Martin St Louis discusses what stands out about Emil Heineman

It feels like Montreal Canadiens' head coach Martin St Louis really is a player's coach, and his recent interview response about Emil Heineman further solidified it.

On Tuesday afternoon, just six hours before the Canadiens-Utah Hockey Club matchup from the NHL's newest arena in Salt Lake City, the Habs were struck with bad news. St Louis praised Heineman for the foundational things in his game that made him so successful, on a tough day for Heineman. Covered by my colleague here at A Winning Habit James Turner, Heineman was involved in a car accident as a pedestrian.

I think a huge strength for the team, the player's especially is the effort that Marty makes to connect with each of his player's. The team cares about their coach, and the feeling is mutual - he is hard on the player's when needed, but he appreciates them an recognizes the strides they take. Heineman has come into Montreal for his rookie season, and he currently sits at second in rookie goal scoring (10) behind Macklin Celebrini and Matvei Michkov (13).

Heineman plays the game the right way, and he has the work ethic to match his talent. The Swede plays a work boots and hard hat style game. He also finishes his checks each chance that he gets, and he seems to be a lot heavier than his 194 lbs.

I feel like Heineman is already the best player in the bottom six, and he has added quite the piece to Montreal's roster. The benefit of having six players on the roster that could play in the top-six, is a very good top nine. Montreal's fourth line and first line have been very good, but imagine the attack with four balanced lines.

Making up one-third or the Habs fourth line, you could make a legitimate argument that he deserves to be on the third line. The fact that he isn't goes to show how much Martin St Louis likes his fourth line. In any other situation, Heineman is a third line player, possibly a top-six winger. The opportunity hasn't come for Heineman, but I think he deserves to be on the second line instead of Alex Newhook.

It's nothing against Newhook, who is a speedy, sharpshooter (sometimes) but Heineman brings so many different things to the ice. Heineman is a pure shooter, with the power to score from anywhere in the offensive zone, on top of being a great passer and sort of hybrid power forward. Heineman also plays a responsible game, and he is hard on pucks and plays heavy on the forecheck and in the corners.

Marty touched on the things that he likes, and the more that Heineman plays, the more he shows to like about his game.

Alex Newhook shows his passing

While wrapping up the article, Alex Newhook sensed what was being written about him, and finished off my article for me. Down 2-1 with just under 10 minutes to play in the middle frame, Alexandre Carrier fed a pass to Newhook, who found Patrik Laine across the ice in his office. Newhook made a gorgeous pass to Laine, who ripped his 10th of the year past Karel Vejmelka.

Laine's 400th NHL point was his first goal at even strength this season with the Canadiens. He discussed wanting to play better, which most elite players continually challenge themselves to be better. But producing at five-on-five is a step in the right direction for the Finnish sniper

When the second line is factoring into the offensive, it gives the top line a bit of a break. I would like it if Nick Suzuki or Cole Caufield added one, but there is still more than a period left to go. Montreal is in it, in large part due to some all-world netminding from Samuel Montembeault, while the smelling salts kicked in for the rest of the team.