The Canadiens were a mess when the decision was made to fire Dominique Ducharme as head coach and hire Martin St. Louis on Feb. 9, 2022.
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Montreal was sitting in last place in the overall NHL standings with an 8-30-7 record and had lost 7-1 to the New Jersey Devils the night before at the Bell Centre. The Devils were in 27th place in the overall NHL standings at the time.
It was the seventh straight loss for the Canadiens (0-5-2) and they had been outscored 40-17 during that span. Cole Caufield had scored one goal in the 30 games he had played that season before Ducharme was fired. The Canadiens’ Josh Anderson called the loss to the Devils “embarrassing” and added: “It is not fun losing right now. It’s not fun coming to the rink.”
St. Louis’s main job when he first took over from Ducharme was to make the game fun again for the Canadiens — and he did just that.
The Canadiens would lose their first three games with St. Louis behind the bench before winning seven of their next eight. Caufield scored six goals in his first seven games with St. Louis as head coach and finished the season with 23 goals.
“Marty comes in, he’s not going to come in and just talk about D-zone,” Caufield said after the Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 Monday night at the Bell Centre. “That would be a pretty tough way to end that season there. He came in with a lot of good energy, a lot of positivity and we got to focus on offence.”
Things are changing now in Year 3 of the Canadiens’ rebuild.
“Now it’s focusing on the full-round game,” said Caufield, who has 12 goals in 19 games this season. “It takes time, obviously. But being able to focus on the D side is pretty important in games like this. We’re figuring it out as a team right now. I like the way we’re playing and just going to keep that going, but it’s pretty fun right now.”
The Canadiens have won their last two games while outscoring the opposition 8-1. After allowing more than 30 shots on goal in seven of their first 13 games, they have allowed 30 or fewer shots in each of their last six games. They have also been getting some solid goaltending from Sam Montembeault, who stopped all 30 shots he faced against the Oilers, improving his record to 6-8-1 with a 2.85 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.
Not only did the Canadiens shut out Edmonton, they limited Oilers superstar Connor McDavid to one shot, while his sidekick Leon Draisaitl had two. The Canadiens limited the Oilers to four high-danger scoring chances at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“I think everybody was going tonight,” Caufield said after the game. “It was a full team game. A lot of guys did some things that probably go underrated, but Monty was unbelievable for us again. I like the way we frustrated those guys, for sure.
“It’s one game,” Caufield added. “We want to put together a couple of wins in a row.”
After Monday’s win, the Canadiens (7-10-2) were still sitting in last place in the Atlantic Division, tied with the Detroit Red Wings, but they were only one point behind the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators and three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins. The Canadiens don’t play again until Saturday when the Vegas Golden Knights will be at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., SNE, CITY, TVA Sports).
“It’s the first time we probably get a couple of days to kind of reset,” Caufield said. “I think it’s a huge part of our season to look back on. It’s not the start we wanted, but these past couple of games it’s kind of the way we want to play and confidence-wise for a lot of guys I think it’s getting pretty high right now.”
St. Louis is putting more of a focus on defence now and his players seem less confused in their own zone than they did earlier this season with the hybrid system the coach likes to use, which is a mix of zone and man-on-man defence.
Caufield said it’s a case of learning from experience.
“The way you got to figure it out is by doing it and failing and getting back up and doing it again,” he said. “It takes time. We’re obviously a young team, but to get these reps in and build off that, that’s kind of the expectation going forward and everybody’s on the same page and pushing in the same direction.”
When asked how he has improved defensively since St. Louis took over, Caufield said: “Just working at it, I think. Focusing on the D side … Slaf (Juraj Slafkovsky), too. He had a pretty good game defensively. … Your play away from the puck is just as important as your O-zone touches. I think everybody’s taking pride in that. With the guys that are doing that, I think everybody follows and it’s huge for our team now.”