For the first time in years, Montreal Canadiens fans had something to cheer about at the end of a season. 48-24-10 record, 106 points, Eastern Conference Final run (those lottery years hurt but thats what they were buying). Martin St. Louis turned this organization around faster than almost anyone dared predict.
But falling to Carolina in five games in the ECF sharpens the mind. The Canadiens aren’t a project anymore. They’re a contender and questions about their coach aren’t any longer whether he can build a culture (he has already done that). They’re whether he can win with it.
St. Louis: Believer, Builder But Is He Ready for the Biggest Stage?
Credit where it’s due: what St. Louis has done here is remarkable. Montreal won 30 games in ’23-24, 40 last year (48 total) a 30-plus point improvement on the Atlantic Division standings that got him fifth-place Jack Adams consideration. His players trust him and they play for him.
Still, the playoff loss to Carolina raised uncomfortable questions. The criticism levelled most consistently at St. Louis after the postseason was about bench management, in-game adjustments and rigidity when a series tightens (Tampa Bay first round series nearly slipped away before Montreal found its legs). Two anonymous sources (reporters Réjean Tremblay relayed them) said they weren’t sure St. Louis is the coach Montreal will win a Stanley Cup with. Easy to wave off anonymous sources. Harder to wave off the question itself: can he adapt when margin for error shrinks to almost nothing in a Game 6 down a goal on the road?
The hiring of Derek Lalonde as associate coach is a direct response to those concerns. Lalonde won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay, he has been an NHL head coach before and was hired specifically for his knowledge on the penalty kill and in the defensive zone. St Louis has stuck by his man-to-man defensive-zone system despite constant criticism we will see what changes
The Penalty Kill Has to Get Better
Montreal’s penalty-kill percentage was 78.2% last season 18th in the NHL. That’s not good enough for a team with real Stanley Cup aspirations. In the playoffs special teams usually decide series and getting outgunned on the PK against Carolina was one of the things that accelerated Montreal’s exit. This is on the coaches (which is why Lalonde was brought in) it’s the single biggest fixable weakness under St. Louis’ control,
The Goaltending Situation Is a Coaching Test,
What happened in net last season was messy and how St. Louis handled it says as much about him as any line change did. Sam Montembeault’s groin injury opened the door for Jakub Dobeš and the 25-year-old walked through it. But that kinda forced Martys hand in to playing Dobes because before then it was all a mess
Dobeš and Montembeault are back for 2026-27 and the tandem question doesn’t go away because a starter emerged. St. Louis will have to manage workload, manage a benching or two and figure out what happens with fowler
Managing minutes and lineups
Marty has made a lot of questionable decisions When it came to managing minutes and lineup decisions. And that is a huge thing that Must get better if this team wants to have any chance at competing figuring out who plays when who plays where and who plays with who.
The Young Core Still Has Room to Grow, and Needs To
The next level of the core has to step up and how St. Louis uses them will dictate that Juraj Slafkovsky is only 22 and hasn’t hit his ceiling yet if he takes another step this year it makes Nick Suzuki and Caufield even more dangerous by stretching defenses in ways they can’t now and it’s on the coaching staff to keep putting him in positions to get there. Demidov still needs to develop his physicality and awareness defensively; offensive gifts are obvious but durability in tight playoff series calls for more and two way maturity gets built or stalled under a coach’s watch.
The foundation is exciting from 40 wins to 48 and Eastern Conference Final in one season isn’t a fluke but Carolina showed there’s still a gap between where Montreal is and where it needs to be, so closing that gap falls on St. Louis and his staff. He has the locker room’s trust and a track record hard to argue with. Now comes the part where none of that matters because what happens in April and June will be judged entirely by what happens in April and June next year.