The Belt

     

    When your kids are little, they're like sponges. They hear everything you say and their capacity to absorb knowledge is better than their diapers. They're sweet and funny and make you love them. In return, you teach them how to walk and talk, eat with a spoon, dress themselves and have manners. You show them how to be kind, how to share and how to cope with their big feelings. 

    Then, they start to grow up and you teach them about things like honesty, responsibility and graciousness. When they inevitably break the rules or act out, you send them to time out or you confiscate a favourite toy. You explain what they did wrong and why they need to learn not to do that again. You're a gentle, guiding hand.

    Suddenly, before you ever even register it's happened, they're teenagers. They develop ideas, values and opinions of their own and most of the time, they're not the same as yours. They roll their eyes when you advise them. They challenge you and demand to know why you set the standards you do. They know how to push your buttons and try your patience. Their mistakes grow in consequence too. Instead of writing on the wall or spilling an entire bag of flour, they're throwing parties that wreck your house and crashing your car. Sometimes they drive you around the bend and you yell at them. You may even go old-school and whip off your belt to snap it at them in frustration. 

                                🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒

    The young Canadiens players have grown into metaphorical teenagers (some not too far off being actual teenagers.)  That means their coach/dad isn't treating them like toddlers any longer. Marty St.Louis expects the early, basic lessons to be ingrained by now. He wants to work on more advanced issues, so when players regress and start wetting the bed again it sorely triggers his temper. 

    In the Habs' last game against Detroit Alex Newhook had the misfortune of making the fatal error that caused that temper to fray. Like any dad who's just had enough of kids who don't listen and repeat the same mistakes, St.Louis lost his cool and snapped.

    In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that much...just a few shouted words and a bit of swearing. For St.Louis however, it was a departure and notable for that reason. Newhook could have been any of the Canadiens players who made a big mistake on an important play. He's certainly not alone in contributing to lost points this season, but he was the one in Marty's sights at that moment. It had to be embarrassing and a bit of a shock to the system to be on the receiving end of such a rare display by a coach everyone likes and admires. It was also a learning experience for the rest of the players who know they're lucky it wasn't them to draw coach's ire and will try extra hard to avoid the same treatment.

    More than momentary frustration on St.Louis' part, the incident underlined one important fact. The kids aren't kids anymore. Sure, they're the youngest team in the league, but they're also gaining experience in every single game. Their coach is becoming harder on them because their errors have bigger consequences now than when they weren't expected to crawl out of the basement as quickly as they have. 

    Now expectations have grown and the pressure to keep improving is real. As we've seen with the healthy scratches of Brendan Gallagher and Arber Xhekaj and the benching of Sam Montembeault, the coach is getting tougher in his decision-making. He's not the guy who carries the kids on his shoulders at the parade anymore. He's the dad of teenagers who need a little more tough love these days.

                                🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒

    Fortunately, as the Canadiens continue to evolve and grow up, their coach really is an actual dad of teenagers. The same challenges facing his three growing sons face his evolving young players. And he's learning too. Just as a first-time dad grows with his kids, St.Louis is developing as a coach. A new dad doesn't have the tools to deal with teens. He learns how to teach and how to discipline as time goes on.

   St.Louis is well equipped to cope with the unexpected. He also has lots of patience...most of the time. When that patience is at an end, he's shown the kids are old enough to take it when he calls them out publicly and know they deserve it.

    The coach has been remarkable in his forbearance. St.Louis is a winner who's spent the last four-plus years clinging to patience, even though it eats him up to lose. He's about ready to move on from teaching to motivating. 

    For now he's yelling at them, but we (and they) have to expect he knows when and how to use the belt too.