Martin St-Louis to blame for their loss against the Penguins?

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Greg Wilson
October 15, 2024 (1:57 PM)

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The Canadiens faced Sidney Crosby's Penguins on Monday night, which was the first NHL game shown on Prime Video.

Martin St-Louis' men fought hard for half the game, but they admitted defeat by a score of 6-3. Let's just say they shot themselves in the foot.

Indeed, starting a game without any shots on goal in the first 12 minutes of play is not very encouraging for a victory. We can even say that it is very difficult to hope to win this way.

Nevertheless, the Habs managed to come back from behind and even take the lead with three consecutive goals, but again, the Penguins are a very good hockey team and they came back into the game too.

According to what the players said after the game, they were not ready to start this game, which raised the ire of Gilbert Delorme and Renaud Lavoie, on BPM Sports.

You're playing against Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kristopher Letang. How can you not be ready? - Gilbert Delorme

Is preparation up to the coaching staff or the players?

Personally, I think the mood was perhaps too relaxed in the locker room after the great win over the Senators on Saturday night.

Giving Martin St-Louis the benefit of the doubt for his preparation, there is another issue he was singled out for. The Canadiens were down 4-3 in the third period and the players started to open up the game.

The result was quite telling, as the Penguins took advantage of the club's generosity to widen the gap and run away with the game.

The hosts suggested that it could have been the coaches who asked the players to open up the game, to be more aggressive. However, good teams don't panic like that.

In my opinion, Martin St-Louis and the players are not directly to blame, it is a combination of factors that can be summed up by a completely normal lack of maturity of the players and coaches.

They are learning to win and it is a normal process. In a few weeks, they will be ready for this type of game and they will find a way to win instead of collapsing.