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St. Louis is a breath of contemporary air after a string of conservative, defence-first coaches, however he’s not but being judged on wins and losses.
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It’s too early to name Martin St. Louis an important Nationwide Hockey League coach. We’ll solely have the ability to make that judgment as soon as Canadiens administration begins caring about successful video games.
Proper now, government vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and common supervisor Kent Hughes have made it clear that the group is specializing in creating the children, not wins and losses. They’re the primary Canadiens managers to go absolutely into rebuild mode they usually know this younger group isn’t able to compete with the massive boys.
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So in contrast to the overwhelming majority of NHL coaches, St. Louis doesn’t have to fret about successful. That’s why his dropping file as head coach of the Habs doesn’t outline his tenure behind the bench. Since being named interim coach on Feb. 9, 2022, the group has a 59-77-15 file. Even probably the most math-challenged amongst us should understand that 59 wins and 92 losses is fairly darn horrible.
Earlier than you begin throwing tomatoes at me, please perceive I’m not saying St. Louis is a nasty coach. The rosters he has needed to work with have hardly been NHL materials. The group is, to be beneficiant, a piece in progress. Backside line is the core of the group is made up of a bunch of budding gamers who’re removed from hitting their prime. Add the nutty quantity of accidents since St. Louis took over and it makes it even tougher to present him a good grade.
My level is we don’t know if he’s an excellent coach or a not-so-good coach. That may appear apparent, but it surely’s a conclusion that escapes a big swath of the fan base and the media corps. They love St. Louis and his inspirational fashion.
And so do I. He’s a breath of contemporary air after a string of coaches all minimize from the identical material. Virtually each one earlier than him was a conservative, defence-first bench boss who approached post-game press conferences like a go to to the dentist. Compared, St. Louis is a veritable sports activities guru with quotable snippets popping out with extra frequency than Connor Bedard objectives. St. Louis is a good communicator. Not one of the twenty first century Habs coaches have been.
Street to the Cup
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I used to marvel at Dominique Ducharme’s press conferences. I typically couldn’t perceive what he was making an attempt to clarify and I figured if I didn’t perceive, there was no approach the gamers might perceive what he wished from them. That’s mainly what longtime Habs tools supervisor Pierre Gervais mentioned in his e-book Pierre Gervais: au coeur du vestiaire (co-written with La Presse journalist Mathias Brunet).
Then there have been the Michel Therrien years (two units of them). His press conferences have been all sound and fury. My most lasting reminiscence of Therrien is the video of him yelling his head off at P.Okay. Subban for making too many errors.
Most of us had a surge of hope when St. Louis took over as a result of he appeared like the primary Habs coach this century (with the doable exception of Man Carbonneau) to be advocating a extra thrilling offensive fashion of hockey. He’s, in spite of everything, one of many nice forwards in latest NHL historical past.
Then he appeared to assist Cole Caufield flip right into a scoring star final season. He seemed to be the sniper all of us thought he was, scoring 26 objectives in 46 video games earlier than taking place with a shoulder harm. All of us figured St. Louis was simply the man to encourage Caufield, a welcome tonic after Ducharme had him languishing within the shadows. (Bear in mind when he wasn’t even within the lineup when the Habs began their monumental playoff run in 2021?)
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However younger Mr. Caufield has stalled this yr. He has solely eight objectives after 32 video games and there’s clearly one thing very incorrect together with his recreation. So for the second, the MSL magic has worn off.
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The opposite odd factor is that St. Louis’s Canadiens have super issue scoring objectives. Once more, a lot of that’s the expertise on the ice. There’s just one pure aim scorer on the group, the aforementioned Caufield, and he’s not placing the puck within the internet. Even the most effective coach on the planet isn’t going to make Jake Evans a sniper.
Right here’s the actual query — what’s the identification of St. Louis’s Canadiens? What system is he teaching? I do know he likes ideas greater than programs, however each group performs a sure approach. I’m unsure what the reply is, but it surely’s undoubtedly not the wide-open offensive fashion we thought it will be.
The perfect factor he’s delivered to the group is his capacity to deliver the gamers collectively as a tightly-knit gang. There’s an important pleasure to this group. There’s an important group spirit, once more one thing we haven’t seen a lot of this century with a number of notable exceptions (2010, 2014, 2021). He conjures up.
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And he conjures up these guys to by no means hand over. We used to show the TV off when it was 1-0. Now they’re in each recreation to the final second. Take a look at Thursday night time’s recreation in Minnesota. Down 3-2, Juraj Slafkovsky, the group’s greatest ahead in latest weeks, scored at 16:57 of the third. Yeah they misplaced in additional time to the Wild, however they fought to the final second.
That’s a significant achievement for St. Louis. He’s made the group enjoyable to look at once more. However the actual take a look at for the Corridor of Fame participant goes to come back when his bosses inform him he has to make the playoffs. Now that’s going to be attention-grabbing to look at!
bkelly@postmedia.com
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