After a year of coaching the Canadians, Martin St. Louis says he is learning every day.

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Martin St. Louis said one thing he’s learned from coaching in the NHL is that “it goes very fast.”

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“I can’t believe a year has passed, I can’t believe we’ve played 50 games this year,” St. Louis said Thursday on the anniversary of his first game behind the Canadiens’ bench.

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“I think I’m the same guy,” said St. Louis, who declined to rate his performance. “I’ll let you be the judge of that, but I can promise you that I try to improve myself every day.”

St. Louis said it has faced new challenges like managing the lineup after a penalty or when to get the goalie out late in the game.

“There are times when I have questioned myself, but it’s all part of the learning process.”

The decision to hire St. Louis came as a big surprise because his only experience as a head coach was coaching his sons on minor hockey teams in Connecticut.

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“(The NHL is) a league where you have to be ready for anything,” St. Louis. “You can schedule practice and then there are two or three players who aren’t available, so I try not to plan too far in advance.”

Their players have seen growth over the past year.

“I think he has more confidence in the way he takes the pulse of the game,” forward Josh Anderson said. “You can feel it as a player on the bench. I think the group has taken giant steps and we will continue to learn a lot from them”.

“He continues to improve as a coach because he loves to learn,” added captain Nick Suzuki. “It also helps us learn.”

“One thing I didn’t know was all the things you have to deal with that have nothing to do with coaching players,” St. Louis said. “You have to deal with a lot of things, making decisions that will affect people, like medical staff and therapists. There can be no surprises in the schedule. Everything must be prepared so that everyone is more effective.”

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Thursday’s practice was the first after a week off, in which players sought rest and relaxation in places as far apart as the Bahamas and the Saguenay neighborhood of Arvida, where Rafaël Harvey-Pinard went to visit his parents.

Harvey-Pinard delivered some good news again on Thursday. The winger, who started the new year in Laval, inserted himself into the front line with Suzuki and Anderson. He scored twice while playing for them against Ottawa in the last game before halftime.

“We played pretty well in the middle game that we played and I’m excited to get this opportunity,” said Harvey-Pinard, who has five goals and one assist in seven games since he was called up.

With three weeks to go before the trade deadline, there’s still no clarity on the future of Sean Monahan and defenseman Joel Edmundson, both of whom have something of value if healthy. They skated with a member of the coaching staff before practice, will not play this weekend and will be re-evaluated next week.

Jonathan Drouin, who hasn’t played since Jan. 15, removed his no-contact jersey to practice, but when St. Louis was asked if he would play this weekend, he replied: “I don’t know.”

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