Montreal Canadiens: St. Louis Beats St. Louis!

The Montreal Canadiens and Martin St. Louis finally got the monkey off their backs. The new Head Coach got his first NHL win as a coach and the Canadiens snapped a 10 game losing streak by defeating the St. Louis Blues 3-2 thanks to the heroics of Cole Caufield and believe it or not, Jeff Petry, in overtime.

Cue the spinning newspaper clip on every old movie: ST. LOUIS BEATS ST. LOUIS! Thanks to our reader Tyrone for mentioning this amazing irony. This writer then immediately thought of one of millions of fantastic classic gags from The Simpsons.

SPINNING NEWSPAPER INJURES PRINTER from TheSimpsons

Martin St. Louis entered the organization with an idea in the back of his mind as to how the players should play. He doesn’t run a system but more of a “concept” a term he uses regularly in meetings with the media.

This concept allows more creative freedom in the offensive zone. Players with the puck no longer have to make an exact play as drawn out by former coach Dominique Ducharme. As I mentioned in my past article comparing Cole Caufield’s story to Stephane Richer’s, St. Louis told his players to “Go For It”.

Caufield of course benefits greatly from this concept as he has now scored 4 goals in 4 games. This picture of Martin St. Louis’ first game behind the Canadiens’ bench chatting with Cole Caufield has gotten more and more viral as time progresses. It can definitely be seen as a turning point, indeed.

Another player that has benefited from this concept is defenceman Corey Schueneman. The undrafted 26 year old rookie (sounds familiar?) made his debut with the Montreal Canadiens this season and after 6 games has already amassed 2 assists. St. Louis’ old school “Man-To-Man” defensive system has been nothing but beneficial for the Milford, Michigan native. He uses his size and speed perfectly and not only has he received high praise from the coaching staff, against St. Louis he played over 20 minutes.

It seems that most players are buying into St. Louis’ concept. Even Jeff Petry has shown more effort, potentially boosting his trade value if he continues to put the effort in.

The last time the Canadiens had a head coach who gave so much freedom offensively as long as they followed a tight defensive regimen was Guy Carbonneau. In 2007-2008, in his second year behind the Canadiens’ bench, Carbonneau perfected his system and the Habs finished 1st in their division with 104 points. Alex Kovalev gave a nightly show of his skills and finished the year with 35 goals. A 20 year old Carey Price was in nets and the defense had a shaky roster comprised of Andrei Markov, Mike Komisarek, a 33 year old Roman Hamrlik, a 32 year old Francis Bouillon, a young 23 year old Josh Gorges, Mark Streit and a 37 year old Patrice Brisebois.

The tight and similar defensive system was good enough to have the habs finished 12th in the league for Goals Against but the offensive freedom got them to finish 1st in Goals For.

Obviously the Canadiens won’t win the division next season, unless of course a massive surprise were to happen. The team is aiming for a complete rebuild both on and off the ice. The comparison though is mainly to prove that despite his coaching inexperience, he is using a

system

concept that has proved to work in the past.

Many would think that the media and the bandwagoners are getting overly excited with this 1-3 record and Cole Caufield scoring 4 goals in 4 games. You might be correct to think that, but in a year where the Habs are currently sitting with a 9-33-7 record good for dead last in the NHL, all while being last in Goals Against and tied for 2nd last in Goals For with only 1 goal difference with the last place Coyotes, we’ll take any positive news we can get.