WASHINGTON | There is no denying that Martin St-Louis has moved to another level this season. The days of sheltering his players after a disappointing evening are well and truly over.
At the end of this 6-3 loss at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, the Canadian head coach did not hesitate to give his assessment of the performance of his team.
“In third, we vomited on each other, it’s simple,” said St-Louis straight away, until then still satisfied with the effort of his flock.
“We played a good first period. That of a team that plays on the road. We didn’t have much, but we didn’t give them many chances either. It was the start we wanted. Second, there was nothing perfect. There were mistakes on both sides,” he said.
If he rebelled against the third period, it was because his troops allowed three goals, including two in the space of 37 seconds. A situation which is more likely to arise when the level of confidence is affected, as has been the case for almost ten days.
“It’s certain that we have a group that is fragile at the moment,” he admitted half-heartedly. But we do it to ourselves. We stick our fingers down our throats. It’s not food poisoning.”
In short, we understand that St-Louis was upset for part of the evening. And it wasn’t because of candy indigestion like that which risks happening to parents who have secretly rummaged through their children’s harvest.
Bad habits to change
In the Habs locker room, the jerseys were always immaculate white and the trash cans didn’t smell sour. But the speech was essentially the same.
“We didn’t play the same way as during the first two periods,” said Brendan Gallagher. In the third, we started doing the things we talked about after the last game again. These are bad habits that need to be gotten rid of.”
Giving up or leaving the game plan as soon as the team falls behind is certainly one of the elements to be corrected. On these two points, we note a big difference compared to last year. Unlike last season, we no longer feel the Habs fighting with the same fervor until the end.
“We change the way we play because we try too hard to chase the match,” analyzed Kaiden Guhle, who was returning to the game after a five-game absence. We need to calm down. We’re trying to do too much and we’re doing it wrong.”
Watch the full press briefing in the video above.
