The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Sergio Momesso on Montreal's Traditions, Learning from the Past, the Canadiens Current Run, and more

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Sergio Momesso joins Jeff Marek to discuss learning from the traditions in Montreal and the players that have come before, what it means to be a Montreal Canadien, who carries the torch, determining success for the Canadiens this season, and moreSHOUTOUT 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.

Circling back to last night, tough one for the Montreal Canadiens, a tough one for their fans, certainly at the Bell Center yesterday. Claude the Mew comes out with the torch. Claude the Mew, who was selected one before our next guest in the 1983 draft. He is a contributor with La Pash Blu. He is a former NHLer who I believe had every team he was on, go to the playoffs. He is Sergio Mameso and he joins me now on the sheet. Sergio, first of all, thanks so much for stopping by today.

What did you think when you saw, there he is. Once again, Claude Lemieux, you were drafted right beside each other in 83 holding the torch. It was great because last night, I had a promotion. A lot of the alumni go to the games. And I go into the alumni room, see a lot of the old guys coming into the room. You know, let me move this over. Other way, other way, there we go. Hey, look at that.

So here we are. And I said, I've got to take a photo of you, Claude. It's been a while. So it was fun to see old teammates. And like you said, we were drafted right, right, you know, 26 and 27th in the second round in those days. Yes. Overall, it was Peter Sabota. I saw him the other night.

So a lot of the 86 guys that were in and out of the room and some guys that won in 93. And, you know, the Canadians bring back all these guys during the playhouse. So it's really cool. everyone's always asking me. So who's who's doing the torch? I'm going to Torch tonight because I have the inside info, right? You got the scoops. I can't tell you.

I can't tell you. I don't know you guys are betting or what you're doing there. But here's the thing about it. It's become such a cool little, like, again, like everything in Montreal, like the way that they do things is so perfect. You know, Michael Farber always talks about, you know, they do things right in two places, the Bell Center and Buckingham Palace. Everything is perfect.

Like the history, the history is incredible with the Montreal Canadians, but it sits in a place that it doesn't get in the way. Like no one gets overwhelmed by it. It's all really tasteful and dignified, where a lot of places it's like, this is kind of getting in the way and it's ham-fisted and it's sloppy.

You know, everything just sits really well with Montreal. And I think before every game, it's like, okay, who's it going to be? oh, they haven't had Bob Gainty out. When's Gainty going to get? It's like, it's become a big thing. Like amongst, you know, your former teammates, is it much of a conversation? Like, hey, did you get the phone call?

Hey, did you get the call? Are you going next? Where's Patrick? Where's Patrick coming out? Yeah, Patrick's the name that floats around. And even Stefan Rishi is another one. There's another one. Yeah.

Yeah. And then apparently Chris Chelyos was in town for the Formula One race on the weekend. So everyone was like, oh, Chris Chelyos is going to do it. But he's going to be the one. And then it was Clode. When I saw him in the room, I get in around 4.35 o'clock because our promo was at 6 o'clock. And we go out where the fans are. And we scroll through with our jerseys on.

And then we get in the melee. But it's fun. Everyone's having a great time. And then when I saw Clode, I said, yeah, where are you living now? He goes Florida. And so, okay. And he tells me, I'm here for the, I'm doing the torch. and I said that's great because I remember

scoring so many overtime goals in 86 so he became a legend because of that. Patrick Wah and Claude were great in the playoffs obviously Claude could have won the cons might but ended up going to Pat Patrick was so who's it going to

be next? I'm not sure but you know it's going to be one of those legends. 86 was such a special year for the Montreal Canaan. I was just saying before he came on like there was that time through history where every year that ended with a six, you know, 76, 80,

you can keep going all the way back, that ended with a six Montreal won the Stanley Cup. Like, it was just like one of those, one of those freakish things, but Montreal was so dominant for so long. And Patrick Waugh wrote about this in his book. I'm curious if you have any recollections about it

in 86 because that year, as much as everybody was like, oh, this is great, Patrick Wall, incredible rookie. I think Red Fisher, I think it might have been the only rookie that read ever,

agree to speak to. Like that's how much, you remember how much power Red Fisher had in Montreal would block Savard's trades all the time. Like, oh, if you make this trade with Maple Leagues for course,

I'm going to run you out of time. And one of the stories that Patrick wrote about is, because there was always like the one bad goal that he'd let in. Like in every game, he'd be phenomenal,

but there'd be like one bad goal. And Patrick writes about being in the sauna and Larry Robinson walking in and sitting down, this is like Larry and saying essentially just, no more bad effing goals and then stand up and then walk out and Patrick was like

whoa that's Larry Robinson telling me like no but do you have any do you remember anything like that of the dynamic between like Larry Robinson and young Patrick you know the rookie Patrick Waugh well uh if they were just in the son of them too so I can't say what but uh you know there's for myself coming into that, onto that team. It was kind of amazing to have Bob Ganey as the captain and then Larry Robinson there as well, where Bob was more of the serious type.

Let's say you wouldn't speak too much or say too many things in the dress room unless things were needed to be said, then Bob would say it and everyone would listen. And Larry was kind of like the in-between, kind of like the assistant coach where he's your friend and get in there, joke around. I mean, I used to tell him stories, and he would just laugh.

He goes, I love it, I love it. I want to hear the young guys having fun out there. But when it was time to obviously bear down and play hard, we did it because of them. It wasn't so much for the coach. We had so much respect for what they did in this city before. I remember skipping school, you know, in high school just to go to the parades. And that was like, you know, almost.

an annual thing and going to the parade and actually getting an autograph from Gila Fleur. And then, you know, at an 18-year-old, I go to training camp and there I am, skating with Gila Fleur, which was kind of amazing. He ended up retiring and didn't play with him when I made the team at 20 years old. And then years later, he comes back into the NHL. So so many great players to play with and to learn from, I think when they would say, things I remember. I can't say like I know your question was to Patrick

Waugh, but I say for myself, I remember you know, I think Bob set me aside one time and said, listen, he goes, you have the skills to be in this league and you know, the size

and all those things and he just said, you don't have to be great all the time, but you got to be good. And, you know, just setting the standard that if you want to hang out for a long time, in the league you have to be reliable and you know there's a lot of players that come and go as as we know and so these are players that play for a long time so anyone who i see in the league for 15 or 20 years i mean just total total amount of respect because you know it's to last a long time

barring injuries and stuff like that so i was like 12 and a half to 13 years and but you know that that kind of stuck with me and then eventually i got older when i was uh 26 27 when I was in Vancouver, I became, I got to be, Pat Quinn made me an assistant captain. So I thought that was a, I kind of took that as an honor, you know, to be one of the, have a letter on your, on your, in the NHL where, you know, you're not thinking of that at 20 years old. When you're in junior, you kind of, you're the, you're the man in junior. And yeah, I was, you know, I was assistant captain. But to do it in the, in the, in the pros, sure.

Yeah, it was kind of special. So I remember, I remember Bob saying that to me. You know, one of the interesting things during this Montreal, Canadians run, and even just yesterday with Brian Burke sharing his experiences, and I was in Colonna a couple of weeks ago, and Josh George's, we're having a conversation talking about Jean Belvoirvo. And interactions. Like I had my one big moment when I was doing ringside for hockey night,

waiting for Andre Markov to do a walk off after the period. and Mr. Belavow walks up and I say, Mr. Belvoir and he says, Salue, Jeff. And I went, oh, how does he know my name? Because it's just like one of those,

like stop you in your tracks moment. Brian Burke was talking about his experiences with, with Mr. Belvoir at a funeral. Josh George just talked about the Sharpie story. Like you, all you play for the Montreal Canadians. You always, like the one of the wonderful things right now is asking people.

A photograph, legible, right? Yeah, right? And John had like the elegant writing to like nobody signed like Jean Belavow. When when, when people ask you for a, a Jean Beliveau story, Sergio. Do you have one? Like, I have my pet Jean Belabo story. Berkey's got his.

Josh George's has his. Do you have a Jean Belavot story that you could share? Geez, I think I remember like being a kid at the camp and, you know, at the forum, at the old forum, where a lot of the,

of those great players would come in and hang in the dress room. And I just, I couldn't believe it, you know, just to have those players that, obviously, I didn't, I didn't, I was younger, so I knew who he was. I saw the tapes and the, in the games, but obviously I, I knew all the guys in the 70s, right? Yep. It was, you know, I was born in 65, so growing up and watching them play, but obviously knowing the history and looking up at the plaques in the dressing room, and I know it sounds like corny, but it really is when, when you're, when you're first starting there in that era. You know, so Jean would speak English or French.

It didn't matter. I speak both languages, but he was always very polite and courteous. And definitely an impact that I can't believe. I'm, you know, I was born like maybe 10, 15 minutes from the, from the forum in a neighborhood called NDG. And, you know, for just playing street hockey and stuff like that. that and then you're you're down playing at the fore and seeing seeing these guys in out of the in the dress room and i really like that that uh you know that a lot of those guys were we're around us

and kind of make you look up and say yeah this is this is a special place to be and um you know all the guys that when they say we pass the torch down to the next generation but it really was and i know that there was a lot of years where there was some lean years and i think it's it's starting to come back. Oh, yeah. And you see the young guys that are taking over this team and the city. And everyone knows that this series is another step above, another chapter of, say, learning, like they say,

and I'm moving on to another subject. But I think in general, everyone is just very happy with the way the direction the team is going for sure. Yeah, I was saying before you came on, Like even if this ends now at the hands of Carolina, even if Montreal doesn't win another game, what a successful season. I know everyone's thinking, oh, Stanley Cup,

return to glory, that would be fantastic. Another parade in Montreal. This is tremendous. But this is like already a season where even if it ends in two more games, what a great season for Montreal for this young, youngest team, right?

Young developing team here. No matter what happens now, this is a successful season. Agree or disagree. No, I do agree. And I know that we're a little more practical as ex-players. We see what they're up against. And, you know, the fans kind of go with the roller coaster.

Yeah. You know, and you know what? It's okay to dream. Like, no one really thought in 86 that, you know, that we were going to win. And so you get on a run. You get a hot goalie and you get the timely goals. And to be honest, like, yes, if you look at the, games, the last couple of games, Carolina's starting to impose the way that they play.

And they don't have a lot of room out there, which is the style that they want to play. They don't want to give Montreal a lot of room, obviously to play their style of game. And but they were in two overtimes. I mean, they could be up to one. And you don't know. Like, they've managed to hang in there. And they give themselves a chance. And yes, they're going to have to.

create more offense the next game. So I'm trying to think, is it because, you know, they're running out of gas because they've played, you know, they've played more games in the amount of time. You know, so seven plus another three, I mean, 14, but so they played 17 and Carolina's played 11. So it adds up when you're playing every second day. There's no question.

It'll be interesting to see how they, they need better starts, that's for sure. They get behind all the time and kind of go the other way and pose their game on Carolina tomorrow more and hopefully try to. I think it's going to have to be a two-to-one game because every game just seems like the third goal is going to in Carolina.

So they don't get many chances or opportunities, but when they do, maybe it's going to have to be a two-to-one game. And those are the games that, yeah, you're going to have to win in a playoff series when you play those type of teams. It's not always going to be the Buffalo Series and the Tampa series. I thought that game six when they could have closed it off, Vasaleski was excellent. It was a zero-zero game for the longest time.

And I thought that was their best game at the Bell Center, to be honest. And we know that they've only won two games at the Bell Center. I thought that was their best game. Vasilesky kind of stole that game. And then Dobish comes back and steals game seven. But they're going to have to play a similar type game that they did in game six, but hopefully get the result. Okay, before I let you go, I do want,

I love talking to people from, especially Montreal Canadians players from 1986. And I'm always curious about one thing. Were you watching the Smyth Division Final when Steve Smith banked it off your skate to put it in the net? Because like everything changed then. Oilers is this dynasty happening, going to romp over everybody. and then all of a sudden they weren't. Were you watching that game?

And if so, like, do you remember what went through your head? Because that was shocking. Yeah, I was watching that game. Yes, I remember that for sure, because, you know, you watch the other series. And obviously, Edmonton was the team that if they're not in it, it's kind of like, okay, everyone else kind of got a chance, right? And I'm sure Calgary thought the same.

Calgary was a great team, right? Yeah. You have to get over the hump. and Calgary, Edmonton was the one where if you could beat Edmonton in those years, but then you finally get a chance to maybe hoist the cup, right? So even you remember Winnipeg, the Jets had great teams, but they just, you know, Goaltending. How was that extra?

Yeah, I remember, you know, I keep, it's funny, I'm glad you mentioned Winnipeg there. I used to always say to myself, smite the vision, we always think about Edmonton and Calgary, man, if Winnipeg had goaltending, if Winnipeg just had a goaltender, you know, Sergio, like they could have been right there with those two teams. Yeah, and you see, like, Grand Feure was, Edmonton, you can give up four goals, five goals, but then he'd shut the door. He'd win six, five or whatever. And he would make the big save where they're on a two-on-one one or wherever it might be on a

breakaway, and that was the difference. Yep. Making big save at the right time. And that's something that was missing, like you mentioned. And so Montreal is going, just saying here now that, yeah, you look. look at that and Patrick was making the big saves when he needed to make it and cold was scored the overtime goals. I think I don't remember the amount of overtime games, but I know in 93, they won 10 out of 11 overtime. It was insane. You need luck. You need luck. That's, you know, so

here in this series, like you look at two overtime games and I would say the first one, yes, goes to Carolina because they're the one that they got the, they're the ones they don't really had a chance. I don't think Montreal even had a chance in overtime in that game. But yesterday, Suzuki. Suzuki has a breakaway. Matheson hits the bar. They had the chance to win the game early. And even though maybe they didn't really deserve to be there, but they were hanging in there,

they were hanging on. And here we are. They're down to one. But yeah, I remember those days watching the other games, watching the other series with Colorado. You know, it's interesting. There's no question. Sure.

So if Colorado felt, you say, oh, wow, everyone else has a chance. but obviously Vegas is playing well. And they're healthy. And they just got Mark Stone back and Carlson's healthy. It's like, oh, you know what it's like you get this deep into the playoffs. It's like, okay, who's healthy enough here to win the Stanley Cup? Sergio, this has been a pleasure. There's been a real treat.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I look forward to having you back on as well. Enjoy the rest of the run wherever it goes and continue success with Le Poshbleu. Merci, monjean. Beemn-in-in-in-a-ne. Thanks. I can't get out