Something SPECIAL is happening right now in Montreal...

That's one word to use as Montreal goes to 5-0 without Nick Suzuki. Jacob Fowler picking up his seventh straight win, but every single player contributed. Texier up in close. Chris Kreider picking up his second of the year in a two-point night. Josh Anderson picking up two of his own, including an insane deflection. Every single player on this team wore their heart on their sleeve tonight. Maybe no one more so than Owen Beck dropping the mitts as well. It was a chaotic game from start to finish, but there's one thing that you cannot deny about this Montreal Canadiens team. That is their love for their game, their passion, their support for each other, and honestly the fans too as we move up to second in the East, third in the NHL in points percentage. And if you want daily, sometimes twice daily, just like today, videos about the Habs, make sure you hit that subscribe button because we are on the road to 30,000 by the end of the year. You're subscribing like crazy. We gained 20 subscribers just since yesterday. So make sure you're hitting that button. It's completely free. Jesse, there's so much to talk about, but I just want to open with something. We tweeted this out literally after each one of his wins lately. Jacob Fowler just wins hockey games. Now, I know it wasn't the prettiest. It wasn't a St. Louis type game from him. But guess what? He's still finished with a positive goal saved above expected. Pittsburgh generated a lot of chances in this one. Even in a game where that save percentage won't be at that 900 mark. It didn't matter because he was good in net and I think a lot of stuff starts with him and the team was very confident in front of him. Now, thankfully, as we'll get into later, the offense, the depth guys really showed up as well. And again, just being a winner. That's what Jacob Fowler is. Again, we know they were just allowing one goal over that last four-game streak. That can't continue forever. This is the NHL. And again, we're facing very good players, very good teams. At the same time, it was after that third goal, you could physically tell in Jacob Fowler's body language. He just said, like, I'm just going to shut this one down. He did allow a goal later on here. But for the further point, he really just steadied his game. Again, big shout out to the Penguins goalie as well, though. I think he made some big saves where this lead could have been even more for the Montreal, which is impressive. The fact that they're now on a five game winning streak, only 15 games into the season. The fact that they can get on a winning streak again, just so early. Shows what they're capable of. Getting into those good winning habits right away. And again, this could have been even a larger one. Just for some unforced error. Like there is just so much to be said. Without Nick Suzuki, as we know. Yet we're going to hype up this victory. We're known for being positive. Gosh, we saw a good team for a really long time. And again, they're just making us look smart right now. By just playing some really good hockey. And really just justifying, again, that belief. Because what do they do? The Montreal Canadiens just go into third periods with two goal leads. It's just what happens. And again, even when they were blowing that before, now we have really the maturity to finish these off to really match the talent that this team has. Again, you have to think, even when you're getting that position and potentially losing, it's like, it means you're basically dominating. You're handling the game to that point where you're giving yourself a really good opportunity to win. The fact that the Habs are closing this out, and that was really the team effort here tonight. We got to thank Josh Adams. Two goals. Blocking that shot at the net. Gooley with the defensive heroics at the end of the game. Here again, he was locked in all the way. Lane Hudson again, scoring, like shooting more. Good things are happening. Setting up teammates with just unreal pass. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, right? Of how the Montreal Canadiens were all able to contribute as a group here tonight. Lane Hudson with four blocked shots of his own. A plus four in a game that they only won five to four. You can pick and choose whoever you want. But there were so many guys that had such good games. And I like the shoutout to Caden Gooley. I got to find the stats here. Also, big day as I finally changed the Caden Gooley headshot to be something real. You know, a minus two, but it doesn't matter. Because again, like just a guy. Five hits, three blocked shots. Like, everything he does, he shows up, right? Now, we take a look at the game score as well. Just, again, this paints a decent picture. And while Gooley was in the lower end just because of the negative stats, because when Pittsburgh scored, every single defenseman, I thought, just played a solid game overall, laying the body, blocking shots when it matters. Sometimes goals are going to get scored, and that does skew these numbers a little bit. And, yeah, like everyone, though, the depth showed up as well on the forward side. Lane Hudson, you've shouted him out. Two more assists today. Crazy. Jacob Fowler, he was the, what was it? I just wanted to say this one more time. I got to get the stat back up. The third Habs rookie goalie over the past 40 years to get a seven or more game winning streak. And that includes Jakub Dobesh and Carey Price, which I just think is kind of hilarious. But I do want to focus on Josh Powerhorse Anderson. He only had one hit tonight, which is below what he usually gets, but he was a plus three, two goals, one assist, three points. Has he found the fountain of youth or something? I don't know what's going on with him. And this new line, it's crazy, right? Like, the past few games when it was him now hooking Kreider, it wasn't really working. They switched it up. Kreider, Evans, Anderson here tonight. And boom, 78% of the expected goal share is Oliver Kapanen goes down to the fourth line. But to be fair, he scored a goal too tonight. That fourth line was great. On a night where you can see here, the top line didn't really get it going. Caulfield had a goal that got called back. The depth guy showed up. We're talking Owen Beck. We're talking Josh Anderson. This is something that we have been begging for for the past number of years. The Habs need depth past that first line. And yet all it took was two of your top scorers in Suzuki and Demi to come out of the lineup for everyone else to realize, maybe I should step up and be that guy to fill that void. And you know what? It wasn't just one guy. It's everyone on the team that stepped up to fill that void, which is something that I think you really can't say. For a lot of other teams in the league, again, whether it's Anderson, whether it's Kreider, only playing 12 minutes, being a plus four with two points, like you can pick anyone. Oh, and Beck dropping the mitts. I have a tough time figuring one out because this whole team is just, it's making me proud to be a fan of these guys going out there, giving their all every single second, dropping the mitts, just fighting, knowing their teammates are down and fighting their way back up to second in the East, third in the entire NHL in points per second. Yeah, and I just kind of love it. Again, it's a whole team effort. And I think that's just shown like on the forecheck where we see it's just so many guys coming in waves. And then that's what leads to that Anderson goal. He's Josh Anderson is the story tonight because defense was the story of what that line was able to do on the forecheck, creating that defense into the offense that we talked about pregame. And again, even just later on, on his second goal, where again, it's just, he's taking away the puck. It's a turnover in the offensive zone. They're coughing it up because of the pressure. And he's making, he's taking advantage of it, which was just so huge to see. You mentioned the word fighting earlier, Josh, and it's really making me just think of Owen Beck, who just had such a great game here tonight, right? Where he's laying down people, again, on the forecheck in his own right. And then they're challenging him to a fight, and then he's laying them down again. We had a feeling that this was a strong player, but the fact that he could really throw them like that, this is a great way, Owen Beck, for you to get some more time here in the NHL. Keep doing exactly what you're doing. You're going to get there, buddy. I really love it. Again, just making the most out of this. Again, like, he matters. His analytics, talking about the team effort, like, really coming through. And this is important, again, because every single goal, like, the team effort was the nice goal from Texier, tapping him with a snipe. I love to see that, him getting his confidence going there, because Crosby had a night. Again, pregame, we said the key to this is... We're going to need to stop Crosby. We know it's been a little bit slow, but we had our suspicions coming to this one. Yeah, he's probably going to up his game a little bit. He did. He was just at the root of everything all night. Unless we're getting that group effort here, we're not getting the two points. I like how the Montreal Canadiens, Josh. are just being bullish. They're saying, we're going to take those two points and we're not sharing any of them with another team. No, and they shouldn't. Thank goodness, because I'd be tired if we went to another overtime period. But that seems so long ago now. That's such a clean West Coast road trip. They're like, oh, was it just the West Coast road trip? No. You go back home and then you continue it. Yeah, it was a chaotic game, but you get down early on a bomb of a shot that Fowler didn't have much of a chance on from Eric Carlson. And then all of a sudden, it's just like, bang. Bang, Kapanen, Anderson, the team is back in, and you demoralize the Penguins. And sure, they battled back, but we fought too. It was toe-to-toe, and there was a point in this game where we had, what, the shots were like 19-6, 20-6. Pittsburgh, of course, picked it up in the third, battled back as Montreal was playing a bit of prevent hockey. But the cool thing is that that prevent hockey that has cost us games in years past isn't costing us anymore, because like you said, it's been a topic this whole season. The defense has really come together, and I've got to give... Derek Alon, some credit for that. Even the deep pairings, like Gulli Carrier, not a great analytical night. Hudson Dobson, not so great either. Jack Einstrom, but like, again, that's just plus minus related. A lot of that, right? Because Pittsburgh generated a few chances. I still think that the talent is absolutely there because this doesn't take into account, hey, look, Lane Hudson still had, he generated two points tonight. Caden Gulli, laying hits, blocking shots. You can go Texier, you can go Carrier, you can go whoever you want. Like, everyone on this team was showing up. I don't know. I keep just going and going and going about all these different players. And again, I still think Papio should have had that goal. I know it was interference and it did kind of suck seeing that. But what this tells me is like for the games going forward, this is a standard Montreal has set. And it's a standard that we've had five game win streaks over the past couple of years here and there. Remember Dobesh's first few things like it's something that happens. Fowler winning seven straight is crazy. But for me, this is the new standard, right? You beat some lower teams, some higher teams. Pittsburgh's a team that's wishful, trying to get into that playoff picture and stay there as they're aging. And then St. Louis, the team that we shut out, they're fighting. I don't know how high they are. They're missing some people. But Dallas, a straight-up contender. We're beating all these different teams and fairly comfortably at that. Again, it can be tight late, but Montreal gets leads in every game. And that's something that we're not the comeback kids anymore. We get the leads, and the fact that we're learning so quickly how to protect them properly is kind of scary if you're the rest of the NHL, if you ask me. and it's really what's needed at this time again and with a very young team it's just again you need to learn those lessons of having that advantage in the third and then potentially losing it but the fact that we're actually now learning from that and being able to close out these games that's why you give yourself that cushion is if they push back you've obviously still got some money in the bank at that point in time so again i'm just loving the maturity we need to keep in mind it's a very young team but to be able to close out these games Short-handed, again. Jacob Fowler, again, just doing what he needs to do to help this team right now. They're feeling the confidence. Again, it's truly growing here in Montreal, really something special that Martin Saint-Louis, you have to feel, is very proud of. Jacob Fowler just wins hockey games. I mean, he just does. Anyway, it feels like he'll never lose a net again. I don't know what else to say. It's unbelievable. Leave some love for our guys down below. The heart shown was amazing. Listen, that will do it for this episode. Thank you for tuning in every single day. Twice today, actually. And thank you for being subscribed. And if you're not, just double check because we have this lofty goal. But hey, we're actually making good progress. 22% of the way there since we started and we still have 60 days left. So we appreciate every single one of you for tuning in every day. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host, Jesse Poirier. We'll catch you all in the next one.