Zone exit, season 5 | Episode 49: What smiles on the Canadian

It’s Friday, it’s the start of a long holiday, the start of spring, too. So why not go light? This is what our team is offering you today, with a menu focused on what smiles on the Canadian, in the midst of his winning streak.


From Nick Suzuki to Cayden Primeau, via Juraj Slafkovsky, there are several CH players who will have fun tuning in to us, as they do every week, no doubt.

Slafkovsky’s 33 points in his last 41 games, on the eve of his 20th birthday, are enough to give hope to Canadian fans. Is it to the point where the Habs can dream of a duo as dominant as those of the Stars, Panthers or Rangers?

If so, not for a few years, estimates Guillaume Lefrançois, recalling several cases of players who reached their peak after 25 years. It’s not all lightness, that said, and the linguistic controversy affecting the QMJHL also entered the debate. Antoine Roussel also makes a vibrant plea for greater affirmation of French in the QMJHL, as we see in certain soccer championships in Europe.

Host: Jérémie Rainville
Guests: Antoine Roussel, Richard Labbé and Guillaume Lefrançois

Listen to the full episode

Antoine Roussel: The thing the teams qualified for the series have in common is stability. Stability for players, management team, general manager and coach. This is essential for a team to stay at the top. Conversely, we can think of the Penguins: they have changed GM three times in five years and that means the team has no direction.

Richard Labbé: I see teams whose leaders have made good decisions. Spend money wisely, draft well, that’s true, but sometimes you might be missing an ingredient or two, and those decisions are what make these teams successful.

Excerpt from the podcast show about the secret of teams qualifying for the playoffs

It’s not acceptable [le coup de bâton de Kaiden Guhle à l’endroit de Travis Konecny]. That’s the kind of thing you don’t want to see. Afterwards, this is where the league can lose control and a match can degenerate. When you’re on the bench, you’re on the bench, then on the ice, you have a role to play, and play it. It’s so much easier to play tough on the bench than to do it on the ice.

Antoine Roussel

When Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner arrived, it created the impression that players of 19, 20 years old could have an immediate impact at that age. But I’ve been around the top 20 in the NHL. JT Miller had his first point per game season at 26, Sam Reinhart at 26, Filip Forsberg at 27. Development in the NHL takes a long time. Yes, Nick Suzuki arrived at 20 years old, we’ve seen him go for a long time, but he remains young. After 25 years, there is still room for improvement.

Guillaume Lefrançois

Episode details

Block 1

  • 1:15 – Third victory in a row, what does that mean when the season no longer has value?
  • 6 30 – Nick Suzuki and his 30 goals, has he reached his ceiling?
  • 2:00 p.m. – Richard Labbé wrote Thursday: few CH players can celebrate this season. Suzuki is one, can we add other names?
  • 26:00 – The fourth victory in a row against the Hurricanes?

Block 2

  • 29:30 – Bruins, Hurricanes, Panthers, Stars and Rangers are officially qualified for the playoffs. What do these training courses have in common?
  • 37:00 – Martin Brodeur believes we are too permissive with our goalies.
  • 47:00 – QMJHL: in French please

Block 3

Good Friday Special

  • 56:30 – Which player or leader brings down all the saints from heaven to you?
  • 61:00 – Like Christ: who makes the best return.
  • 64:00 – With two weeks left in the season, who is your little Easter friend?


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