Martin St-Louis to handle the power play

When the Habs announced that Alex Burrows would not be returning to the bench earlier this summer, we wondered who would replace him.

In fact, it was more a question of whether the Habs would replace the man who (notably) played the power play in Montreal.

We have more details at this point. It hadn’t been confirmed, but today, on the heels of the golf tournament, we learned that Martin St-Louis will be in charge of the powerplay this season.

#Habs Martin St-Louis says he will take over the powerplay duties with Alex Burrows moving on from the coaching staff.

– Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) September 16, 2024

Interesting idea.

But why? Because Martin St-Louis was one of the NHL’s great power play specialists during his career, and because we’re talking about a player who was very creative on the ice.

He knows what it takes to be successful offensively in a league like the NHL (1033 points in 1134 games) and with the offensive talent he’ll have on hand, St-Louis should be able to have a little fun.

We’ve seen him give advice to Cole Caufield in the past, and he’ll be doing the same with the other guys :

Coache’s Video: Transition Practice vs Game?

Hey @MA_PerreaultTVA, credit goes to you for the video. Martin St-Louis working with Caufield in practice (March 9th) on the one-timer and on April 5th, Cole Caufield doing the same move. #GoHabsGo#HockeyTwitter pic.twitter.com/ZMikW69QIR

– Mitch Giguere (@Mitch_Giguere) April 6, 2022

There’s reason to be optimistic when you look at the Habs’ current paper lineup and Martin St-Louis’ résumé.

The Habs will have the tools they need to be dangerous to other National League teams with a man advantage, and it’s going to have to work if they want to give themselves the best chance of winning.

It’s by scoring more goals that the Habs will be able to take their game to the next level, after all… and that starts with the man advantage.

Last season, the club finished 27th in the NHL for power-play success rate (17.5%), and it takes more.

There’s no, no doubt about it.

In closing, one wonders if the Habs’ new signing, Roger Grillo, will have a role to play in the decisions made by Martin St-Louis.

We know Grillo won’t be behind the Habs’ bench during games, but that doesn’t mean he and St-Louis couldn’t work on the team’s strategies at any time of the season when it’s not playing.

#Habs GM Kent Hughes says Roger Grillo will not be behind the #GoHabsGo bench during the games – head coach Martin St-Louis will touch on Roger’s role more when he speaks to the media shortly.

– Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) September 16, 2024

Extension

Instead, this week we saw a glimpse of the first wave of the power play.

Mike Matheson, Patrik Laine, Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield worked together with Adam Nicholas.

Is it already set in stone for the first game of the season?