Montreal Canadiens

Martin St-Louis Sends Message To Struggling Canadiens

Published

1 month ago

November 1, 2024

The Montreal Canadiens practice on Friday featured every professional player’s favourite activity, a bag skate. This was on the heels of yet another disheartening loss by the Habs.

For those of you who did not play hockey or are not familiar with the term, a bag skate is essentially a sign that the head coach is running out of patience, and that an elevated level of focus must be put into place.

To drive that point home, all pucks are removed from the ice, and players have to do a series of quick-burst skates, with the starting point situated behind the crease. The first whistle indicates players must skate to the blue line and back, while another whistle indicates they have to make their way to centre ice before making the return trip to the defensive zone.

And then you rinse and repeat until the message is clear. It’s incredibly tiring, pushing players to the point of collapse at times. And it’s not to be used regularly, or it loses its value.

You could argue it’s a punishment, but I see it as a team-wide source of accountability that doesn’t allow for any passengers, which is certainly the right approach for this team.

Top level mentality from Lane Hutson to committing to the bag skate like that pic.twitter.com/mmM5f4LWnv

— HFTV (@HFTVSports) November 1, 2024

“We have to change certain habits on the ice, and our mindset,” explained St-Louis after practice. “If you don’t change that, you won’t receive any consistency. You won’t ever win five or six in a row. Winning is important, but right now, [we’re] changing habits and mindset.”

While there’s no doubt Canadiens players have not responded well to adversity this season, it’s also quite evident the hybrid defensive system, a combination of zone and man-to-man coverage, is wreaking havoc among the defencemen, both young and old.

At some point, the onus will be on the head coach to add a little more structure to the situation, because the current “concepts”, as St-Louis likes to call them, are clearly not working.

Having a more positive mindset would certainly help, however, it won’t solve the structural issues plaguing the Canadiens.

But make no mistake, even though St-Louis’ system is not producing great results, in the long run, the players are the ones holding the sticks, and there’s very little room for a constant stream of mistakes in professional sports. The Canadiens are producing a comedy of errors on most nights, and the decisions that lead to giveaways and poor defensive coverage are made by those on the ice, not the man behind the bench.

Adding a little accountability to the equation is a healthy step for all involved.