Kirby Dach praises his coach, the CH is finally the favorite, and no changes are expected

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Kirby Dach praises his coach, the CH is finally the favorite, and no changes are expected
Credit: Matt Garies/NHLI via Getty Images

Yesterday was Kirby Dach's night in Montreal.

The fans cheered him on and his teammates supported him. But none of that would have been possible if Martin St-Louis hadn't decided to keep him in the lineup.

It all started there.

Bringing Brendan Gallagher back made sense, but the coach chose to trust his star center. And Dach will clearly remember that.

After yesterday's game, Dach said he was grateful to have Marty as his coach.

Obviously, Dach wasn't going to say otherwise. But you can tell the comment was sincere and that's truly how the former Hawks player feels.

As Eric Macramalla points out, normally, after four years on the job, the guys in the National League get tired of their coach. But that's clearly not the case in St. Louis.

This means that, looking ahead to the next game, it would be surprising if the team decided to make changes for tomorrow's match. Brendan Gallagher is likely to continue waiting for his turn.

If St. Louis didn't make any changes after Tuesday's game, I don't see why he would make any after Friday's game. Right?

There's a chance the coach might decide to shuffle the deck a bit with the guys already in the lineup, though. I don't think Juraj Slafkovsky will return to the line with Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen, but I'm not ruling out that scenario either.

We'll see in due time.

In any case, Martin St-Louis will make decisions to keep the momentum on his side. The team will be hungry and will want to make sure they win to head to Tampa Bay with a solid lead.

Right now, it's important to understand that the Canadiens are the favorites to win the series (61% chance, as reported by Martin Leclerc) and that the team will want to continue maximizing its chances.


in a nutshell

– Ouch.

– Oh really?

– That makes sense.

– Arber Xhekaj's mother enjoyed the game.

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