Martin St. Louis is making an impressive transition from Hall of Fame player to NHL head coach with the Canadiens.
Heading into Thursday’s game against the Stars in Dallas, the Canadiens had a 21-18-4 record and were only two points out of a wild-card playoff spot in Year 3 of their rebuild and were 10-2-1 in their previous 13 games.
St. Louis isn’t the first Hall of Famer to move behind an NHL bench — some with great success and others not so much.
Toe Blake won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens as a player and eight more as head coach of the team. Jacques Lemaire won eight Cups as a player with the Canadiens and one more as head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Larry Robinson won six Cups playing with the Canadiens, two as an assistant coach with New Jersey and another as head coach of the Devils. He earned his 10th Cup ring in 2019 as a consultant/assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues.
Hall of Fame players who didn’t have as much success behind the bench include Maurice (Rocket) Richard, who won eight Cups with the Canadiens but lasted only one game as head coach of the WHA’s Quebec Nordiques. Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion won six Cups with the Canadiens, but had little success as a head coach with the New York Rangers, Atlanta Flames and Canadiens. Denis Savard lasted less than three seasons as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, while Wayne Gretzky had a 143-161-24 record during his four seasons as head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.
“My experience helped me,” St. Louis said about making the transition from player to coach. “Yes, I became a Hall of Famer, but I didn’t come in the league as: ‘He’s going to be a Hall of Famer.’ I had to earn everything I got. I played every role on every team. I’ve been the guy in the stands, I played in the minors. I think my experience helps me to relate to all my players.
“I think when I played — especially halfway through my career in the NHL — I felt like I was coaching, too,” St. Louis added. “I thought I was coaching my linemates, I was challenging coaches to tell me why we’re doing this a certain way. I always had that kind of mind. And coaching the youth for seven years (including his three sons with Connecticut’s Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey Association) and organizing stuff.
“I know you guys can laugh at it, but hockey’s hockey to me. And then you get a little bit in the NHL … I didn’t know if I was going to have success, but I was going to do things that I believe in. I think my experience helps me have a good base on some of what my truth is about the game. I’m not a young hockey guy, but I’m a young coach and I’m just going to keep evolving and looking for the answers that I think I need to find for my players.”
Robinson is impressed by what St. Louis has been able to accomplish with the Canadiens.
“That competitiveness is still there, but I like his demeanour,” Robinson said over the phone Thursday from his home in Florida. “He doesn’t get too flustered behind the bench. He stays pretty calm, pretty poised. That’s a good thing as long as he doesn’t keep it all inside because that’s what kills coaches.
“For me, it was different from St. Louis because I had a Hall of Fame coach teaching me everything in Jacques Lemaire,” Robinson added about his transition from player to coach. “And then I had a really good mentor in (Devils general manager) Lou Lamoriello as well, who really helped me a lot.”
But Robinson still believes the transition from player to coach was one of the most difficult things he ever had to do.
“The first thing for me that I had to do was train myself from not looking at something and saying: ‘Well, if that was me I would do it this way,’” Robinson said. “You have to look at the player and say: ’OK, how can I make that player do something that will make him be able to react to a situation better?’”
Robinson added that might have been a problem for Gretzky, who he played with for three seasons with the Los Angeles Kings and then coached for one year in L.A.
“Not only did he think the game differently, but his anticipation was so great,” Robinson said about Gretzky. “That’s what he excelled in. Now, can you teach anticipation? I think that’s a God-given talent. You have to be born with that. I don’t think that’s something you can teach.”
Robinson, 73, has no interest in coaching again but wouldn’t rule out working as a consultant. His health is good and he’s playing golf 3-4 times a week. He also enjoys watching the Canadiens on TV.
“I’m happy for St. Louis and I’m happy for the team,” he said.
Stu Cowan will have much more from his interview with Larry Robinson in his Stu’s Slapshots notebook this weekend on The Gazette website.