This is the Jeff Merrick Show on the Sports Net Radio Network.

So the tragic number for the Montreal Canadians remains at number one.

They stave off official elimination last night with a

shoot out victory over the Buffalo Sabres and Michael Posetta with the goal and

the snaz and the stick ride a tiger Williams 1980 right down main street real nice touch

Eric Engels from Sportsnet. C. A joins me now covers the Montreal Canadians and

first of all Eric good afternoon Thanks as always for stopping by.

You know, a really interesting piece

that you've written about what means what at this time of year

for certain Montreal Canadians players.

As you go game to game here and this, you know, tragic numbers marching towards

an inevitability that we all know is on the horizon.

Who's trying to do what for whom at this point of the season for the Habs?

Well first of all good afternoon second of all really funky intro I kind of like it and

yeah man third I think that tragic number was at one like the day the season

started I mean nobody expected that the Canadians going to make the

playoffs and they set the expectation

that we're not even trying to. But you get to 10 games left or 9 games left or

whatever it is now, eight games left.

And people assume that, you know, it doesn't matter. They'll take a performance like the one that Mike Matheson has been offering

over the last 30 games and say, well, we'll see what happens when the pressure's like if you

don't think that every game these guys play means a lot to men and if they're

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