The Martin St Louis Thread

[Lafleurs Guy]

A certain number of players are accident-prone, they regularly bungle the puck and make costly unforced errors. I don’t know how many NHL D’s have this flaw. I’d venture less than 10% because it’s a really bad flaw to have at this level. Some are very good otherwise by compensating with other skills. Two of these are Brisebois and Matheson. For example, Matheson’s skating is truly exceptional…

While development helps other aspects of the game, I don’t know that blundering can improve much (it never did with Brisebois or Matheson), and seeing if Barron can make headway on this will be interesting. Otherwise, can Barron leverage his other skills to compensate for this flaw?

I don’t know.

Like I said, he’s a very young blueliner trying to find his game. I don’t know what he’s going to be. I’d have liked to see more but he’s still very young. Maybe he should’ve spent more time in the minors. Him being in and out of the lineup didn’t help him.

Either way, I think he’ll have a better environment out in Nashville. We’ll see if he can put things together out there. He needs more time to reveal what he’ll be. If this is all he is, then he won’t make it. But blueliners take longer to develop so it might pay off for the Preds. Good luck to him.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Too slow to make some of the changes he needs to make.. but the system people were bashing is a system most top teams use, it was just not being executed well and suddenly started getting executed well the second we shored up the defense.

 

[Paddyjack]

Permanent "Roster", "Coaching" and "The State of the rebuild" threads would make this forum easier to read in my opinion.

That and less ads.... geez

Thank god for Brave browser

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

For a guy with so little experience, he's had this team play well considering the roster's composition. No GM or coach are perfect. They all have their shortcomings and make mistakes, so nitpicking on any of it is imo useless.

I, for one, can't wait to see what a seasoned MSL will offer while the team will keep adding lots of talent.

 

[Victoire HuGo]

He's been using his timeouts more frequently which was a criticism some people had in the last 2 seasons. Team is playing more consistent okay lately too. Fact our home record is so much better can be a testament to coaching too.

 

[The Real Timo]

For a guy with so little experience, he's had this team play well considering the roster's composition. No GM or coach are perfect. They all have their shortcomings and make mistakes, so nitpicking on any of it is imo useless.

I, for one, can't wait to see what a seasoned MSL will offer while the team will keep adding lots of talent.

He has legends like Yoel and Le Gros Dave. Roster composition is not a problem.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

He has legends like Yoel and Le Gros Dave. Roster composition is not a problem.

Stop being a child. It's not a playoff roster.

 

[Habs Halifax]

He's been using his timeouts more frequently which was a criticism some people had in the last 2 seasons. Team is playing more consistent okay lately too. Fact our home record is so much better can be a testament to coaching too.

He's very smart and any flaws he has will be worked on no doubt. Some of the fans/media targeting him when our team was down should be ashamed of themselves. MSL is going to be one of the biggest reasons why player want to play in Montreal.

I trust MSL with this team and I trust MSL will gain more experience because his hockey IQ is high and he will work very hard at improving. He did that as a player and he's doing it as a coach right in front of our eyes.

 

[JianYang]

He looks better when the roster is healthy and the add of carriere and subtraction of Barron. Go figure.

I'm okay with him as long as the culture is good, and the players keep buying in. Sounds like the club is tight knit and the players do seem to take pride in their game.

But, this is the life of a coach and things turn on a dime in this world.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I'm merging the two MSL thread's together. The Coaching is a Serious Problem thread been renamed with both threads coming together and is now the MSL thread.

 

[Rapala]

So is all the MSL discussion now under one roof?

The coaching thread...
The improvement thread...

Okay.

 

[Rapala]

Too slow to make some of the changes he needs to make.. but the system people were bashing is a system most top teams use, it was just not being executed well and suddenly started getting executed well the second we shored up the defense.

I think it goes beyond that but Carrier being able to give us balance while munching minutes is huge.
I've been talking about our neutral zone play for quite some time now we've tightened that up slowing the opposition.
They brought this up the other night when breaking down play.
I don't think it's a coincidence we are exiting our zone more consistently.
The forwards are just as responsible as the Dmen in the hybrid system we play.

 

[dauv]

So is all the MSL discussion now under one roof?

The coaching thread...
The improvement thread...

Okay.

after the next few losses, we will also be able to merge these upcoming threads;

- MSL sucks
- We need a new coach
- NHL is not a development league for coaches
- We hired a PEE WEE coach
- Hire the best possible coach, not a french speaking one

 

[HabsCode]

Did you guys really changed the name of the thread lmao? Will it be changed back again after our next inevitable losing streak?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Did you guys really changed the name of the thread lmao? Will it be changed back again after our next inevitable losing streak?

Two threads merged. Generic title. It works no matter how we’re doing.

 

[Frankenheimer]

Did you guys really changed the name of the thread lmao? Will it be changed back again after our next inevitable losing streak?

Sure. Or you can make a new thread. Whatever floats your boat.

 

[HabsCode]

Two threads merged. Generic title. It works no matter how we’re doing.

Yeah just saw that makes sense.

 

[CHfan1]

Interesting looking at the opening post in this thread discussing how bad Montreal’s power play and penalty kill are. They’ve gotten better each season under MSL.

2022-23 season: power play 16.1% (29th overall), penalty kill 72.6% (also 29th overall).

2023-24 season: power play 17.5% (27th overall), penalty kill 76.5% (24th overall).

This season: power play 21.4% (17th overall) (of course adding Laine and Hutson helps), penalty kill 82.7% (8th overall).

 

[HabbyGuy]

Did you guys really changed the name of the thread lmao? Will it be changed back again after our next inevitable losing streak?

I will never understand these types of comments, not sure how a losing streak for a rebuilding team is an indication of a "serious coaching problem". Especially if as you put it.... is inevitable.

Slumps happen.

The only thing we need concern ourselves with is how or why the team is obtaining those wins or losses. Are they playing well? Are they structured? Are there injury problems? Have the players checked out? Is the room lost? Is it a roster issue? etc...

Context matters.

 

[HabbyGuy]

Interesting looking at the opening post in this thread discussing how bad Montreal’s power play and penalty kill are. They’ve gotten better each season under MSL.

2022-23 season: power play 16.1% (29th overall), penalty kill 72.6% (also 29th overall).

2023-24 season: power play 17.5% (27th overall), penalty kill 76.5% (24th overall).

This season: power play 21.4% (17th overall) (of course adding Laine and Hutson helps), penalty kill 82.7% (8th overall).

The OP is what kicked of this tire fire of a thread. Imagine making this thread just a few games into the season. His takes have consistently been the worst throughout it's entirety. His silence and absense now speaks far louder than anything else he's had to say.

Which is alot.

 

[Bouboumaster]

He's no Scotty Bowman but I take him over Therrien and over Ducharme for sure

 

[Archijerej]

Since this has become a general coaching thread (I endorse!) I thought it might be useful to discuss our powerplay. It seems to me that once teams started adjusting to Laine (or when he's absent like last night) they don't look like they know what they're trying to achieve there.

Seems like the only players with defined roles out there are Laine and Hutson.