooting threat on the power play

and was, to me, the best Montreal Canadians player on the ice overall, obviously next to a guy like Josh Anderson. Let me get to Josh Eddard. But really quick on Lane Hudson, that's something that Quinn Hughes did. Like when it became really obvious that Quinn Hughes is, you know, on top of that power play at the blue line, everything, he was just going to be there to distribute, distribute, distribute. It was never a scoring threat, never a shooting threat. Teams could read Vancouver a lot easier on the power play.

And he just spent a whole summer shooting bucks. Not that he's, you know, everybody going to be considered, you know, confused with, you know, Shea Weber or Gaston Gingra. There's a poll for you from a million years ago. But all of a sudden, thanks, man. But all of a sudden, like Quinn Hughes became like a legitimate shooting threat. So I'm not surprised that Lane Hudson is that guy because as we talked about last time,

him and Demidoff, like they didn't get off the ice all summer long. Let me ask about Josh Anderson. And specifically play off Josh Anderson. He's fantastic. I love watching him in the postseason. He's tremendous. I looked at the hit yesterday with Scott Sabrin from behind.

And like, the worst thing that I hate in hockey is slewfoot's. And a close second right behind that is what we saw Sabrin do. to Anderson. And it doesn't matter who's a team or who's a player. It's just like you're skating backwards and someone just goes into you hard. That is, like we've seen so many players injured significantly,

whiplash neck, all of it. And a five turns into a two. And all of a sudden, Scott Sabrin is the center of attention for the Montreal Canadiens. I think the worst thing Montreal can do is react to that. I know that Arbor Jack I really wants to fight Sabrin.

The first time they fought, it didn't go well for Sabrin. And he's looking for the sequel. I don't know that Sabron wants that. But how did you see Sabrin Anderson? And is it inevitable that Jack I fights against Scott Sabrin in the series? Well, the way that he played, does Sabrin even play game three? Because he almost cost Tampa game two with the way that he, with, and putting him out there like that.

So like there's something to consider. But at the same time, you know, like if I'm Tampa, I feel like Connor Geeky offers you more in terms of a layered approach than Sabarin does. I get what they were trying to do, but clearly he was not effective in trying to get any of the Montreal Canadians off their game. The only thing he did was send Josh Anderson to the dressing room two minutes early before the end of the period. Thankfully, Anderson was not injured on the play.

But it really put this, the game was almost over. It came within inches of going in for Lane Hudson right after on that power play. I felt like he was a non-factor for the Montreal Canadiens most of the game. like yaki was there but they paid him no mind and in fact josh anderson was more worried about brandon hagel and that's a trade off the montreal canadians are willing to take oh yeah you know when when it comes to who wants to bother who and who wants to take who into into a fight and even to a lesser degree you're i slavkovsky trying to get into a fight like i'm sure that over a five minute stretch of of a fight like that the canadians feel like well the way that hagel's playing

taking them out for five minutes maybe makes a bit more sense and then you're able to to play the matchup game accordingly. So I think the Canadians played it intelligently. Where I think it maybe came to a head was I think it took a lot out of their sales. Like they had a lot of momentum in the first and most of the second period. But a lot of this really kind of weighed on them. It was the focus.

They were getting into the mind games a little bit. There was a lot of physical strain and getting tied up and the emotional stamina as well. And I felt like that's when Tampa started to take over the game is because they, were able to reach another gear, show that level of desperation. Then it didn't become a question of Sabre, Anderson, Hegel. It just became, you know, back-to-back hockey up and down, and that's where Tampa thrives. Did it seem like Montreal let Tampa play that game? Because they didn't get one.

You know what I mean? Like Montreal, like, if I have Montreal, I try everything that I can not to let Tampa play that game specifically. You know what I mean? Montreal is a different team when they're a whole. holding a lead versus when they're chasing it. And when they're chasing it, it's really hard to match up with their energy and their pacing. But when they're defending a lead, one of the biggest things from a structural perspective that's been an issue is that they don't really protect

the low neutral zone into the high slot coming down from the center line. So it's easy to enter the Canadian zone and then establish yourself in terms of possession. And that's where you get momentum shifts going, especially in the third period, where Tampa was playing with desperation, forced a lot of pressure onto the Montreal Canadians, especially along the boards where they like to clear the puck. And what happens, Uri Slavkovsky tries to send Nick Suzuki on a, you know, almost a breakaway, if not a short break. Puck goes back the other way. Kuturov with the wraparound and the game is tied. So that's where things get a little dangerous for Montreal. They know they need to do a better job of it. They did a much better.

job of covering the center of the ice and at least the zone entries in game one. Got to be a little bit more consistent on that going into game three. How much do you think Marty tries to get the Suzuki line away from Sirelli? Well, with the last change, they're going to have that luxury to do so. But I don't think the way that Martin St. Louis has used that top line all season, it's been a shutdown line even at home. And it's been that way for the last two years where he has no problem using that line and going up head to head with the top line of the opposition.

But I think now that you have to know Evans and Josh Anderson playing the way they have as a shutdown line, they're the only line scoring of five on five right now for this team. So that tradeoff is working quite well. It gives Martina-Sain-Louis the flexibility instead to match them up against perhaps, you know, the Dominic James line on the fourth line, depending on how the game is going. Or if they feel like they could take it to them, go right up against points line and see if they could take Kucharov out of the game entirely. I'm going to say that it's going to sound really cynical,

but here I go. Does Kirby Doc know that they have video review for offsides? I hope so. I'm looking at him, and he's pointing at the blue line to the official, and I'm like, what are you doing? Like, leave it, just play. Stop. Like, I...

Pierre McGuire was on this morning, and he did a really good breakdown of that on Morning Cup of hockey. but like the moment where he where doc starts looking at the linesman and pointing at him is the moment that he loses his man and that's the difference and that's the overtime winner and j j mozier ends up being the hero i'm like what is doc doing if it's if it's offside you bet Montreal's not a dumb team like that thing is getting challenged just keep on like i want to say he's young but i don't know how young kirby doc is like he's not that young You know, drafted in 2019, so he's going to be 25.

Not, you're in that, you're in the peak, well, peak. You're entering your prime at that point. And listen, it's not so much the whining to the referee part. It's, to me, the most egregious mistake on that was the Hail Mary swing at the blue line. No, no, the Hail Mary swing at the blue line. That took him out of position entirely. Had he been more patient on that play and allowed Moser, like, you have, you have nothing to lose. allow Moser to retain possession of the puck,

but at least if you don't overcommit that way, he's six foot four with a ridiculously long reach and a long stick. You have way more chances defensively of being able to counter Moser at that point on the back check going backwards and trying to push him to the exterior, then trying to swing at him at the blue, and then he beats you and has the corridor all the way to the net all to himself. You know what he's thinking,

if I tap this puck, Mosier's going one way and I'm going right up the gut, And it's a breakaway in overtime and I got the game on my stick. I get it. So that's like how much do you want to allow a creative player to try to be creative and create a game winning goal a chance versus, hold on a second here. We're in overtime and this is too costly. We have to mitigate risk.

That's it. Like you know Marty San Luis. You're there all the time. Like it didn't work out. I understand it. But the idea of him trying to spring himself on the breakaway, like what does Marty do with that one? What does San Luis do with that one? He gave us absolutely no clues in today's press conference.

I'll tell you that much. You know, it was a very, it very much felt like a, I'm just here so I don't get fined kind of situation. He definitely defended Kirby Doc and obviously tried to downplay that play and point out the positives in the rest of the game. The fans can choose to agree or disagree with that viewpoint, but a coach is always going to protect his players. But for me on that play, especially for Kirby,

like you have to have faith in the other four players that are playing with you on the ice and Jacob Dolbech and Net to not try to overcommit yourself for the in the cause of glory in overtime. Safe is not death in overtime. Safe allows you to live another day, especially on an icing that was caused by him in the first place that two strides longer would have been not a problem. So it's it's, you know, Damedov did the same thing. But when the puck came back the other way, he was the hardest working player on the ice. and he helped get that puck out.

Slavkovsky did it at one point in game one. Same concept was one of the hardest working players, but didn't over-commit himself to make it happen. I just feel like that was a calculated, needless mistake that was made there. And unfortunately, when you're playing a team like Tampa Bay, they took advantage of every mistake Montreal made in that game. Did that, did that chaos punch from Hegel take Slavkovsky? Because he looked like a different player after that.

Did that essentially, or maybe my eyes, maybe I'm just projecting this. but it did seem like that fight took Slavkovsky out of the game. And as you all know, game one, he was just feeling it and everything he was touching was going in. And it just seemed like a profoundly different player after the scrap with Hagle. Well, that's the trade-off sometimes when you go for a fight like that. Like, yes, you want to stand up for your teammates

and you want to stand up for yourself and you want to fight fire with fire. But then what happens when you lose that fight? How does that give Tampa Bay momentum? You know, thankfully, you know, after that punch, she got back up right away. There was no injury. So, you know, that's the most important part. But I think that line's been struggling at five on five dating back to the first game of this series. And a lot of it, in my opinion, has to do with the speed of their play. If you look at the way

that Sorelli and his line plays against them, they play with speed. There's a guy at the, if not the Canadian's blue line, at least the red line waiting for an outlet pass out of the zone so they can quickly counterattack against that line. Because Suzuki's line right now is not playing. with speed and they're not playing with the same pace that they did this season, which saw you know, Coffield score 51 goals, Suzuki score 100 points and Stavkoski get to 73 points. They need to play with more oomph in their game. And did the fight kind of take them out of it? I could see the argument for it, but I think what ended up happening is that Tampa up to the

volume after that and really just didn't look back and play with the level of desperation that Maybe Montreal and their young core hasn't seen yet in this kind of environment. At the Four Nations in Montreal, they were cheering Brandon Hagel. I don't think they will be cheering Brandon Hagel in game three. Set the scene for the game three here in Montreal. I love all the cutaways, by the way, of all the fans in the Montreal Cathedral's cheering on that. It's just such a, it's just so Montreal, Marco. It's beautiful.

Set the stage here for game. I don't think there's going to be like, oh, yeah, we remember. remember him at four nations. We were cheerio. I think those days are gone. I think those days are gone now. Oh, absolutely not. Yeah. Hegel, Point, Cooper, you name it. These guys were all cheered in Montreal, and they are public enemy number one now. I think it's almost symbolic that Canadians games are being showed in churches right now, considering that this team is a religion in this city. And I don't think it really needs to be set up. Montreal is the cradle of organized sport whenever the playoffs happen in Montreal. all. They could be favorites. They could be underdogs. And it is absolute pandemonium. And, you know, from a fan perspective, the Bell Center, you know, we talk about which is the loudest building. I think

they'll put that to bed in game three considering the stakes of this series. But I think for the Canadians, having the luxury of the last change, being able to maybe take this time to go over a lot of their strategies, to practice a little bit, something they didn't get a chance to do much of in this super condensed season, I think this is going to help them a great deal because that really is what sets great teams apart is how they're able to adjust and adapt to the adversity face in front of them. I'm fully expecting that top line of Slavkovsky, Cole Cawfield, Nick Suzuki to come out, you know, guns ablazing. And it will be interesting to see if Kirby Doc's mistake ultimately allows Martin Saint-Louis to consider Brendan Gallagher or Joe Valeno in his spot

to bring a little bit more of that bite because the Canadians haven't been in Vasilevsky's face enough to my liking as Tampa has been in Dobesh's face. I thought that Falano might find his way in knowing that this is going to be a rough series and there's going to be a lot of penalties and they need someone to kill. That's where I thought Falunner would sneak in.

It offers them opportunity and options as well because he can take the left shot face off. So then does that allow you to make, maybe put Capannon back on the top, on the second line with Demidov, you know, and Youhook, a line that really worked throughout the season. And then you slide down Valeno onto the fourth line. And now you have a nice, you know, balance two right shot centers, two left shot centers. Valeno can take a little bit of the penalty kill responsibilities away from some of the more

offensive guys. Like, it rebalances things. But an argument could also be made for Brendan Gallagher, who would be an absolute pest and a disaster for Tampa Bay in the hash marks. around the goalie crease. And I feel like although Vasilevsky has been money for Tampa Bay and has made some really great saves for them, he hasn't truly been bothered. And I feel like that's an aspect of Montreal's game that may need to be tweaked for game three.

The loudest building I've ever been in, Marco, March 16th, 2013, George St. Pierre, Nick Diaz, Montreal. It was deafening. Montrealers and Quebecers just love GSP like no other. How loud is that going to be for Game 3? We'll finish there. Is it going to be GSP loud?

I mean, listen, last year's playoffs, I think it was 113 decibels or something like that. I'm fully expecting it to be much louder. There is way more expectation, way more energy, and way more hype around this team than you could argue over the last 30 years. I think the

last time the Canadians had something like this was probably 2014 in their run to to the Eastern Conference finals. If not, the year they finished first in the East in 2008. That is it. So I expect the Canadians fans to show up in droves. I expect them to be loud. And I expect that to be a significant boost to the Montreal Canadians, especially if this game once again goes to overtime.

Pack the rink, pack the churches. The Montreal Canadians are back in town. Marco, thanks so much for stopping by. Always appreciate it, about. Thank you so much. Have a great day.