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Tuesday night at the Bell Centre, Martin St-Louis finally let his frustration show.
The Canadiens lost 5-2 to the Ottawa Senators, despite two power-play goals from Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki.
Ottawa scored four straight times and dominated 29-21 in shots, in a game where Montreal far too often found itself chasing the puck.
In the standings, the Senators now have a 13-9-4 record while the Canadiens slip to 13-9-3. The two teams are neck and neck in the Atlantic, but Montreal has now dropped seven of its last ten games, and it’s starting to show in the non-verbal language behind the bench.
Defensively, it was another difficult night. Samuel Montembeault allowed five goals on 29 shots, and his season record falls to 5-6-1, with a 3.61 goals-against average and a .861 save percentage. For a goaltender coming off a strong performance in Vegas, it’s quite a crash in momentum in just a few days.In the third period, St-Louis clearly shortened his bench. Forwards like Zachary Bolduc, Jake Evans, and Florian Xhekaj saw very little ice time: a classic message from a coach who does not like what he’s seeing and is searching for quick answers in a game already slipping away.
“After the first period, Martin St. Louis came into the locker room and told us that those who didn’t know how to defend were going to stay seated.” – Nick Suzuki
The Senators were entering Montreal’s zone far too easily, and the Habs always seemed a second behind the play, which only added to the tension in the postgame press conference.
Martin St-Louis sends a clear message
In front of reporters, St-Louis cut short all questions about the infamous “man to man.” He repeated that it’s not the system diagram that matters, but the level of alertness and execution from his players, making it quite clear that he did not recognize the team that had just stepped onto the ice.
Here is the post from TVA Sports journalist Anthony Martineau.
“What makes the difference between a ‘man to man’ system that works and one that doesn’t?” – Anthony Martineau
His answer:
“I’m not going to talk about system. You can play any system, but if you’re not alert, it won’t work. The system has nothing to do with it.”
“Why do I find the “man to man” system illogical for the Canadiens right now?
Joe Veleno himself exposed the main flaw of this approach, an even bigger one with a young team.” – Anthony Martineau
In the locker room, this kind of public statement never goes unnoticed. When the coach openly expresses his disappointment, it is often a sign that the margin for error has just shrunk for several players, especially those at the end of the bench.
We will quickly see whether Martin St-Louis’ message woke up his group or if this loss to Ottawa becomes the start of a real slide.
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Martin St-Louis shuts down reporter’s question about defensive system: ‘If you’re not alert, it won’t work’
Do you agree with Martin St-Louis that execution matters more than the system?