‘I’m inexperienced behind the bench, but I’m experienced on the bench, in the room… there’s not one guy that I can’t relate to.’
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Martin St. Louis is determined to bring fun back to Montreal Canadiens hockey.
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It’s a tall order to expect someone who has no professional coaching experience to turn around a team that hasn’t had any fun this season. When St. Louis made his debut as the Canadiens’ interim head coach Thursday against the Washington Capitals, the team had the worst record in the NHL, was winless in seven games (0-5-2) and had been outscored 20-6 in its last three games.
But St. Louis, who was repeatedly told he was too small to play in the National Hockey League, joked that his recent experience coaching a peewee team in Connecticut was the perfect preparation for what he described as a dream job.
“If there’s anything this team needs right now, it’s to have fun,” St. Louis said during a news conference at the team’s training facility in Brossard on Thursday. “I know when (the players) were peewees, they had a lot of fun, so I am probably the most qualified guy right now.”
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“I know I’m inexperienced behind the bench, but I’m experienced on the bench, in the room … there’s not one guy that I can’t relate to,” said the 46-year-old Laval native said. “You have to convince players why they are doing something, not simply tell them to do it.”
Most coaches are associated with a system, but St. Louis said he prefers to talk about concepts and he’ll encourage the players to use their instincts within a structure.
“Systems box players in,” said St. Louis. “That’s one of the things I hated the most as a player.”
Putting this philosophy to work could be an adventure. While it might be a boon to Nick Suzuki and a path for Cole Caufield to regain his confidence and scoring touch, there aren’t many players in the league with St. Louis’s drive and determination.
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At 5-foot-8 — and that’s giving him the benefit of the doubt — he was ignored in the NHL draft and starred at the University of Vermont, where he played alongside fellow Stanley Cup winners Tim Thomas and Eric Perrin as well as the man he replaced behind the Canadiens’ bench, Dominique Ducharme.
Executive vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes have talked about the Canadiens becoming an offensive-minded team and St. Louis brings that mentality to Montreal. At the same time, he talked about his second NHL season with the Calgary Flames when he played on the third line and killed penalties. He said the 56 games he played with Calgary in 1999-2000 taught him to be a complete player.
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The guy who was too small to play spent 16 seasons in the NHL, winning a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004, and an Olympic gold medal. He won two scoring titles, a Hart Trophy as the most valuable player and took the Lady Byng Trophy as the most gentlemanly player three times.
While St. Louis carries an interim tag, he said he expects to be in Montreal for the long haul.
“I’m not coming here to be a substitute teacher,” he said. “I have every intention of being here a long time, but I’ll have to prove myself again and earn it.”
Gorton and Hughes had said they intended to keep Ducharme for the remainder of the season, but a 7-1 loss to the struggling New Jersey Devils Tuesday prompted a change.
“As the season went along, as things were playing out, the way we were playing, I just felt it was deteriorating,” said Gorton.
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Gorton and Hughes are familiar with St. Louis.
St. Louis finished his career in New York when Gorton was the Rangers’ general manager and Hughes has been a fan since he spotted St. Louis playing midget hockey and said he has never bet against St. Louis. Hughes’ sons, Jack and Riley, play hockey at Northeastern University alongside St. Louis’s oldest son, Ryan.
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