MONTREAL — Last season, the word was different. But the feeling upon hearing it was similar.
There are words hockey teams use only in times of great urgency, words that suggest something has to change, and it has to change quickly.
Last season, that word was “soft,” a word Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis used twice after a 5-2 loss to the Bruins in Boston to describe how his young team played. And the use of that word triggered a week-long project to re-establish the Canadiens’ forechecking game.
The Canadiens did that, back then. They re-established their forechecking game by fixing how they forecheck because St. Louis made a point of fixing it, spending basically the entirety of two full practices working on nothing but that.
That game in Boston last season was on Nov. 18. Over the next few months, once that forecheck was fixed, St. Louis repeatedly stated how the Canadiens needed to trust that forecheck, how they needed to get pucks deep and go to work spending time in the offensive zone.
The use of that word, soft, didn’t necessarily turn the Canadiens’ season around. But it did make it clear that something needed to change in the way the Canadiens play, in how they define their identity, a process that is gradual when you are a rebuilding team.
Thursday morning, almost exactly 11 months after that fateful game in Boston, St. Louis was talking about what would be necessary to beat a tired Los Angeles Kings team later that evening.
It was, essentially, to trust their forecheck, the same message St. Louis has been trying to hammer home for the better part of a calendar year.
“I think it’s to manage the start of the game well,” St. Louis said. “We should be the team with more energy since they played last night, so it will be about not shooting ourselves in the foot early and giving them life. It’s about keeping things simple, especially early, and to continue to build our game hoping we separate ourselves from them, and then being able to close out the game.
“Things will get more difficult for us if we’re stubborn early in the game and give them life.”
This season, the Canadiens have to hope the word uttered that will lead to a change in how they play was said Thursday night. And it wasn’t said by the coach. It was said by the captain.
“It was an immature effort from us, especially with them playing yesterday and getting in late,” Nick Suzuki said after the Canadiens lost 4-1 to the Kings. “I think we gave them too much life and let them feel comfortable in the game. It’s on us to be better than that.”
Basically, they did exactly what St. Louis said in the morning that the Canadiens could not do, under any circumstances. They were stubborn in the first period, trying to make plays that weren’t there, refusing to put pucks deep and forecheck. St. Louis noted the Canadiens committed 14 turnovers in the first period, and they did so because they refused to trust their forecheck, something St. Louis has been trying to get them to do for a week this season, and something he spent several weeks last season trying to get his players to understand.
“It’s unacceptable,” St. Louis said after the game. “It gave them life.”
The word, in this instance, is not “unacceptable” but rather “immature.” Not quite as jarring as “soft” but still a word that speaks to where the Canadiens are as a team. This is a young group, yes, but one that is hoping to take a competitive step this season. And the Canadiens will not take that step if they don’t understand what winning hockey looks like in the NHL, where making skill plays at either blue line often leads to turnovers and where you need to be able to live to fight another day and accept the fact that not every shift will be spent carrying the puck into the offensive zone and making plays.
Unless, of course, your name is Lane Hutson, who played more than half the game after Mike Matheson was injured in the first period and once again showed that executing zone entries with control is part of his DNA.
But for everyone else, being told that morning and prior to the game that the first period will be so crucial to winning and that first period had to be spent putting pucks deep and pressuring the Kings defence and forcing them to defend because they are tired and ignoring that message is a serious sign of immaturity.
“Just understanding their shoes and how we can make it not fun for them at the start of the game,” Suzuki said. “We just turned a lot of pucks over, gave them momentum, they were feeling better about themselves. I know how I feel on a back-to-back, it’s not the easiest, and we kind of gave them life to find their game.”
If we go back to that game in Boston last season, that word, soft, led to identifiable changes in how the Canadiens play. And it was St. Louis who created that change.
Where should that change come from this season?
St. Louis has been talking about needing to play a deep game, needing to trust the forecheck, needing to avoid making cute plays at the blue lines, needing to simplify things offensively for a while now, relatively speaking at this early stage of the season.
There was a word that was presented to St. Louis after the game that appeared to be taboo to him as well. That word was “proactive” in the sense that when your message continues not to get through, at what point do you become proactive in making other changes to ensure that point gets across?
He didn’t like the question.
“No, no, I’m proactive about it,” he said, cutting off the question. “What are we, in game five of the season? It’s five games into the season.
“I’m definitely proactive, and it’s going to get fixed.”
Being proactive would mean making identifiable changes to a lineup configuration that is clearly not working. Kirby Dach has had a slow start to the season, and Suzuki’s line is not necessarily dominating games, so some changes there could help get the message across that what’s happened after five games has not been good enough.
That’s a coaching decision.
But the person who used the word “immature” is probably best placed to make sure that immaturity is left in the rearview mirror.
“It’s just mistakes that, if we want to actually be a good team in this league, we have to clean up,” Suzuki said. “We know that and we need to be better.”
If the coach’s message isn’t getting through, that is on the coach to make sure it gets through, but some of it is also on the players for refusing to allow it to get through.
Suzuki has been front and centre in stating that the league is sleeping on them, that the Canadiens have a better team than everyone thinks.
Yes, this game against the Kings was only the fifth game of the season, but it was a prime opportunity to prove Suzuki right because it was a game that good teams win, and the Canadiens didn’t.
The coach should wear that, but the players should, too, because that was a prime opportunity to prove what they’ve been selling since the start of training camp, and they blew it.
But what’s important now is how they respond. And that applies as much to the coach as it does to the players. Because even if it’s only the fifth game of the season, they need to treat this with the same urgency as they did after that game in Boston last season. And they need to do so immediately if they want to actually be a good team in this league.
(Top photo of the Kings’ Quinton Byfield and Canadiens’ Kirby Dach exchanging words during the third period: Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
