Nearing his fourth year as bench boss, Martin St. Louis delivers passionate speech to players as Habs enter Olympic break on golden run.
Ahead of a game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 27 at the Bell Centre, Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis was asked by TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde what he wanted and needed from his team with five games left on the schedule before the Olympic break.
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“Need and want?” St. Louis said after a pause. “I would say I don’t necessarily need anything. But I want us to try to be the best version of ourselves. I think we’re far (enough) along in the season that we should not lack any details in any departments. So for me, I want to see us play a mature game, put us in a position to win games, and it would be nice to get some results while doing that.
“It doesn’t guarantee it,” St. Louis added. “But I like that if we play a mature game, and the way we know we can play with the details, I think we’re going to put ourselves in a good spot to get results.”
St. Louis got exactly what he wanted.
The Canadiens beat the Jets 5-1 in Winnipeg on Wednesday night, giving them a 4-0-1 record in their last five games before the Olympic break. The Canadiens were sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division with a 32-17-8 record after the win and were 16-6-7 on the road.
“We finished 4-0-1 last five?” St. Louis told his players in the locker room after the win in Winnipeg. “That’s the f—in’ way to finish, boys! You know what, for me, I tip my hat.
“A great f—in’ job of f—in’ doing the things and buying in as a group and f—in’ being a pack,” St. Louis added in a post-game video the team posted on social media. “I’m f—in’ proud to be your coach!”
4-0-1 lors de nos cinq derniers matchs. Faites de beaux rêves, chers partisans
4-0-1 over our last five. Goodnight, Habs fans#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/NIqkSd5YpY
St. Louis has a lot to be f—in’ proud of.
Monday will mark the fourth anniversary of St. Louis being named head coach after he had been coaching his three sons in the Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey Association in Connecticut.
“People are entitled to their opinion,” St. Louis said during his first news conference with the Canadiens when asked about his lack of coaching experience. “All that stuff that people want to doubt or talk and say and comment, to me it’s all noise. It’s always been noise. I’ve always been a guy that blocked the noise and gets after it, and that’s what I intend to do. It doesn’t matter what I say, what experience I have, I’m still going to get judged on how I perform and how I can help this team.
“Give me a chance and I’ll show you what I can do,” added St. Louis, who wasn’t selected at the NHL Draft, but went on to have a 16-year Hall of Fame playing career.
St. Louis has the youngest team in the NHL playing a very mature game. There’s a good mix of youth and experience and St. Louis is starting to get some good goaltending. Samuel Montembeault stopped 36 of 37 shots against the Jets for a .973 save percentage after Jakub Dobes posted a 3-0-1 record in the four previous games with a combined save percentage of .912.
“It’s great when both goalies are going like that,” captain Nick Suzuki told reporters in Winnipeg.
It’s also great when the veteran line of Phillip Danault between Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher chips in offensively. Anderson and Gallagher both had a goal and two assists against the Jets, while Danault scored an empty-net goal to seal the victory.
Cole Caufield presented Anderson with the wolf head hat in the locker room as the player of the game.
“Give me a chance and I’ll show you what I can do,” added St. Louis, who wasn’t selected at the NHL Draft, but went on to have a 16-year Hall of Fame playing career.
St. Louis has the youngest team in the NHL playing a very mature game. There’s a good mix of youth and experience and St. Louis is starting to get some good goaltending. Samuel Montembeault stopped 36 of 37 shots against the Jets for a .973 save percentage after Jakub Dobes posted a 3-0-1 record in the four previous games with a combined save percentage of .912.
“It’s great when both goalies are going like that,” captain Nick Suzuki told reporters in Winnipeg.
It’s also great when the veteran line of Phillip Danault between Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher chips in offensively. Anderson and Gallagher both had a goal and two assists against the Jets, while Danault scored an empty-net goal to seal the victory.
Cole Caufield presented Anderson with the wolf head hat in the locker room as the player of the game.
🐴 1 but ⋅ goal
🐴 2 mentions d’aide ⋅ assists
🐴 3 points
🐴 +3#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/dXCFeyyTPE
“It was nice to get rewarded tonight,” Anderson told reporters in Winnipeg. “I thought we’ve been playing some pretty good hockey lately as a line, getting on the forecheck and trying to create energy for our group. Tonight, they went in for us, so it was nice.”
Apart from the four Canadiens headed to the Olympics — Suzuki (Canada), Juraj Slafkovsky (Slovakia), Oliver Kapanen (Finland) and Alexandre Texier (France) — the rest of the team gets a break now. They are off until Feb. 17, when practices will resume at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard with the next game slated for Feb. 24 at the Bell Centre against the New York Islanders.
“It’s going to be great just to disconnect from hockey a little bit, not think about anything else,” Montembeault told reporters in Winnipeg. “Just go somewhere, have fun, and I’m going with my family, too, so it’s going to be fun for all of us just to get together.”
Lane Hutson is heading to Boston to watch his younger brother, Cole, play for Boston University in the annual Beanpot Tournament.
He’s excited about the final stretch of the schedule, which will have the Canadiens playing 25 games in 48 days.
“The good news is we got a lot to work on and we’re still finding ways to win,” Hutson told reporters in Winnipeg. “So it’s encouraging, for sure.”
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