(Brossard) The Montreal Canadiens have lost their last five games – three times by a goal, then the last two times on penalties. What does head coach Martin St-Louis think his team needs to get back on the road to success?
“Nothing is missing,” St-Louis replied on Friday.
St-Louis is enthusiastic about the Habs’ team play and believes that if they keep playing like this, his troops will win more often than they lose.
There are 31 teams that will not win the Stanley Cup and 16 that will not make the playoffs. How do you measure success under these circumstances? You have to be honest about that.
Martin St-Louis, head coach of the Canadiens
“You have to have a plan and execute it with enthusiasm and honesty. We have a lot of conversations with the players in order not to deviate from the plan. And as with anything, you need a good work ethic, a high level of commitment, but also enthusiasm. And hats off to the players! They are one of the main reasons we enjoy coming to work. »
After Thursday’s loss to the New York Rangers, St-Louis indicated that one of the factors that explained the quality of the Habs’ game and their high level of satisfaction despite the results was the fact that “the collective game is stronger than anyone Separate “.
“Everyone is on the same wavelength,” said striker Jonathan Drouin on Friday. Everyone understands how we want to play. We feel better than we did two or three months ago. We have fewer questions. We can only act.
“We have a chance to win every game and even if we don’t make the playoffs, we want to achieve that for our future. »
To do so, however, players must make the necessary efforts, and that is currently the case with the Canadiens’ healthy squad.
We are very committed as a group. The work ethic is very high, as is the commitment. We are connected and we know where we are going. We have balance on the ice.
Martin St-Louis, head coach of the Canadiens
Drouin said the concepts used by St. Louis aren’t necessarily complex, “especially for offensive players,” he added.
This may be helping the Canadiens succeed with recalled players like Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Alex Belzile from the school club. St. Louis also cited Chris Tierney as an example of a player who took the opportunity to take on more responsibility on Thursday night when he was promoted to the third row in Christian Dvorak’s absence.
“Coaches are good at explaining their expectations,” said Tierney, who has one goal and three assists in seven games since being acquired from the Florida Panthers on waivers.
“Martin goes into detail in meetings. You can learn a lot by listening. Then you have to play and work as hard as you can,” he added.
The Canadian will be looking to put in another good performance on Saturday when the New Jersey Devils visit the Bell Centre. Jake Allen will defend the Habs’ web.
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