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The Canadiens are playing very poorly these days, and Martin St-Louis finds himself under heavy criticism.
Losses keep piling up for the Habs, and the same mistakes show up far too often. Two things are certain: the team gives up too many goals, and the power play isn’t helping at all.
And it really looks like several observers are starting to lose patience. And now many are looking behind the bench for answers.
The criticism is starting to target Martin St-Louis and his assistants. For his part, Éric Bélanger chose to say what many are already thinking. On Tony Marinaro’s show, he admitted he no longer understood the Canadiens’ plan at all.
“The Canadiens are getting scored on 5 times, 7 times, 8 times. What’s the coaches’ job here? There’s work to do, adjustments to make – they need to do them. He’s not doing it.
Your goalies are struggling. Tighten your defensive zone, change your forecheck. You have to do something as a coach. You can’t keep giving up that many goals with goalies who are having a hard time. Adjust your system. Tighten your defense. That’s the coach’s job.”
– Éric Bélanger
For him, there is a major lack of adjustments, and the players often seem forced to improvise. And in recent games, it almost always ends badly.
The Canadiens’ power play no longer scares anyone
Bélanger also talked about the power play. When the Habs get a penalty in their favor, fans aren’t even sure they should hope for a goal anymore – they’re afraid of a mistake. He doesn’t understand why it isn’t improving despite the poor results.
“His power play, putting Cole Caulfield in front of the net, Slafkovsky still on the half-wall – what is that? What is that? I don’t understand anything anymore, I don’t know anything about hockey anymore. Martin and the coaching staff, they deserve part of the blame here. No one is talking about it. Make adjustments.”
– Bélanger
He says the Canadiens need to quickly stop the mistakes and better support their goalies. According to him, the game needs to become simpler, and the power play finally needs to help the team. It’s hard to disagree with him.
In Montreal, the pressure is intense and, who knows, a message like this could really push for a change.
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Former NHLer calls out Martin St-Louis over his coaching approach and accountability
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