The Montreal Canadiens would be further than five points behind an NHL playoff spot if it wasn't for coach Martin St-Louis, says Adam Proteau.
There wasn’t very much expected of the Montreal Canadiens this year, and for good reason: the Habs are still in the early stages of a roster rebuild – one that began last season with the firings of former GM Marc Bergevin and coach Dominique Ducharme.
Most believed that, while Montreal did have some youngsters of skill in their organization, there wasn’t nearly enough depth of talent overall to picture this group as a playoff team.
We’re now one-third of the way through the regular season, and while the Canadiens currently remain out of a playoff spot, they’re significantly better than many of us believed they’d be at this point. And much of the credit for that should go to their coach, Martin St-Louis.
When he took over from Ducharme in February, St-Louis was an unknown quantity as a coach. He had an awesome NHL career as a player, but as we all should know by now, the skills that make you an elite on-ice performer do not always translate to the coaching profession. Many, if not most star NHLers who’ve tried to be difference-makers behind the bench wind up leaving the coaching profession with their tails between their legs.
However, St-Louis has proven to be the exception to the rule. After posting a 14-19-4 record last season in his initial stint with the Habs, St-Louis has led them to a 14-12-2 mark this season.
That’s put them in the sixth spot in the Atlantic Division – two standings points behind fourth-place Detroit (although the Red Wings have one game in hand), and the same amount as fifth-place Florida (who are 14-12-4). Montreal may yet push for a playoff berth this year.
But it isn’t just Montreal’s place in the standings that speaks to St-Louis’ skill as a coach – it’s also the effect he’s had on the Canadiens’ development of their young players.
Forwards Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach all are showing increased confidence in their games, and that’s reflected in their offensive statistics: the trio have combined for 34 goals and 73 points, and young defensemen Jordan Harris, Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj have acclimated to the NHL level in an encouraging way.
And you also have to acknowledge what St-Louis has done with an injury-ravaged lineup. Of their forward group, only four current players – Caufield, Dach, Suzuki, Christian Dvorak and Jake Evans – have appeared in all of Montreal’s games this year. Caufield left Monday's game with an injury, but he's expected to be made available against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.
For one reason or another, star goalie Carey Price, defensemen Joel Edmundson, Chris Wideman and David Savard, and forwards Brendan Gallagher, Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Joel Armia, Rem Pitlick and Michael Pezzetta all have been out of the lineup at times. St-Louis has had next to no consistency in terms of the team he sends out every night, but far more often than not, he’s been able to coax out of them honest efforts of the players he does have.
The challenge for St-Louis and Canadiens GM Kent Hughes is to push the team’s trajectory ever upward, while also recognizing the franchise has to draft and develop more talent. The only way to draft more talent is to finish low in the standings, but St-Louis does not have the appetite as a competitive person to suffer extended losing skids.
That said, Montreal hasn’t been able to win more than two games in a row the entire season, except for a three-game win streak in early November. Consistency is the hallmark of a team that is truly elite, and the Habs just aren’t there yet.
They may get there sooner than later if St-Louis has anything to say about it. He’s Montreal’s relatively-secret weapon – a motivator who can pass along the lessons he learned as an NHL player to a new generation of talents. The Canadiens have a keeper in him, and he’s likely to only improve from here on.