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Media and fans alike met a confident man this morning, clearly, Martin St-Louis believes in himself, in his abilities and he knows how to make things happen. His demeanor on the podium spoke volume, they way he was looking at the journalist asking him questions, he just looked like he was thinking the whole time “Bring it on, I’ll show you what I can do’”.
For Martin St-Louis, it wasn’t a matter of if he was going to be a coach but when he would be a coach. He took some time away from the pro game to take care of his family and he’s now ready to pursue a new dream, that of coaching an NHL team. The newly appointed coach said: “I’ve always loved a challenge, I know what I did on the ice doesn’t mean I’ll be a good coach, but I love the game, I’m a student of the game but it’s the Montreal Canadiens and ‘m the head coach, those are 2 good reasons to drop everything and get on board, even my family. If you only do easy stuff, you’ll never grow as a human.”
St-Louis states that he will be a demanding but fair coach, both physically and mentally you got to understand the game, be able to play a team game both with and without the puck. He adds that he’ll need a lot of cooperation from the coaches and the players, he’s a student of the game and he always find the answers, even if sometimes you just have to look harder, he always finds a way to improve.
Hughes had said that he wanted a leader as a coach and the way St-Louis speaks he certainly fits the bill: “I know I have no experience behind the bench, but I’ve got plenty on the bench, in the locker room and on the ice, I know how all the players feel I’ve been everywhere in a team, and I know what they’re going through.” He also added that hockey is hockey, you need to handle personalities and expectations, he knows he’ll improve every day. Clearly, he believes this team needs to have fun right now and he said that he worked with a lot of kids at peewee level, so he’s qualified for fun.
The hall of famer mentions that he’s watched a lot of hockey for 10 years, and that there are a lot of different ways to play the game but the one you pick, everyone must buy into. He’ll start with what’s more important, he doesn’t want them to overthink, he wants them to breathe and have fun. he wants them to be mentally engaged, to understand the team game. It’s important to have a good culture in a team, that’s something Tortorella always had at the forefront in his team and that’s something he intends to bring in Montreal. He aims to inspire and motivate his players; they should put their best foot forward to perform to the best of their abilities and help the team win.
His first order of business is to get to know his players, you coach a team, but you are coaching individuals, they are all held to the same standards but it’s hard to coach well until you really know your players. Interestingly, he wants to move away from the notion of a system and work with concepts. For St-Louis, you box players in when you impose a system, if you stick to a concept, you allow them to read the game better and it’s possible to have structure using a concept. If you box your best players in a system, they become average, you must let them make reads.
General manager Kent Hughes spoke highly of his new hire, he always had a lot of respect for him as a player and he coached against him in minor hockey. He says he’s emblematic of the culture they want to establish in Montreal, a winner, passionate and hard worker with a good hockey mind. The decision to get a new coach was more about the qualities we wanted in a coach and the development of our young players. I’ve chosen to bet on Marty St-Louis and not against him and I’m sure he’ll make me look good.
Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes stated that they could have done more to give Ducharme a better chance to succeed in this season’s games, but they’re aiming to build a winner for years not just from game to game. That’s what guided our decisions.
Gorton added that they wanted to have Dom finish the season but they way we were playing, it was deteriorating, with 37 games to go a lot of teaching and development needed to happen and it was time to take things forward. We had decided Ducharme wouldn’t be here after the season so why not replace him now? It just became evident that the team needed a spark. The change had been brewing for a while since Gorton and Hughes had been speaking to St-Louis for 7 to 10 days, still they wanted to give Ducharme a chance after the break with a healthy team, but it became clear that the team needed a spark.
There you have it, clearly, Gorton and Hughes were concerned about player development and how bad things were getting this season, while they initially wanted to give Ducharme a shot, they had made their mind up that he wouldn’t be their coach in the future and once that decision was made, there was no point in letting things degenerate. Finally, Gorton said that when St-Louis spoke to the players for 10 minutes in the room, it was quite something and if we’d have been there, we would have had goosebumps. Sounds like a real leader to lead this ailing franchise into battle and I’ve got to admit this is very exciting…
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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