The Tampa Bay Lightning will be seeing an old friend in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Lightning great Martin St. Louis will be behind the bench for the Montreal Canadiens when they face Tampa Bay starting on Sunday. At one point, St. Louis held quite a few franchise records for the Lightning including career points and assists. While he’s now been passed by players like Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Victor Hedman, St. Louis was one of the Bolts’ first superstars.
It’s been four years since St. Louis earned his first professional head coaching job with the Canadiens, replacing Dominique Ducharme in February 2022. Since then, he’s helped build the team from the ground up. Last season, he led them to their first playoff berth since being defeated in the Stanley Cup Final during the 2020-21 season. Although they were eliminated in the first round by the Washington Capitals in five games, it was still a tremendous step forward for a building team.
St. Louis was asked his thoughts about facing his former team and replied, “Honestly, I think I’m so far removed from that. I think it’s my fourth year now, and I’ve gone to the building plenty of times. I think the first time I went, yeah, it was a little weird, but I’m so far removed from that. I don’t have any emotions attached to the Lightning right now. Zero.”
Considering St. Louis hasn’t worn a Lightning jersey in over 12 years, it makes sense that he’s had time to move on. With that being said, he’s a player who will forever be synonymous with the Lightning, as he helped them win their first Stanley Cup back in 2004. His current focus is entirely on his new organization, as it should be, but the Lightning, and many Lightning fans for that matter, will mimic him in that regard.