Montreal Canadiens’ coach Martin St-Louis appeared on the first episode of the podcast “La Game Dans La Game,” co-hosted by Marc Denis, Bruno Gervais and Martin Biron, and it turned into an interesting interview.
Before COVID, there weren’t many Montreal Canadiens podcasts on the market, but now they are popping up all over the place. Some are serious while others are more lighthearted; there’s something for everybody. This week, I listened to the first episode of “La Game Dans La Game”, and I was pleasantly surprised. Since three former NHLers (Marc Denis, Bruno Gervais, and Martin Biron) host it, I half expected it to be similar to La Poche Bleue, but it wasn’t. It still has a laid-back feel, but the hosts aren't having a drink while they talk, which gives it a slightly more serious tone. If you speak French, I highly recommend giving it a try, and if you don’t, you can still find out what Habs coach Martin St-Louis had to say right here.
The bench boss spent around half an hour fielding questions from the hosts, and some were particularly interesting. Denis asked St-Louis what he misses the most about the game now that he’s behind the bench and not on the ice anymore, and he explained:
What I miss the most? I’d say there are two minutes left in the game, we’re on the power play, and the game is tied 2-2, you know…I would love to be on the ice in those moments.
He laughed it off, but the answer was interesting, considering that often, when the Canadiens are on the power play and he calls a timeout to give his top unit some breathing room, he doesn’t even give them directions. He lets them talk it over and come up with a plan. He has said in the past that they know what they need to do, but it’s impressive restraint if he’s dying to be out there himself.
The four men also talked about Nikita Kucherov’s comments from last week. According to the Tampa Bay Lightning star, the game is now much faster…but very dumb—low IQ hockey. The hosts wanted to hear what the Habs’ coach had to say on that topic. St-Louis said he understood what Kucherov was saying:
All the young players getting in the league have a lot of skills, but it’s all skills with the puck. But a team sport is not an individual game. Team sports have individual moments, but they're not individual games. Players arrive well-developed in individual skills, but they are way behind in the team game. I don’t teach a lot about when you have the puck; I teach the play away from the puck, offensively speaking, so the guy with the puck has more options. It’s about balance on the ice. When I talk about balance, it’s about the separation between the players on the ice. If you watch soccer, there’s a lot of distance between the players, but it’s not as easy in hockey. We’ve got skates; we’re on blades, so I’m often talking about decelerating rather than accelerating.
That answer wasn’t all that surprising, given how often the coach talks about the importance of making the right reads and decisions on the ice. Essentially, he’s teaching his players how to play away from the puck because that’s what they weren’t taught much of growing up.
Finally, he was asked to simplify and explain the defensive system he wants his players to be playing, and he explained:
Half the league plays zone, and the other half plays man-on-man. The man-on-man includes small variations depending on the system, but it’s clear that when the puck is at the top of the zone, it’s man-on-man; the five guys are doing one-on-one. If you’re on the puck, it’s one-on-one, but if you’re not on the puck, it can be one-and-a-half; you can have your guy and be ready to help someone if we get beaten or someone falls. When the pucks go toward the net, or they throw it in behind to try and gain some time because we did our job well up top, you have to go try to kill plays instead of staying in your man-on-man. […] Zone brings less confusion, but I think you’re exposed to spending a lot of time in your zone.
The explanation felt eerily similar to how the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Canadiens’ system to score their second goal of the night on Tuesday. Kirby Dach had his man up, but when William Nylander threw the puck in deep, the structure had to change; instead of staying high with Oliver Ekman-Larsson, he needed to be ready to help down low, where the attack had moved. The interview was recorded before the game, but it was still interesting to see it play out. Check out the goal visualizer of the last goal of the game right here.
Overall, it was a very interesting interview, and St-Louis’ abilities as a communicator and vulgarizer were on full display.
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