St. Louis Presser A Wake-Up Call for the Habs and the Hockey World

Martin St Louis has proved people wrong his entire life.

In a span of a few seconds, he might have toppled the entire hockey world.

“Systems vs Concepts.”

“As a player I hated to play in a system,” St. Louis said.

What an amazing quote. What an amazing concept! I surely hope all of the minor hockey coaches out there watch the presser in its entirety because we can all learn something from St. Louis and his philosophy. People are criticizing the hire because of St Louis’ coaching resume or lack thereof. Again, that’s hockey culture for you.

Everyone will question the hire, but don’t you dare question Martin St. Louis’ journey in the game and the path that he’s taken to get this point. Ok, so the highest level he’s coached is Pee Wee.

To watch the press conference click here https://twitter.com/canadiensmtl/status/1491811951583936518?s=21 https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1491811951583936518

You must ask yourself what is the most important aspect an NHL can do? Is it hold players accountable? Is it to communicate or is it to set up a winning system or culture?

I’ll let you answer that one, but what I found so intriguing about St Louis’ message is the conviction in which he said it. He’s going to allow players an opportunity to play their game with the concept of the team, not some antiquated system. That’s not a slight on Dom Ducharme’s coaching philosophy, because Dom is one hell of a coach and person, it’s a slight on all of the coaches in minor hockey that “box in” young aspiring players by eliminating their creativity by forcing them to execute of the almighty team system.

Martin St. Louis hasn’t coached a single NHL game yet and might be unsuccessful, but I won’t bet on that. You see St Louis isn’t going to deviate from his philosophy or concepts of the game. You see those concepts made him an amazing player. Those concepts will undoubtedly make him a great NHL coach.

Don’t look at the Habs wins and losses the rest of the way, watch how they respond and play for him. I guarantee they will play inspired hockey from here on out.

Every single Montreal Canadien player will play for their new coach, a matter of fact they will probably go through the wall for him, not because of his coaching resume or his resume as a player. They will play for him because it will be fun to play the game again, it will be fun to create within a player friendly team concept not some restrictive system.

Kent Hughes served a wake-up call to his organization, Martin St Louis served a wake up call to all of the minor hockey coaches to change their ancient outdated systems.