Jack Todd: St. Louis has pulled off the impossible with rejuvenated Canadiens

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A couple of the better story lines in the NHL will clash Wednesday when the Canadiens, after an unusually long road layoff, clash with the Vancouver Canucks.

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On Dec. 5, with their team in last place in the Pacific Division, the Canucks canned head coach Travis Green and replaced him with a charter member of the NHL’s Old Boys Club in Bruce Boudreau.

On Feb. 9, the Canadiens pulled the plug on the Dominique Ducharme catastrophe and brought in Martin St. Louis out of left field (more accurately, from peewee hockey) to replace Ducharme on an interim basis.

A couple of days later, the Edmonton Oilers, still unable to cash in despite the presence of offensive megastars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, fired veteran coach Dave Tippett and replaced him with relative unknown Jay Woodcroft, who had been coaching Bakersfield in the AHL. (Dave Manson, one of our personal favorites from his days as a Hab, came along as an assistant to Woodcroft.)

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The Oilers had begun the season 16-5-0, but had fallen into a 7-13-3 stretch and were fifth in the Pacific when Tippett was fired. Woodcroft has had some success, but the Oilers problem is still goaltending and the bizarrely inert Ken Holland has yet to fix it.

Boudreau is a different case. His last-place Canucks went on a seven-game win streak after Boudreau took over and are now 10-3-2 under Boudreau, and in a dogfight with the Ducks, Oilers, Golden Knights and Kings in the Pacific. So Boudreau (lifetime NHL coaching record: 577-305-117) is going to battle St. Louis (lifetime NHL coaching record: 7-4-0.)

Either coach might get some love come Jack Adams time, but if St. Louis can keep this up, the award should be his. It won’t be. There are plenty of worthy candidates this season, including Mike Sullivan, Gerard Gallant, Andrew Brunette and Rod Brind’Amour, but I would still vote for the Canadiens coach.

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St. Louis did not take over a struggling team like the Canucks or the Oilers. He inherited a squad that was in total collapse under Ducharme. His all-world goaltender was out, the team captain was residing in Kelowna, BC, the rookie sniper who was meant to be a Calder Trophy candidate had one goal on the season and key veterans like Jeff Petry were awful on the ice and in rebellion off it.

I have been following this team as a fan since 1971 and as a journalist since 1994 and I have never seen anything like it. Before St. Louis, the Canadians were 8-30-7. Eight wins in 45 games. They were the worst team in their long history, rotten as a bunch of bananas after a month in the compost.

A turnaround was impossible, but St. Louis pulled it off.

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It’s not altogether a surprise to anyone who has followed St. Louis’s career. My close acquaintance with the man comes down to a few dressing-room scrums and one interview conducted while St. Louis was on an exercise bike, but you ca n’t have even a brief chat with him without coming away impressed with his intensity and intelligence of him.

Superstars don’t have a great track record as coaches in any sport. In baseball, Ted Williams was the greatest pure hitter that ever lived, but he couldn’t teach others how to hit. Wayne Gretzky was unable to pass along his uncanny ability to see the ice.

Despite his own outsized talent, St. Louis had to battle every step of the way. If Cole Caufield finds the league more receptive today, it’s in part because St. Louis proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that lack of size does not have to be a handicap.

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Because things did not come easily for him, St. Louis had to learn. He had to use his brain from him, not just his speed and quick hands from him. He wasn’t a Mario Lemieux who could cruise around and pick up a hat trick and two assists while appearing half-asleep — St. Louis had to be fully engaged every moment.

The result is a student of the game who is also a natural communicator and motivator. Above all else, St. Louis coaches to win — not to avoid losing. That is such a transformation that fans who simply love the game of hockey want to weep for joy. St. Louis takes risks. He will put players out there in tough late-game situations when coaches like Ducharme wouldn’t have let a player like Caufield within a stick-length of the ice.

As a sniper himself, St. Louis sees things no other coach would see — like moving Caufield to the opposite wing so he doesn’t have to shoot across his body. Turning Caufield around was worth every tell me the Habs are paying St. Louis.

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There is a lightness to this Canadiens team now, lightness and determination. They skate, they battle, they’re having fun. Better still, they’re fun to watch.

Heroes: Martin St. Louis, Kent Hughes, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson, Sam Montembeault, Andrew Hammond, Nikita Zadorov, Dayana Yastremska, Elena Svitolina, &&&& last but not least, Wladimir Klitschko.

Zero’s: Vladimir Putin, Alexander Ovechkin, René Fasel, Gianni Infantino, Chase Carey, Thomas Bach, Paul Stastny, Nikita Mazepin, Rob Manfred, Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.

Now and forever.

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