The Montreal Canadiens are entering Game 6 on Friday night with a 3-2 series lead and need just one win to advance past the first round for the first time since 2021. The leadership of Martin St. Louis behind the bench has helped the Canadiens get to this point, and a golden opportunity was missed to recognize what he has done by not including him as one of the finalists for the Jack Adams Award.
However, St. Louis can prove just how wrong the NHL Broadcast Association was in their voting by beating Jon Cooper, who was one of the three finalists along with Buffalo Sabres' head coach Lindy Ruff and Pittsburgh Penguins' head coach Dan Muse. Both Muse and Ruff have made a strong case to win the award, as Muse was able to get the Penguins to the playoffs in what was viewed as a rebuilding season, and Ruff obviously ended the longest playoff drought in NHL history.
It is hard to say St. Louis deserves to be in over either of those coaches but Jon Cooper over the Canadiens' head coach is surprising.
Cooper has been an excellent coach for the Lightning for well over a decade now, led the Lightning to the playoffs in 12 of 13 seasons, reached the Stanley Cup Final in four of them and won the Stanley Cup twice. However, the award is meant to recognize the best head coach that season, and this has not been Cooper's best season in Tampa Bay, with only a four-point improvement over last season to finish second in the Atlantic Division.
Martin St. Louis has helped lead more dramatic season-over-season improvements
As for the Canadiens, they finished third in the Atlantic Division but had the same total points as the Lightning, with a 15-point improvement from last season and a remarkable 38-point improvement from his first full year as head coach during the 2022-23 season. It is the second straight season the Canadiens have reached the playoffs after missing the prior three seasons.
Martin St. Louis has helped lead the development of players like Cole Caufield, who finished second in the league in goals, and Nick Suzuki, with his first career 100-point season, and Lane Hutson, finishing fourth in the league in points among defensemen.
The full season resume is impressive, but even in this series alone, there is an argument to make that St. Louis has been the better coach than Cooper. A perfect example of this was in Game 1 when St. Louis elected to call a timeout only a minute into overtime.
He recognized how important that moment was as the Canadiens were on the power play but it was coming to an end. They had a faceoff in the offensive zone and wanted to make sure everything was in place.
It resulted in a Juraj Slafkovsky game-winner goal and gave the Canadiens the 1-0 lead in the series.
There is no denying that Jon Cooper is a great coach and one of only 20 head coaches in NHL history with two or more Stanley Cups. However, the Jack Adams Award needs to recognize the job a head coach has done this season and not be treated as a lifetime achievement award.
In the end, the award is almost certainly going to go to either Lindy Ruff or Dan Muse, and this might not matter in the long run. However, Martin St. Louis deserved the recognition of being a finalist with the job he did, and could really make that point with a series win over Jon Cooper.
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