Canadiens Head Coach Martin St. Louis Wins 100th Game

After almost exactly three years behind the bench, Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis earned his 100th career win against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

St. Louis’ 100^th win comes after he missed the last five attempts, during which the Canadiens went 0-4-1. Over the previous two games, the Habs lost to the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild, who had each been missing their top scorer, Troy Terry and Kirill Kaprizov, to injury. They finally came through against the last-place Sharks on the road, Joel Armia snapping a tie late in the third period. He scored the 4-3 game-winning goal shorthanded with Jayden Struble off for delay of game. The Habs’ are now 25-23-5, in a battle for a wild-card spot, despite having been last in the Eastern Conference as recently as Dec. 16.

Canadiens in the Mix Under St. Louis

Heading into the season, Canadiens management had expressed a desire to “be in the mix” this regular season after finishing in last place in the entire league in St. Louis’ first (partial) season with the club in 2021-22. The Canadiens proceeded to finish fifth from last in each of the previous two during their current rebuild.

Following the Dec. 3 regular-season debut of Patrik Laine, who had been acquired to help bolster the club’s offense this past offseason, the Canadiens are 17-10-2 under St. Louis. Other factors contributing to the turnaround include the acquisition of veteran defenseman Alexandre Carrier and the replacement of backup Cayden Primeau with rookie Jakub Dobes, who is now 5-1-1 with a 2.10 goals-against average and .927 save percentage.

Without any prior professional coaching experience, St. Louis joined the Canadiens on Feb. 9, 2022 on an interim basis, relieving predecessor Dominique Ducharme. General manager Kent Hughes hired him, while executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton had previously offered St. Louis a job coaching the Hartford Wolf Pack in the American Hockey League while the GM of the New York Rangers in 2017. St. Louis reportedly turned that offer down to focus on coaching his sons’ youth hockey teams (from ‘Canadiens’ Martin St. Louis move part of odd strategy to fix franchise,’ New York Post, Feb. 12, 2022).

St. Louis became the Canadiens’ permanent head coach following that initial regular season, signing a three-year extension in June 2022. In 1,134 games as an undrafted player with the Calgary Flames, Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning, the Hockey Hall-of-Fame forward scored 391 goals and 1,033 points, winning the Stanley Cup in 2004 with the Bolts.