Inside Canadiens' playoff push: Martin St. Louis' leadership in season of turning points

New York Times

20-04-2025

MONTREAL – The Canadiens' 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs run fittingly starts in Washington, where the journey really began five months ago.
On Halloween, they 'threw up all over' themselves, in coach Martin St. Louis' words, allowing three goals in the third period in a 6-3 loss to the Capitals. The next day, St. Louis ran his only bag skate of the year — on the same ice they'll skate for Game 1.
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The bag skate was one of several pivotal moments in the Canadiens' season, with St. Louis at the heart of them all. Montreal lost its next four games, but from the moment they beat the Buffalo Sabres 7-5 on the road on Nov. 11, the Canadiens went 36-22-9 the rest of the way, the 11th-best points percentage in the NHL over that span.
While that bag skate felt punitive at the time, that was not the point.
It was an example of St. Louis doing what he's done all season — the trait that helped the Canadiens reach the playoffs in year three of their rebuild and may be his coaching superpower, even as he continues to grow, just three years removed from coaching pee wee to leading hockey's most historic franchise.
'I think he just reads the room well,' Canadiens center Jake Evans said on April 1, not long after Montreal had snapped a five-game losing streak. 'I think it was the Washington practice where we didn't have any pucks out there and we just bag-skated, and sometimes you need that. And sometimes everyone has the right intentions and everyone's trying and things just aren't clicking. I think this past road trip, obviously there's something greater that we need to look forward to, and sometimes yelling at guys might not get the right response.
'He read that well and knew that we could flip the script pretty quickly if we just kept going and fixed a few things.'
The Canadiens' season had no single turning point. You could argue for the Washington bag skate, Patrik Laine's debut, the Alexandre Carrier trade, the Christmas or 4 Nations breaks, the late five-game losing streak or the Game 82 clincher after three failed attempts. All had weight.
And while no one on the team speaks publicly as often – or as well – as St. Louis, as the Canadiens enter the playoffs, it's important to hear from his players and what they think of the coach who led them through all of their season's many inflection points.
This is Martin St. Louis, the key moments and his important qualities, as seen through the eyes of his players.
Early in the season, before that game on Halloween in Washington, the Canadiens' awful defensive-zone play was under a lot of scrutiny.
When they practiced on Oct. 25, they allowed 3.86 goals per game and 35 shots on goal per game, both among the worst in the league. They were quickly taking on water, with a 2-4-1 record and coming off an embarrassing 7-2 loss to the New York Rangers at home.
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St. Louis defiantly defended his hybrid defensive zone system after that practice.
'Every situation's different, but to me, it starts with the player,' he said. 'There's some hesitation that I can help with, but to me, when it's black and white, there shouldn't be any hesitation. And if you don't know when it's black and white, I'm sorry, you can't play in this league.'
The next day, the Canadiens faced the St. Louis Blues at home and won 5-2, in part because their coach changed the system he had just publicly defended. At the time, it seemed as though the changes were subtle. As it turns out, they were not.
'He said, 'Listen, I wish we did this in training camp, we didn't, that's on me, we're going to do it now. It may not pay off now, but it's going to pay off down the road,'' Brendan Gallagher, the Canadiens' 13-year veteran defenceman, recently recalled about St. Louis' early-season message. 'He said we have to change this if we're going to have success. It was a pretty big change for our D-zone. We went from generally a hybrid system to a man-on-man. … And you look at us now, I think our defensive game is at a way better place than it would have been if we would have stuck with it.'
Reading the room comes in different forms. The Canadiens were clearly struggling to execute St. Louis' vision in the defensive zone. He wants his team to be ahead of league-wide trends, and he saw the hybrid defensive zone as one of them.
He could have stubbornly stuck with it, believing in his ability to teach it. Instead, he recognized the season was quickly slipping away and with it his playoff aspirations. So, he decided to switch. And once St. Louis decides something, Gallagher said, he is all-in on that decision. Which means his team is all-in on that decision.
'I honestly think every single day he reassesses where we're at and what our group needs,' Gallagher said. 'Maybe for our specific group, this was best. Maybe down the road it won't be. But it's just one of those things where at that certain time he felt it, and when he feels something, the way he speaks, he makes us believe in it. And then we buy in, and that's where you have success.
'Without those two things going hand in hand, if he's indecisive on it, we're going to be indecisive, and then the results aren't going to be as strong. Personality-wise, I think that's really important.'
Sometime before that moment, St. Louis gave a speech. It was one of many that have resonated with his team.
'Every speech is an amazing speech,' rookie defenseman Lane Hutson said.
The one that stuck with Hutson came very early in the season and made him understand the commitment St. Louis sought from his group. All these months later, and after the Canadiens clinched a playoff spot Wednesday night, Hutson still remembered that speech.
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'The one I remember is the one about burning the boats,' Hutson said. 'I think it was something with soldiers, or Vikings, maybe, but they're going to an island, and everyone's on the boat. You get to the island, and you burn the boats, so you're there. Everyone's there, and you're in, you're bought in, everyone's got to do what they've got to do.
'That was one that stuck with me. It was really early in the season, like, hey, we've got to do it, there's no going back. We burned the boats, it's not like we can turn around and go back. That was a good one.'
But the most intriguing speech came much later in the season. It's intriguing because we don't know what St. Louis said.
When the Canadiens acquired Carrier on Dec. 18 — one of the season's key turning points, as they went 28-15-8 from that day forward — he quickly noticed how easy it was to step into a system completely different from the one he played in with the Nashville Predators. It spoke volumes about how effectively St. Louis had his team operating within its structure.
But more than anything, it was the speeches.
'It's his presence,' Carrier said. 'You can tell right away when he walks in a room, everybody's listening. He's got great speeches, too. He's a motivator and you know he played the game, he knows exactly how you feel, so he knows what buttons to push. But I would say the way he speaks to the group brings everybody together.'
Is there one speech in particular that stands out?
'Oh yeah,' Carrier said immediately. 'But I'm not going to share it.'
All Carrier would share is that it came in Seattle on March 12, between the first and second periods of the back end of a back-to-back after beating the Vancouver Canucks the night before. The Canadiens were down 1-0 after the first period and had been outshot 15-5. They looked tired and, frankly, disinterested.
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'Our first period was terrible,' Carrier said. 'That was the best speech of the year.'
Come on. Can't you share a little more?
Carrier refused.
'We knew we had to wake up, so it was a wake-up kind of speech, but also a funny side to it,' Carrier said. 'It wasn't funny at the time, but looking back on it, it was funny.'
We moved on to Juraj Slafkovský, who scored two goals in that game. Did he remember the speech?
'Yeah, I do remember,' he said.
So, what did he say?
'Well, I can't say that.'
Why not?
'Because it's a little … it's deep,' he said. 'He just said something, you know, we can't forget about ourselves. No, I don't think I can say it. Ask someone else. Go ask around.'
Talking to his players, this side of St. Louis jumps out. The reverence the players have for their coach means there is a total fear of betraying that trust. That's why Carrier won't reveal the contents of that speech. Same with Slafkovský. Mike Matheson wouldn't even reveal the two or three focal points St. Louis emphasized coming out of the 4 Nations break.
What are those two or three things?
'You'd have to ask him,' Matheson said. 'I don't know if he'd want me to say, especially just before playoffs.'
That silence is a sign of respect.
Though Slafkovský wouldn't dish on that speech in Seattle or another impactful one before a late-season game against the Detroit Red Wings, he was willing to talk more generally about St. Louis' ability to reach his players at specific moments with what they need to hear.
'Obviously, the way he sees the game and teaches us the game is great, but he understands how players feel at this time,' Slafkovský said. 'He knows exactly what to say. Every time. It's crazy.'
St. Louis has another innate ability: striking a balance between teaching the group, setting expectations for individuals and understanding what each player needs to succeed.
Last season, some of the individual coaching he gave Josh Anderson, for example, seemed to weigh him down with too much information. This season, St. Louis backed off a little bit, changed Anderson's role, and the 30-year-old right wing responded with an incredible bounce-back season.
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Though he backed off Anderson, St. Louis enjoys individual video sessions with players. For some players, those sessions are precious.
'Watching video with that guy is really helpful, just seeing how he sees the game and breaks it down,' fifth-year forward Cole Caufield said. 'You kind of get in certain spots a lot, and the player he was, he got in those spots too. So he knows how to get out of it. Controlling my pace is probably the biggest learning curve for me. You always want to be fast, you always want to be flying around out there. But there's a lot of spots on the ice where if you slow down, it slows the game down for you and you get more space that way. I've learned so much from him, but I would say that's the biggest. And watching video with him once or twice a month, it's good for me and it simplifies my game.'
Patrik Laine, on the other hand, has not had those regular video sessions with St. Louis.
'I wouldn't know, we haven't done too much video,' the veteran forward said. 'Maybe just a few times, but not too much video. I've got people I watch video with. I've got personal skill coaches who watch my video, so we go through games and that kind of stuff. I think it's been mostly, here, looking at it from the team's perspective and how the team's playing and how you need to be involved in that, which I think they do a good job of showing us what we need to do better.'
Then there's Hutson. Defenceman Kaiden Guhle recently mentioned how, if you overhear St. Louis and Hutson talking about the game, you might have trouble understanding what they're saying. But the two of them understand each other perfectly, and those conversations happen regularly.
And what makes them useful is they are conversations, not lectures. There is a back and forth, where player and coach are trying to understand each other and not just telling the other why he is right.
It's an exchange, not a lecture. With a rookie.
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'I've had some really good coaches, but he's just got that super understanding,' Hutson said. 'I've had coaches that maybe don't see it at the highest level like he sees it. I've had coaches I can go back and forth with, and they're still really smart, but they'll also miss some things that Marty will see.
'Marty's kind of opened it up to me, a wider lens on everything.'
St. Louis is superstitious, as most players are.
Since the return from February's 4 Nations break, we have often seen him wearing the same necktie at games. He was asked about the tie a few weeks ago and shrugged it off, simply stating that 'you'll see it again.'
Finally, on Wednesday night, after the Canadiens clinched their playoff spot, St. Louis was again asked about the tie.
'I've worn two ties since the 4 Nations. Two ties,' he explained. 'If they got me a point, I kept the tie. But we only lost five games in regulation since the 4 Nations, so I didn't switch ties too often.'
St. Louis' neckties had nothing to do with the Canadiens losing only five games in regulation since the return from 4 Nations. Those results came straight from his mind — his ability to relate to his players, to know what they need from him, to identify tactical adjustments and to say the exact right thing at the exact right moment.
He knew when to put his players through a bag skate and when to give a serious-but-funny speech that resonated with his players months later and still had them sworn to secrecy.
One final thing to know about the Canadiens' season under St. Louis: Both times they returned from a break, they came out strong.
Coming out of the Christmas break, the Canadiens won six of their next seven games, with the wins coming against the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks and the Capitals.
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Coming out of the 4 Nations break, the Canadiens won five straight games, compelling general manager Kent Hughes to hold onto his veteran players before the trade deadline.
And now, entering St. Louis' first playoff series as an NHL head coach, the Canadiens are coming off another break.
They might not beat the Capitals, but there is little doubt they will be prepared to play.
'The one thing with Marty, you talk to anybody about him as a player or a coach, he's a student of the game,' Gallagher said. 'He loves to learn, he loves to hear new ideas. And if you're speaking to him, even if he doesn't agree, he wants to hear what you think and he'll legitimately think about it, ponder it. Maybe it's not the way he'll see it, but he'll try everything he can to open his mind to new ideas. That goes with everything. That goes with our systems, that goes with how he runs our bench, that goes with our days off.
'He's always changing. I think he's always trying to find what's best for our group.'