What Martin St-Louis had to say about Pascal Vincent’s system of play

Pascal Vincent is the new head coach of the Laval Rocket. He is the fourth man to hold this title, after Sylvain Lefebvre, Joël Bouchard and Jean-François Houle.

It had to be an interesting challenge for a guy to accept a move from NHL pilot to the lower echelon. But because it’s at home and he’d rather be chief pilot, he said yes.

The challenge will be interesting in terms of prospects, but also in terms of working with Martin St-Louis. They know each other more by reputation than anything else at the moment.

A pleasant moment before the game as Pascal Vincent and Martin St-Louis reconnected with their former coaches from the Régents LLL (midget AAA), Guy Lefrançois, Michel Léveillé and Daniel Noonan. The two coaches wished each other good luck “but not for tonight”. – Martin Leclerc

Even if they’ve chatted over the last few days, they still have a lot of work to do to create a chemistry that will allow Laval’s hopes to rise as easily in the NHL as they did in the JF Houle era.

After all, Vincent’s goal will be to create an environment that will help the youngsters.

He wants to do everything he can to serve the Canadiens in his own role. And right now, he’s not thinking about replacing Martin St-Louis: he’s thinking more about supporting him.

St-Louis, who will be working with a coach other than Jean-François Houle at Laval for the first time, will be supported by an experienced coach downstairs.

And what’s interesting, speaking of the two men, is that a few months ago, following a clash between the Blue Jackets and the Canadiens, Martin St-Louis launched into an explanation of Vincent’s playing system.

Without knowing it, he gave us our first glimpse of his future counterpart’s system in Laval.

After the Habs’ 3-0 victory on March 12, 2024, Martin St-Louis talked about how Vincent’s club had played. And although the Habs won, it was Cayden Primeau who came away with the win with 41 saves.

It was this performance that made him say that “it was only the beginning” after the game.

But hey. All this to say that Martin St-Louis had noted that his hybrid defense had been tested by Columbus’ style of play, a club always in action on the ice.

St-Louis also noted, after the game, that the Blue Jackets’ defenders were very active and would often receive the puck when their forwards were in trouble.

It’s a little more difficult to manage because you have four or five players who are part of the attack. – Martin St-Louis

The Montreal coach pointed out that in the first half of the game, this made things difficult for his men.

It was the kind of game (to give context to a game from four months ago) where Columbus had the Canadiens’ number, despite the win. And St-Louis made no secret of it.

With all the good young offensive defensemen currently sprouting up in the Flanelle organization, there are links to be made with Vincent’s arrival. And we wonder if St-Louis had the March 12 game in mind when he saw who was getting the job in Laval.

And if so, he must be pleased to see that he won’t have to counter Vincent’s style of play, but can instead benefit his organization.

Overtime

– It’s done: he’s off to Russia.

Hearing Evgeny Kuznetsov will be placed on unconditional waivers today for purposes of a mutual contract termination.

Both #Canes and #Caps are now free of Kuznetsov’s cap hit and contract. He is walking away from final $6 million owed in salary this season to return to Russia.

– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 17, 2024