For Martin St. Louis and the Montreal Canadiens, it’s all about trusting the process

If you were to look only at the results, it would be easy to call this season a disaster for the Montreal Canadiens.

But the 2023-24 campaign has just been another part of the process that head coach Martin St. Louis believes in. The Hall of Fame player is in his second full season as the bench boss for his hometown Habs, and he understands the process isn’t going to be easy.

“I think we’ve done a really good job at being process-driven. I know we’re not quite there yet, but I feel this year we got closer,” St. Louis said. “I feel that at a certain point in time – you turn a corner and the results just become a side effect of what you’ve done for a few years. That’s what we’re chasing.”

St. Louis has a reputation for having incredible communication with his players, including those bouncing between the NHL and AHL. Justin Barron knows that as well as anyone. He has 89 NHL games to his credit, but has found himself splitting time between Montreal and Laval over the past two seasons.

“He’s such a good teacher,” Barron said. “For me, a lot of the stuff since I’ve got here wasn’t necessarily about the guy with the puck, but a lot of teaching about the other four guys that don’t have the puck.”

One thing Barron, and the rest of the Canadiens, are hoping to avoid is puck-watching. Barrin said St. Louis has been valuable in that aspect.

“When you’re growing up, everyone teaches about the guy who has the puck, and what he’s supposed to do, but Marty talks a lot about the other four guys on the ice and how they can have an impact every shift,” Barron said.

That’s something St. Louis – a 5-foot-7 winger who went undrafted in the NHL – picked up during his career.

“I understood that the game is not necessarily where the puck is,” St. Louis said. “The game is the other four guys – where they go, why they go there. My players know that they can come to me and talk about anything. Stuff beyond hockey, but I love to have hockey discussions with my players.”

Montreal was already eliminated from the postseason, but they still have a chance to play spoiler against teams like the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, and Detroit Red Wings, all of whom are fighting for two spots.

The Canadiens haven’t qualified for the postseason since making it all the way to the Stanley Cup final in 2021, instead focusing their efforts on adding high-quality assets through the draft. Things are looking up for the Habs, especially with Juraj Slafkovsky coming on like he has over the past few months. Add in Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle and a solid goaltending duo of Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau, and the group has some solid building blocks for down the road.

“We’re gonna go to the end of the season,” goaltender Cayden Primeau said. “Unfortunately, we’re eliminated, but we don’t look at it that way. We’re gonna go until the seasons over.”

The Montreal fan base wants to see this team win. They have one of the most loyal followings in all of hockey, and there’s a strong belief in the dressing room that trusting the process will lead to something greater in the long run.