Martin St-Louis says winning is not his priority right now

Canadiens fans are angry today after yesterday’s loss to the Washington Capitals.

On the whole, it’s not because the Habs lost that grumbling is taking hold in town.

It’s because the club got thrashed yet again. Losing games happens… But losing games like this shouldn’t happen often, and it hasn’t for a few weeks now.

Nick Suzuki is the first to say it: lately, the Habs haven’t been good enough.

The team won’t win if it continues to play like this… But according to Martin St-Louis, it’s not so bad if the defeats keep piling up.

Because, in the coach’s eyes, the priority right now is not to win.

He said in a press briefing after today’s practice that his priority is rather to “change habits”:

Tune in now to live Canadiens media practice

Tune in now to live Canadiens media ops from practice#GoHabsGo https://t.co/QVUvdleSuM

– Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 1, 2024

That said, how can you be in the mix if your priority isn’t winning games?

Martin St-Louis’ words are understandable in the sense that, at the moment, nothing is working for the Canadiens.

Last weekend’s two wins put things back on track for a few days… And the chain came off again this week against the Seattle Kraken.

But even if there are aspects to be corrected, the coach’s mentality has to be different. If the club takes to the ice night after night to “change habits” without even worrying about the result, the Habs will never be able to move forward in the rebuilding process.

Being used to losing games is never a good thing…

There’s a big gray cloud hanging over the Canadiens right now, and Martin St-Louis isn’t doing anything to calm things down.

You can’t say that the goal isn’t to win games when six weeks ago, everyone was saying at the golf tournament that the goal was to be in the race until the end…

It doesn’t look good, at least. And it looks a little crazy.

Overtime

– The Bruins need to get back on their feet.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Bruins’ shortcomings early on, but David Pastrnak isn’t pointing fingers at their coach. https://t.co/XRDEdBe3lV

– masslivesports (@masslivesports) November 1, 2024

– Well done!

Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Roope Hintz lead the Stars out and take a lap in their home country. pic.twitter.com/mMnzs1gIdb

– Lia Assimakopoulos (@Lassimak) November 1, 2024

– So much the better.

A quick calculation on Ticketmaster’s website indicates that there are just under 800 tickets left for the Victoire match at Centre Vidéotron on January 19.https://t.co/n0KV4Klcu6

– Kevin Dubé (@KDubeJDQ) November 1, 2024