Canadiens Connection
Five Tough Questions Facing the Montreal Canadiens | Canadiens Connection ep 384
24 Jan 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: How has Kirby Dach performed after his return to the Canadiens?
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Welcome to your Canadians Connection on Rocket Sports Radio. This premier hockey podcast featured at canadiansconnection.fm brings you the latest news, in-depth analysis, and expert commentary about the NHL's most storied franchise, the Montreal Canadiens. hosted by Rick Stevens and Amy Johnson.
Our team of credentialed journalists provides behind-the-scenes insight on the Canadiens, designed to inform, entertain, and engage Habs fans around the globe. We are proud to be the trusted source for all things Habs for more than a decade. This is the Canadiens Connection Podcast.
Hey there, everyone. Welcome to this week's Canadiens Connection podcast right here on Rocket Sports Radio, where we are keeping you informed, engaged, and entertained. And as we are every week, we are here to break everything down about the Montreal Canadiens and the latest happenings with your favorite NHL franchise. My name is Amy Johnson.
I'm going to be your host on today's show for episode 37. 384 of the Canadians Connection podcast this week's episode titled Five Tough Questions Facing the Canadians.
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Chapter 2: What five pressing issues are Canadiens fans currently debating?
You've got questions. We've got answers, at least to the best of our ability. And I say we because, of course, I am joined in the studio each and every week by my wonderful co-host. He is our founder and president at Rocket Sports. His name is Rick Stevens. How are you doing today? I'm doing well.
Mr. Stephens.
How are you? I'm doing all right, thanks. I'm waiting for the Snowmageddon 2026 here in Pennsylvania. So we'll see.
Yeah, I think it's going to hit our American friends a lot harder than in Canada. Canada, southern Ontario, Quebec, just supposed to get the edge of the storm. Cold, it feels like temperature is minus 25 Celsius in Montreal this afternoon.
Chapter 3: What recent performances have stood out for the Canadiens?
Yeah. and and for sunday i think just 10 centimeters of snow reduce visibility sort of blowing snow blizzardy kind of conditions but um sounds like much of the northeast and and and even even um more south south than that is going to get dumped on uh yeah in fact uh my little area is expected to get anywhere from oh i don't know 30 to 43 centimeters All right then.
Yeah. So.
You said centimeters. Well.
I did. I did the conversion on purpose. Nice. Nice. I cater to our listeners. How about that? Please. And for all of you Hams fans who live in the States.
Chapter 4: How is Sam Montembeault's goaltending affecting the team?
Yeah. Anywhere from like 12 to 17 inches here. So it's going to be a doozy.
But we're going to cater to Canadiens fans today and their questions or at least the issues that they've been debating, sending in questions, debating online. And we've been watching and observing and receiving all of these issues that are on the minds of Canadiens fans. That's right. We're going to talk about it today.
That's right. Because if you're new here or if you need a reminder, this is an interactive podcast and we get questions and comments and feedback and statements from listeners and viewers all the time.
And so we kind of keep track, you know, we answer a lot of that in real time, but we also keep track of some of the really good questions and keep them on hand for episodes like this one where we can actually address the things that you have to say. If you would like to ever, chat with us or give us a question or your own feedback. Uh, you can text us anytime at our text line.
That's 5, 8, 5, 3 rocket 5, 8, 5, 3 rocket. Uh, or you could also, uh, leave us a comment on any of our social media channels.
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Chapter 5: What is the status of David Reinbacher's development in Laval?
Uh, it's at rocket sports or at Habs connection on X Facebook and Instagram, uh, Leave a comment on Spotify. We had some Spotify comments this week. Leave a comment on our YouTube channel. Lots of ways to get in touch with us. And so what we're going to do today... We are going to be answering some of your questions, but first, in our first segment, it's our week in review.
We're going to briefly recap the three games that the Canadians played this past week, give you kind of the 30,000-foot view of what happened in each of those games and the highlights and, well, sometimes lowlights. Rick's got his three stars of the week that he has selected on who stood out this week, who maybe made the honorable mention list, who's struggling a little bit this week.
And we'll get you caught up with where the Canadians sit right now in the playoff race. We've got roster news for you, as well as a prospect report letting you know how the Laval Rocket are doing, Trois-Rivières in the ECHL, as well as prospects playing outside of the pro leagues. And then some general notes, news, headlines from around the broader hockey community.
All of that's packed into our first segment. Then in our second segment, that's where we tackle our big topic of the week. And this week, it's tackling five issues being debated by Habs fans right now.
Chapter 6: What decisions does Kent Hughes face regarding player usage?
And so we are... Taking five topics, five questions, five scenarios that are kind of hot button issues for Habs fans at this moment, things that they are wanting big answers to or things that fans want. Have trouble coming to agreement on which is the right answer type of thing.
And so we're going to evaluate those, give you our thoughts on them and see if we can get some clarity on some things as we're coming down the stretch towards the Olympic break. So kind of a kind of a state of the team before we we take a few weeks. Well, before the Canadians take a few weeks off, we aren't here at Canadians Connection. We'll be here every week.
And then finally, in our third segment, we've got our Canadians Connection question of the week. We've got responses from some of you. If you're new here, we ask a fan question, a Canadians Connection question of the week every week. We encourage you to send us your replies to that, your answers, your thoughts on that question.
And then the following week, we take the best responses that we've gotten and we read them on the show. And that's what we're going to do this week in the third segment as well. So without further ado, let's recap. Firstly, going back to last Saturday night's game in Ottawa, this was a bit of a barn burner.
Chapter 7: What upcoming events should Canadiens fans be aware of?
Neither goaltender really able to stop very much. Montreal coming out on top of the Senators 6-5 in overtime.
11 goals scored. And this was in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre. Of course, Canadians fans do their best to travel and back the place. And they did again for this game. Some drama controversy around Ottawa. We won't talk about that. So this game had a lot of aspects. You mentioned that it was a real tough night for both goaltenders. Sam Montembeau gave up five, 853 save percentage.
He didn't look very good at all. Marilinen, if it's possible, looked worse for Ottawa. So it was the power plays played a factor in this game. Four power play goals in total, two by each game.
Chapter 8: What are the listener's thoughts on the Canadiens' current roster?
And the game went back and forth into overtime, and it was Cole Caulfield, who else, 33 seconds into overtime that ended this, and he had the game winner for the Montreal Canadiens.
Kind of like deja vu on Tuesday night when they were back in Montreal hosting the Minnesota Wild, and Caulfield came up with the game winner in this one as well with Montreal besting Minnesota 4-3.
This looked like it was going to go to overtime. Just 15 seconds left when Cole Caulfield fired the game winner, giving Montreal the 4-3 win. It was Kirby Dock's return to the lineup. He had been out since mid-November with a broken foot. And... for Phil to know his first goal of, of the season, um, after, after a pretty long drought, um, and, and it was Jakob Dobish in the net for Montreal.
And he looked pretty good. Um, two of the goals by, uh, the wild war on the power play, two goals from Tara Senko, um, on the power play, nothing he could really do about there. Um, uh, And everybody was talking after the game, well, during the game as well, about that phantom trip by Lane Hudson on Marcus Foligno.
Of course, Lane Hudson was nowhere near Foligno, who just went down on his own, and Hudson received an apology, a rare apology from the referee. It was Eric Furlat, in this case, who said, sorry, bad call.
And it certainly was. It certainly was. So after those two wins, Montreal then hosted Buffalo for the second time in as many weeks on Thursday night. And things didn't go well when they visited Buffalo. I would believe it was the Saturday prior to that. Or maybe it was the Tuesday, the week prior. And Buffalo came into Montreal and...
They did their job, Buffalo chasing down Montreal in the standings, trying to catch up to them, and they were able to eat two more points into their deficit, winning 4-2 in this one.
Yeah, the Canadians, a few of the divisional games, there's going to be another one we're recording Saturday afternoon, another divisional game against Boston Saturday night. The Canadians haven't fared well recently. Mm-mm. And Buffalo really has the Canadiens number. Started early, just 44 seconds into the game. I believe it was the first shot on Sam Montemayor.
It was a bad start for Sam in this one. And the Sabres... after 23 minutes had a 3-0 lead. There was a shorthanded goal. Montembeau did not look good on that either. He was deep in the net. He got a fair bit of criticism from Marty Buran, the Sabres analyst. Marty knows goalies and has in the past been a strong supporter of Sam Montembeau. He wasn't on this night.
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