“He only directed the pee. How do you expect him to be successful in the NHL?

On February 9, 2022, the day that Martin St-Louis was hired as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, we read countless comments of this nature on social media.

For the plaintiffs, the success of the former Lightning No. 26 not significant enough as a player to compensate for his lack of experience behind the bench on a professional ice hockey team.

A little over eight months later, however, Martin St-Louis can say that the mission has been accomplished. At least so far. Because it’s well documented that a coach’s job is never done.

But why ‘mission accomplished’ when the club finished their season in last place on the circuit last year and are playing by just under .500 this year?

Quite simply because St-Louis must navigate the vagaries of a reconstruction increasingly clearly embraced by its bosses. Victory is not the motor for leadership decisions. At least not in the short term. So St-Louis has to be content with what it has.

And despite overall average results in the points column in the standings, “MSL” manages to send the ice teams fighting and competing in the vast majority of cases and since its arrival in Montreal. The players want to play for him. They feel like going to war for their instructor.

During his daily intervention at “JiC”, our informant Renaud Lavoie detailed certain atypical methods used by St-Louis during club training. Things you don’t really see elsewhere, but that definitely appeal to Habs skaters.

“We used to see jerseys in many colors in training. Now there are two: you have the red and the white. And why are we doing this? Internal competition! For example, today we worked on three-on-three in the bottom zone and found ourselves tied.

“St-Louis then told the boys they had no choice but to end it in a shootout. The players obviously complied, and the losing team had to run band after band while skating at full speed. Everyone had fun.”

Then Renaud Lavoie concluded.

“That’s how you build good chemistry in a team. But for Martin, the joy comes from a healthy climate of internal competition. He constantly tries to reproduce game situations.