The Martin St Louis Thread

[Hannibal]

This team is starting to have bad habits. Management needs to do something if not, we are going down into Buffalo, Ottawa, etc kind of rebuild.

They need a new coaching staff!

 

[ryan callahan]

It's his job to motivate, put them in situations to succeed and "discipline" when needed. He's the boss after all.

No. The boss is the one who built this awful joke of a team. MSL has to do with what he has, which isn't much.

 

[Hannibal]

I’m not asking for more wins, because i’m not blind, that roster is atrocious.

But i see bad habits, no structure and no culture. That’s start with coaching staff.

 

[Pure Laine]

The good ol' days when we had Character and grit

And No Excuses

I get it, we have an inexperienced defense. But it's not normal that our best players and our veterans all look lost in this system, not knowing what to do. The vets, they've seen many systems, they would know what to do.

Habs are not getting beat because of lack of effort (although the continuous sucking will have negative effects), they're getting beat because they're confused about what is asked of them.

 

[Kennedys]

As a french canadian i say can we just stop with the "Habs coach need to speak french" ?. Get a real coach ffs. He could speak only japanese for all i care.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

This team is starting to have bad habits. Management needs to do something if not, we are going down into Buffalo, Ottawa, etc kind of rebuild.

They need a new coaching staff!

MSL should have just been a transitional coach to play out the half season. Allow players to reset, and management to reassess who they had with MSL getting first hand knowledge

Thats all he should have been

 

[RationalExpectations]

I think the problem with Martin is that he try to teach how he saw the game as a player. But he was a special kind of player, an all star. The average player probably doesn't connect with his way of seeing things.

This is exactly right, same in the offensive zone, Suzuki and CC are producing more with StLouis vs Ducharme because they have much more leeway in the Ozone. However your less creative players need structure. MSL is unable to provide that.

 

[RationalExpectations]

Funny how fans will do anything but blame players. Our so called stars are giving awful efforts and it is falling on the back of MSL. Dach doesn't deserve to be a center or a winger right now. His only playable position is eating hot dogs in the stands. He's terrible.

Players should also be held accountable and I don't think fans are saying it s only MSL but this thread is about coaching so what did you expect ?

 

[RationalExpectations]

I’m not asking for more wins, because i’m not blind, that roster is atrocious.

But i see bad habits, no structure and no culture. That’s start with coaching staff.

I am going to stop you right here. Roster quality goes to a certain point : in any team of the NHL, Slavin Orlov Ghost Burns Chatfield Walker would be Seen as an average Dcore, yet CAR dominantes, offensively they don't have McDavid but they re applying so much pressure as a team that they get the puck back.
Habs should study thé canes, take a coach willing to implement that system and then we could talk about possible roster improvements.

 

[Egresch]

Players should also be held accountable and I don't think fans are saying it s only MSL but this thread is about coaching so what did you expect ?

And we come back to the coach as he is the one who should hold players accountable. If Dach sucks, he should be nowhere near 1st line and PP1. It is the decision of MSL, he is accountable for his bad decisions. Why is Savard still playing, he is atrocious.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Why does MSL sent Dach on the first line to make him get his gear turned on, Suzuki and Caufield have been invisible offensively since paired with him. Is the plan to destroy the only line we had working well because the 3 others line were doing nothing?

Why punish those 3. Dach has alot of icetime , PP time and he can't make any of it. Even Anderson who sucks offensively atleast is trying to play defensively to make him useful.

Same thing about Guhle. Hes a LHD but he's gotta play on the right because Matheson can't?

Guhle should be on the left since he's part of the future.

Like those coaching decisions are so bad. Like what's the plan with that?

 

[ReHabs]

Like those coaching decisions are so bad. Like what's the plan with that?

He only has so many variations and combinations he can try. We don't have a good roster + heads are down and the vibes are not on our side.

My criticism of MSL has not stopped: it's his job to keep the vibes* up and adjust the tactical plans to maximize possibility of success. There is not much of that "Winning Culture" we were promised.

*Vibes = upbeat professional serious hockey. Not the country club stuff, I couldn't care less about that right now.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

We should just hire Torts as an Associate Coach when Philly fires him in a few weeks

No more fun if you guys wanna suck

 

[Habs Icing]

Fired or step down is good enough for me the guy has no clue, if they want to let him save his reputation by letting him stepping down i'm ok with that as long as he stay away from our young guy's

I'm in the camp where MSL has to go but I don't totally agree with the highlighted part. He had clues last year and the year he took over. Something happened over the summer. He stumbled over a concept or group of concepts that are either impossible to exercise or he just doesn't know how to implement them. The team is lost in their defensive coverage. Completely lost. Laval, on the other hand, is supposed to be using the same concepts anf they look decent in their zone.

 

[OnTheRun]

I'm in the camp where MSL has to go but I don't totally agree with the highlighted part. He had clues last year and the year he took over. Something happened over the summer. He stumbled over a concept or group of concepts that are either impossible to exercise or he just doesn't know how to implement them. The team is lost in their defensive coverage. Completely lost. Laval, on the other hand, is supposed to be using the same concepts anf they look decent in their zone.

Because defensively this team doesn't bend, it break.

Their biggest weakness is how terrible they are when it come time to reorganize from zone defense to man-to-man defense. Coronato 1st goal last Tuesday and Siegenthaler goal last game are exhibit A & B.

 

[HabsCode]

As a french canadian i say can we just stop with the "Habs coach need to speak french" ?. Get a real coach ffs. He could speak only japanese for all i care.

This is not a criteria expected from the fan majority (unless you are talking about boomers fefans).

This is coming from the media. We have little control over it.

 

[Tyson]

Management needs to intervene because the same mistakes keep getting made, the guys suppose to produce are not producing and both Matheson and Savard have really struggled.
Nothing is working

 

[dauv]

As a french canadian i say can we just stop with the "Habs coach need to speak french" ?. Get a real coach ffs. He could speak only japanese for all i care.

If the best coach doesn't speak french so be it. HIRE A GODAMN TRANSLATOR IF YOU HAVE TO

 

[jackeymoon]

Players should also be held accountable and I don't think fans are saying it s only MSL but this thread is about coaching so what did you expect ?

I expect Lane Hutson to be quarterbacking the 1st PP. Unless you're literally blind I don't see how that isn't an obvious play. The ice time allocation and lines still make 0 sense. No players aside from CC are improving, MSL has 0 experience coaching pro hockey. Stop defending the indefensible

 

[le_sean]

At some point when you suck for so long it becomes part of the team culture. Look at Ottawa and Buffalo, losing is so engrained in them that they continue to suck despite having the talent to succeed. We don’t want that to get instilled into our young core.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

At some point when you suck for so long it becomes part of the team culture. Look at Ottawa and Buffalo, losing is so engrained in them that they continue to suck despite having the talent to succeed. We don’t want that to get instilled into our young core.

We have sucked for 30 years have you seen the rosters we trot out for 90% of those years? An actual joke league wide when compared to other teams.

Every single time we were *good* is because our goalie stood on his head lmao

 

[Habby4Life]

They need two veteran D this summer. They can insulate Guhle and Hutson and help Matheson by bringing down his minutes. It also allows DR and others to develop in Laval.

If this team wants to improve they can’t continue with a daycare d core.

Guys like Struble, Barron, Wifi, or Logan are 5/6s and on some nights look like 7/8s.

 

[Rapala]

Brunet was talking about how few pass completions we have through the neutral zone the worst in the league by a very wide margin.
We claim to be a team who wants to play fast but we either skate the puck or try a stretch pass to an isolated forward.
Where is the offensive genius in that is that the best we can do?

I noted how Hughes who three or four times found himself alone in space decided to circle or pass back to rebuild the play.
The Devils rarely attempted solo attacks and were often able to rebuild without having to retreat behind their net.
There is something to be said for keeping the play tighter to the bench when changing forwards.

Even if we execute MSL's game plan I really don't see how decent hockey is going to come out of it.

 

[Guy Larose]

If the best coach doesn't speak french so be it. HIRE A GODAMN TRANSLATOR IF YOU HAVE TO

It's been clear to me since the hiring that Vincent will be the next coach. Wouldn't be surprised to see MSL leave on his own a the end of this year.

 

[salbutera]

We have sucked for 30 years have you seen the rosters we trot out for 90% of those years? An actual joke league wide when compared to other teams.

Every single time we were *good* is because our goalie stood on his head lmao

Yet Habs are the winningest Cdn franchise in playoffs over that period and by a country mile since inception of salary cap