Family Ties

   

     "When you're part of a team, there's a family spirit. You have to be understanding, respectful toward others, helpful towards people. I love helping people." -Martin St.Louis, August, 2025.

    "Every teammate will always be a brother to me." - Nick Suzuki, January, 2026

    The Canadiens have built their young team around the concept of family: loyalty, having each other's backs, supporting everyone as they work together to build a winner. In the beginning, four years ago, everyone bought into the concept. The up-and-coming players were just getting into the league all together, learning as they went. The team has grown and gelled as a unit, but now things are changing.

    When the players came in as beginners, it was easier to sell the idea of the team being a family. Now some have developed more quickly or farther than others. Some brothers are inevitably finding themselves looking in from the outside while others thrive.

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    There's been a lot of chatter in the last couple of weeks about the Habs' rebuild entering a new phase. With an entirely healthy roster, St.Louis has to make personnel decisions he'd rather not. Beyond that though, there's the delicate balance of emotion and pragmatism he's got to achieve within himself.

    St.Louis is a passionate guy who seems to genuinely care about his players. He's invested in their growth and development so it can't be easy for him on a personal level to park Sam Montembeault and Patrik Laine. He wants to give them every chance to improve and he's tried that. It's not working for them this season, and the coach has to put his emotion and his family feeling aside for the good of the team. It's not easy to tell a proud veteran like Brendan Gallagher he's sitting either. 

    It's going to get harder to push the "family" philosophy when some members get shoved aside.

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    In some ways, St.Louis is on just as steep a learning curve as his players. When he started, he was free to be patient with rookie mistakes, to have few expectations and to use his available players as he saw fit. With injuries, inexperience and general holes in the lineup, he didn't have much to lose. Now he's got experienced, healthy players and there's competition for jobs. Now his decisions are beginning to have real consequences for the players individually and the team as a whole. That carries a new level of pressure for the coach. It's fresh territory for him too.

    A lot will depend on how players deal with becoming spare parts, or just not needed at all. If they're able to keep that "family" feeling going, if they're able to smile even when they don't play. If players are unhappy they'll take away from the group feeling of wellbeing and when that happens, it creates tension that makes it harder to remain confident. Monitoring the team mood and ensuring nobody becomes a distraction will become more important a part of the coach's job.

    That's where Martin St.Louis' new challenge lies. It's not good enough to make the tough decisions about who to play and who to sit anymore. Now there's a level of emotional detachment he's going to have to develop in order to  avoid burning out in that department. It's a blessing to have a passionate coach, but he's going to have to moderate how invested he allows himself to be. And it will be harder to promote the family vibe when he maintains a professional distance.

    The balance will be tough to achieve because it can't be much fun to learn your family doesn't need you anymore. It's probably less fun to have to tell that to a kid you feel like you've raised to be an NHLer.

    When St.Louis masters the skills of diplomacy and managing disappointment he'll be an even better coach. If anyone can marry empathy with cold facts, it's probably him.