They just switched it up BIG time...

The Habs make some significant moves as Marty St. Louis tweaks not only the top six but the power play as well in practice as we have a brand new 1C on the team. It's looking like heading into Dallas as another promising young player's role has been reduced down. But we also have some updates in net as Jacob Fowler will be taking a rest in favor of Jakub Dobash as the goalies have been good this year, well Fowler especially, but The 5v5 picture of Montreal overall paints an even nicer picture for the team, and we have a fantastic article from Marc Dumont that dives into it. Some incredible numbers, and the leap from last year to now is something you're not going to want to miss out on. We're going to dive into all of that coming up on this episode. 5v5 is one of those things that we've done decent at in the past, but this year it has felt different, and we've kind of been waiting, looking at some numbers that prove that, yes, goaltending's been great, all this stuff. Special teams has not been great. But we've still been winning games, and when you dive into some of the numbers, like Marc Dumont did, linked in the description, as always, please go check out the whole article. Like, the thing is, we'll probably get even better results. And the first thing that he acknowledged was, yeah, like, the Habs were fairly lucky relative to their stats to get 106 points last year, but also a lot of that, I think, is hard teamwork. Like, that does, that can surpass the analytics sometimes. Yeah. Right now, Montreal, I think with one of the most important stats prior to the season, the Habs consistently ranked among the worst teams and controlling high quality opportunities. This year, they've rocketed into the top 10. It's impressive and a necessary step for a team that wants to be a contender. We got some other stats to show in just a bit, but here's one snapshot that he showed in the article, right? The goal share from ninth last year to 17th this year, but the shot share from 23rd to fifth high danger share 27th. All the indicators are, despite this team currently being second in the Atlantic, even better things are to come. Second in the Atlantic, but the Montreal Canadiens are truly only coming into their own. Right now and for the results that they've had while it's been good hasn't even necessarily truly shown how good they are and for sure there is some unforced errors and some errors that are just easily fixed in all this but again the fact that they are easily fixable if you're gonna be on one side of the equation of playing well but maybe not getting all the results versus the other side of getting the points but maybe not playing the well. You definitely want to be on the former side of that equation where the Montreal Canadiens are. And again, these are some major changes coming from last year, again, of this team just realizing what they need to improve upon and then doing that. Those high danger chances, again, is so huge for us to truly become a contender to get back into the conference finals, dare I say, the Stanley Cup finals. That's going to need to be there consistently for us to get there again. We know we're winning those one-goal games and different things, but it's truly Truly by getting those increased. Shares of shot and expected goals and the obviously the high danger chances, which the Montreal Canadiens are doing right now, again, is just so, so powerful getting there. And I can't help but thinking of like the Denault line, which Mark Dumont highlighted in the article, again, amazing article, make sure to go check it out, is what I love is like with the Denault line, they're focusing mostly on the defense, but then that's translating to such a high chance of expected goals, shot share, high danger chances. possession, which I think is really, again, emblematic just to the Montreal Canadiens as a whole. It's focusing on that defense. We know we can score. If you focus on that defensive side of the game, like the Denault line is doing, the offensive chances are going to come. Exactly. You can see some of the numbers there. 69.7% of the shot attempts with that Denault-Bolduc-Texier line. It said Bolduc line because that's who's been leading them in scoring, but it is really the Denault line because he is the center. He is like, even though Bolduc's the lead, he's scoring that line, like Denault is really kind of the driver. One thing I did want to mention before we move on to is just a little look at how the Habs are faring when they're in the lead, tied or trailing. The Habs have only been trailing, Jesse, for 17.1% of the minutes this season. And when they're trailing, like this team is able to win games when they're leading. You can see they're leading after two periods. We're 6-0-1. We're actually closing out games when we're leading, heading into the third. Tied, we're controlling about half the shots. But this team also steps it up when we're trailing. We're outscoring other teams 13-8 when we're trailing with 57.6% of the shot share. So it's like our defense is solid. We're still winning games. Naturally, you're a bit more on the defensive, so you're getting outscored while you're leading, which makes sense. But like, again, the defense is there. Plus, like you said, it can translate into the offense as well. There have been so many good signs for the Habs. Leave some love for our 5v5 play that filled the no-line, all that stuff down below. But we got to quickly move into some of the big updates today because A few things on the goalie front. Jakob Dobellker is going to start in Dallas on Thursday. And you know what? Well-deserved rest for Jacob Fowler, I think. Like, I'd love to play him every game, but you can't do that. You have to give Dobellker a minute. Some people thought he might play in St. Louis, where he spent a lot of time when he was younger. But he is officially... Starting and, you know, he does have the rest. We can take a look at the goalies who are rested. Well Fowler, Oliver Fowler, the last three starts over those starts, 101 shots faced with a .980 save percentage. But yeah, safe to say he's not super fresh. You can see he's listed as busy. Dobesh is the fresh one right now. And while his start by start outlook here hasn't been fantastic, you can see the last four games, all losses, 6-5, 6-4, 5-4, 4-3, not great save percentages. This is the perfect opportunity. To get him back on track because Fowler's workload has gone up and up and up and up. And I think it's fair to give him a little rest. You can see or look at the shots face even for Fowler. It's also climbing. I think this is such a great chance for Jakob Dobesch to get back on track. Because like we've said so often, we love the player and he signed to a contract for a reason. He's ready to get back on track and make this hopefully the best goalie tandem in the NHL. And if this is the second half of the season and this trend continues, you're running Jacob Fowler even more, right? But I think that this is really the right decision. Again, keeping in mind that Fowler's played the last four out of the five games. He's won the last six games. Again, we need to keep in mind for those wanting Fowler, it's like we're not going to say you're completely wrong for feeling that way either, right? Like he's got a 980 save percentage, absolutely legendary over his last three games. That being said, it's like, I believe we're, it's part of a longer road trip. So if this was maybe like a home and away, um, I think that we would be going back to Fowler again, but again, being on a road trip, there's the increased fatigue factor. We're going to Jakob Dobesch. I think a part of this as well. I don't want to read into this too much, but I had the opportunity to see Jake Ottinger in person earlier this year, another big goalie. And again, somebody that I think Jakob Dobesch definitely wants to really, uh, build his game around some type of influence or a really bigger. Kind of guy and has had tons of success of being one of the best goalies in the NHL for a really long period. So this is going to be a really big opportunity for Jacob Dobesh. At the end of the day, he's a really great goalie. He's going to get his game back. We're going to have two really good goalies in Montreal, and we're going to need to kind of decide who's really the starter at that point. Could Fowler hold on to it? Yeah, absolutely. But I feel like Dobesh, he's going to bounce back and he's going to make this conversation competitive though. He absolutely has to. And yeah, like Jake Oettinger looking at his numbers today, preparing for this game, like he's been also good since he was about, you know, 21, 22 years old. I mean, Hey, it looked like a little Jacob Fowler's numbers are even better actually at a younger age than Ottinger, which is kind of insane to say, cause I'm just kind of known for breaking into the league pretty young. So there's just going to leave that there, but anyway, leave some thoughts or down below. How should Montreal split the crease from here? What do you guys think? Should we ride Fowler till he cools off alternate Fowler and Dobesh for a bit? Fowler every two of three would probably be my choice. Something similar to that. Look, there's no need to get specific, I think. You also just kind of ride the wave. And Marty St. Louis has historically been good at that. So, well. There have been some times, I suppose, with the Monty thing, but I think it's going to be absolutely fine. So leave your thoughts on all that down below. Jacob Fowler has been ultimately great. But the other big tweaks today come with the forwards and also the power play. And the first thing we got to talk about is Alex Newhook skating on the top line in practice. Now, we'll have to wait and see if these are the actual lines that we'll see in the game, but it seems to be that way. The trios in practice from Dallas, it was a therapy day for Chris Kreider, So he wasn't skating with the power play units or. You can see, you would assume he's there where Beck is here. So Anderson to Kapanen. And then Caulfield, Slapkowski, centered by Alex Newhook. This is something that I wouldn't have necessarily thought would happen. I mean, Newhook playing with Anderson and Crider, it's been decent. 76 minutes together, 48% of the shot attempts, three goals for, three goals against. Actually better than Alex Newhook's 5v5 minutes with other lines, but he hasn't had the chance in a while to skate up with the Habs top brass. He had a chance with Suzuki Caulfield a few years ago, but he's never had the chance to Decelerate, because Suzuki... Never gets hurt. So Alex Newhook, like, I'm ready for him to take this leap. Here are where most of his shots come from. You can see a lot of them from right in front of the net. 3.1 expected goals, but he only has one goal. His finishing is due to go up, Jesse. And I was saying earlier, like, I really think that Alex Newhook, just that ability to enter the offensive zone with the puck is something that Oliver Kapanen is not quite as good at. And I think that will hopefully unlock Huffield and Slavkovski a bit more here at 5v5 without the captain. That's a really good point. Skilled players obviously need the puck in their possession to make the most use out of their skills. So I think that that's a really strong substitution in light of Suzuki being out. Obviously, Alex Newhook has the heart and the skill to be able to hang with these players. But I feel more than anything else, Josh, this change is really more to help the second line more than anything else. I think Chris Kreider... Josh, again, them going, they were starting the season off so well. You feel like they're going to get back to it. This is about making some of those micro adjustments to really be able to make that happen. Alex Newhook at his most recent availability after practice was just mentioning how he's really looking forward to the opportunity to play with a guy like Slav. He feels like with them and with Caulfield, obviously, they have that combination of the pace, which he kind of brings out in Caulfield. And then also that size that Juraj Slavkovski brings. He feels that they can play off the rush. In zone, however you want to play it, this first line is going to be well-equipped even in the absence here of Nick Suzuki. And he also mentioned, which is making me feel really confident about his ability and going into tomorrow's game, it's just really, again, knowing what's expected of your line and then also knowing the DNA of your line and really just playing in line with that. Yeah, I like that. The DNA and like, I think that Newhook is a kind of guy that can adapt to different roles. And honestly, To be fair, this year, I don't think anyone expected him to be one of our top face-off guys this year. Alex Newhook has shown some solid adaptability. Yes, we know what he is. He's a speedy guy. He can be a bit physical. He, he, he. He's great at getting in close. We've always said if he could just finish, it'd be great. What did he do in the playoffs? He managed to do it. So I'm excited to see what he can do with this top line. I think it's a good fit. But before we finish this off, we also have to note there was just a little power play change. The power play, I mean, it's safe to say we've not been super happy, Jesse. We're currently ranked 29th of 32, though the penalty kill is still locked in at top 10 in the NHL, which is great. But the power play down at 11.4%, we needed something else. The old top unit, the most used unit this year, Suzuki, Kreider, Slavkovsky, Hudson, we've seen some different looks over the past few days with Bolduc there and then with Dobson there. But right now, Marty has switched it up a bit, and with Oliver Kapanen coming off the top line, he's also coming off the top power play, and it's looking like it's Kirby Dach who's going to be centering that top power play with Kofiel Slavkovsky, Bolduc, who's getting a shot at the top power play again after scoring, I think it was technically an even strength goal yesterday, actually. It's basically a power play goal, right? Like, basically. And then Lane Hudson. So, Bolduc has been great. When he's gotten chances, he's been good. I'm a bit surprised by Kirby on the PP1, but Marty has said recently that Kirby's attitude has been great. He's been forcing Marty to give him some more minutes, and I think this is just another example of that. He's playing well. We're seeing the confidence growing slowly, which is exciting when we see that it is improving in that department. We know Kirby Dach, he's such an operator with the puck in the offensive zone. It's maybe been a minute since we've seen that at its true capability of what he's actually able to do there, but again, just protecting the puck so well, and again, just goes to that first line. Sentiment of really just holding on to it, getting a little bit more possession of it. Again, holding on to the puck once we're really breaking through that line. So I think that's going to be really important there. And again, I look for Kirby Dach to build off the good work, get some confidence, and then pay that forward. Let's see who else can gain some confidence. He should be rolling high right now in confidence, back on the PP1. That line, you can't touch it because it's been, like, game after game, like, to be honest, maybe our most consistent over the past five or six games, just in terms of, like... Every game, they're having a good game. There's been some highs and lows for others. It's been incredible to watch this team, especially step up since Suzuki's been hurt, but also since Demi's been hurt, which is something I feel like just gets forgotten. We're also now at the start of week four, by the way. So if we're still talking about Demi around Monday, that'll be four weeks. So he's coming back soon, if that injury report wasn't all correct. And that's going to change the outlook again in the top six and again in the power play. We'll have all those updates for you as we get there. That'll do it for this episode. Make sure you're subscribing, by the way. We appreciate every single one of you. We got a big goal of 30K by the end of the year. You made it 13 minutes into this video. If you enjoyed even one second, double check that you're subscribed. We'd really appreciate it. Thank you for watching. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host, Jesse Poirier. We'll catch you all in the next one.