{"id":434294,"date":"2026-01-29T13:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434294\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:37:18","slug":"grueling-season-to-better-prepare-montreal-canadiens-for-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434294\/","title":{"rendered":"Grueling Season To Better Prepare Montreal Canadiens For Next Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens may be slowing down lately under Martin St. Louis due to the weight of everything that\u2019s gone down his season, but all this adversity will serve them well down the line, and better prepare them for next season.<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens have had a very tough season this year, and it\u2019s starting to catch up to them in the last stretch of the 2021-2022 schedule. Be it a slew of injuries to core players, the high number of Covid infections, condensed scheduling in the second half of the season, management and coaching changes and the trades of major veterans, the Montreal Canadiens have been through it all this season. The experience of such a tough season, which has seen a record amount of games lost to injury for the Montreal Canadiens, will better serve them moving forward. For the Canadiens, the result is not the primary goal; they\u2019re instead looking to change the way they think and play on the ice to better prepare for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this team is mentally tired,\u201d St. Louis said after the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. \u201cThey had a tough season. And then coaches change, and I\u2019m asking them a lot and implementing so many things. So there\u2019s a lot going on for them in terms of handling all that mentally and stuff, and we looked a little tired mentally tonight. We\u2019ll probably get a day off tomorrow and just get ready for the two games this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Season From Hell<\/p>\n

On top of all the events this year, the Montreal Canadiens were served some further bad luck this season due to Covid-19 lockdowns in Quebec, causing a slew of postponements in the NHL schedule; the Canadiens\u2019 only saving grace was that the NHL decided against going to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, or the damage could have been worse. Martin St. Louis\u2019 arrival seemed to have jump-started the Canadiens when he first arrived, as they went 6-4 in their first ten games under their new head coach. Recently, however, the weight of the season has started to show, as is normal given what the Canadiens have gone through, with the club posting a 3-6-1 record over their last ten games.<\/p>\n

The influx of excitement surrounding the team is noteworthy. Despite the mounting losses, the excitement regarding the future of the organization is much higher now than it was in January, and most of that credit comes from the great work of St. Louis. Veteran defenceman Joel Edmundson<\/a>, whose leadership and calm presence on the blueline was missed terribly during the first half of the season, praised St. Louis\u2019s effect on the team and how the culture has changed for the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re still very excited Marty\u2019s here, and we still have that spark,\u201d said Edmundson of\u00a0 St. Louis\u2019 presence. \u201cWe love coming to the rink every day. He\u2019s definitely teaching us every day. We go to the rink, and we\u2019re learning something new. In losses like this, we try to find some things that we can get better at and learn from it. So try to take a negative and turn it into a positive but, at the same time, you want to put a full 60 in and get a win.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Louis Preparing For Next Season<\/p>\n

St. Louis is making a point to instill good habits and new ways of thinking on his roster, as they look to build on a solid end-of-season performance and take that momentum with them into the summer to prepare for Training Camp in September. Being out of a playoff spot, St. Louis has voiced his desire to use this precious time to get ahead of the curve and prepare his players for what comes next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m here next season, I won\u2019t feel like I\u2019m starting from scratch,\u201d said St. Louis after Monday night\u2019s loss to the Winnipeg Jets. \u201cI think this is a good opportunity to implement the concept, the culture I\u2019m trying to bring, collectively, individually. The progression of the players. I\u2019m not coaching everyone the same. I don\u2019t know what will happen, but I understand when I talk to some of the players, it might make them think a little bit, and, when you think, there may be a little more hesitation in the game. But once it becomes clear through repetition, through video, through the conversation, they\u2019re in a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Martin St. Louis<\/a> seemingly confirming his intention to return as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens next season, it\u2019s important to note that this is a good time for the management team, coaching staff and players to evaluate what works and what doesn\u2019t on the ice. It will give them the information needed to make roster decisions, provide training plans and for the players to know what to improve on as they look to change their fortunes next season.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMarc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The … More about Marc Dumont<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens may be slowing down lately under Martin St. Louis due to the weight of everything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,2656,5,6586,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-434294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-habs","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-joel-edmundson","12":"tag-montreal","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens","14":"tag-montrealcanadiens","15":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115978663194965089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}