Broken bats: Martin St-Louis wonders if they went into a sauna

Michaël Petit
Broken bats: Martin St-Louis wonders if they went into a sauna
Credit: Screenshot | NHL.com

Last night, the Canadiens suffered a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Clearly, Martin St-Louis' team deserved to win this game.

There were some great scoring chances for the Habs, but luck wasn't on Montreal's side.

As some may have noticed, there were a lot of broken sticks throughout the game, especially on the Habs, as my colleague Charles-Alexis Brisebois mentioned earlier this morning.

Around mid-afternoon, the Canadiens spoke to the media in preparation for Tuesday night's game against the Panthers.

Alexandre Texier(who was promoted to the first line in practice) was one of those who addressed the media, as was Martin St-Louis, who discussed the infamous broken sticks.

According to the head coach, the sticks are breaking more often than they used to, and he wonders if they've been in the sauna. “They looked dry.”

You can access MSL's media availability by simply clicking here.

Although the broken sticks probably cost the Habs the game, St-Louis was in the mood to laugh about it, and that's just fine.

“We'll have to adjust the temperature, I think” – Martin St-Louis

Of course, this can't happen too often, and it was probably just bad luck.

One of the reporters asked St-Louis if there was any way the shooters on the powerplay could take a nine, which isn't crazy.

To this, the head coach replied that the guys all test their sticks during the game and before the power play.

I really see this as bad luck, because at that point, it could break at any moment and the players would have to take a new one every time they came on, which would be a bit ridiculous.

On the other hand, this is when you realize how important it is to have several spare sticks, especially at a level like the NHL. The guys are powerful and put a lot of pressure on their sticks.

Let's see if this will be a problem in future games. If so, we'll have to try and find a solution quickly.


Overtime

– An important match for Canada, who must not take their opponents lightly.

– It will be interesting to see defenseman Verhoeff in action, one of the top three prospects for the upcoming draft.

– If you can watch the rest of the game, please do, it's quite a game.

– What a goal!

– Read more.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!