St. Vincent in Laval, St. Louis in Montreal: it makes management look bad

The Canadiens had started the season well: two wins in three games against your three biggest rivals.

Since then, things have gone from bad to worse: seven losses in nine games.

And it’s worse than worse right now, as the Habs have lost their last three games by a cumulative score of 17-6.

Only the Sharks have a worse record than the Canadiens so far this season in the NHL. And they’re only one point behind the Montrealers…

The Habs don’t score enough goals… they score too many… they give unacceptable performances in front of their fans… their leaders, veterans and head coach are constantly challenged…

It’s obvious to me that Geoff Molson, Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton and the players set expectations a little too high before the season started. How on earth could anyone have thought that the team we’ve been seeing on the ice for the past month could fight for a playoff spot?

The Habs are once again a bottom 5 – or even bottom 3 – club that is more involved in a lottery race than a playoff race. It’s been that way for the last three or four years. Nothing changes.

No, the Canadiens haven’t progressed in the last year; they’ve actually regressed…

The problem – or the joy, call it what you will – is that just a few miles north, in Laval, the opposite is true. The Rocket sits atop the North Division with an 8-1-0 record. Only the Calgary Wranglers have a better record than Laval (9-1-0).

While the Canadiens are losing, the Rocket are winning. The Habs’ training club has won its last seven games. The Rocket is off to the best start in its history, no less!

All this despite injuries to David Reinbacher, Alex Barré-Boulet, Filip Mesar and Jakub Dobes, among others!

Please don’t tell me that the habs are doing so well this fall because of injuries. The Rocket is managing to get by despite several key players being sidelined.

Joshua Roy, Logan Mailloux (who was out for several games due to a recall with the big club), Connor Hughes, Owen Beck, Luke Tuch… many players have stepped up in Laval.

But why?

How to explain this?

I think a (large) part of the answer lies behind each team’s bench.

It’s often said that the NHL is not a development league, but a results league. Yet the Canadiens’ coach is a developmental coach whose coaching experience prior to arriving in Montreal consisted of coaching pee-wees and advising John Tortorella as a power play consultant for a year.

In Laval, one level below, they put in place a 53-year-old guy (only four years older than St-Louis) whose track record is already VERY long.

Think about it: Martin St-Louis is currently making his mistakes as a rookie NHL coach. He’s learning the job, with no real mentor by his side…

Whereas below him, there’s an ultra-prepared coach who knows how to coach and who, both collectively and individually, knows how to bring out the best in his players. The coach below is far more qualified and experienced than the coach above him…

While there’s crying, panic and/or attitude in the Bell Centre dressing room, there’s laughter, fun and performance in the Place Bell dressing room.

Still, it’s special that the coach who’s supposed to be coaching to develop and not necessarily to win, is winning…

Whereas the first-team coach doesn’t win… and seems to be making his players regress! If this continues, it’s going to get embarrassing…

Yes, the Habs are rebuilding, and no, we shouldn’t expect them to win 70% of their games, but there are limits. When you watch the Rocket games, you see that the coach is able to teach and demand clear, concrete concepts from his players (who apply them). When you watch the Canadiens, you always wonder how they manage to be so disorganized on the ice.

Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton will have to ask themselves one thing: what works in Laval that could be brought to Montreal?

In the short term, we can’t bring Pascal Vincent.

But we can bring Joshua Roy, Alex Barré-Boulet (once he’s healed), Jakub Dobes (once he’s recovered), Logan Mailloux (and coach him well), Luke Tuch or who knows which player dominates down below.

And frankly, why not ask Pascal Vincent to mentor Martin St-Louis?

No, it doesn’t make sense to ask the AHL coach to mentor the NHL coach; it should be the other way around.

But it doesn’t make sense to have St-Louis in Montreal and Vincent in Laval. The fact that Martin St-Louis had a great NHL career doesn’t justify everything…

At this point…