Cowan: Canadiens add exciting new chapter in Year 4 of their rebuild

Canadiens management could write a great book about how to rebuild an NHL team.

In their fourth full season of a rebuild, the Canadiens are the youngest team in the playoffs for the second straight year. Heading into Game 5 against the Sabres Thursday in Buffalo (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports) with the best-of-seven second-round series tied 2-2, the Canadiens were two wins away from the Eastern Conference final and 10 wins away from a 25th championship banner hanging from the rafters of the Bell Centre.

Impressive — even if they don’t reach that ultimate goal this season.

“There’s so many parts of the game that you have to be detailed in and it takes time to build that,” says Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis, addressing his players during a timeout in Game 4 against the Buffalo Sabres in Montreal on Tuesday. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette

The Sabres missed the playoffs for a record 14 straight years before this season. The Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs for the 10th straight year this season.

Since being hired as head coach on Feb. 9, 2022, Martin St. Louis has known what style of hockey he wanted the Canadiens to play, but he also realized it would take time. From the start, he has talked about being patient and going page by page and chapter by chapter with the rebuilding plan.

“I don’t know if you ever get to the end of the book because I feel you always keep writing,” St. Louis said in January of last season. “But we’re definitely in a really good place. There’s blank pages always and our job (as coaches) is when you feel you have a good story, there’s more pages to keep writing and that’s what we’re trying to do. And don’t just write to write. Have a purpose if you’re going to keep writing and that’s what we’re doing. We’re going to add things. We’ll make adjustments and stuff. But the power of the pen.

“I feel coaches, we’re salesmen and it’s how you convince them by example, by discussions that it makes sense for them,” St. Louis added. “Because if it makes sense for them, they’re teaching each other. They come off the ice, they know what they should have done. To me, when you have the players teaching themselves, it’s because it’s very clear, and I feel we’re getting there.”

At the time, Canadiens forward Cole Caufield said: “It’s one chapter at a time, and when you move on, you can’t forget the chapter before. I think that’s why it’s taken some time.”

Not a lot of time.

Before Game 4 against the Sabres, I asked St. Louis why his players have been able to read his rebuilding book so quickly — apart from having a great teacher.

“It was a figure of speech,” St. Louis said with a smile when reminded of his comments from last year. “My point at that time is I’m not going to give them so much stuff and expect them to absorb everything. It takes time to build a team, so you try to go one step at a time. You’re not going to come in and (say), ‘Read this, we’re playing like that tomorrow.’ So I think you got to be patient with how you’re building your team.

“There’s so many parts of the game that you have to be detailed in and it takes time to build that,” he added. “I feel like we’ve gone at the right pace and it’s not necessarily that pace wasn’t set in stone — you got to go at that pace. Your team talks to you. You got to listen to your team and you got to observe and see if they’re ready for the next thing. I’ve liked all the steps that we’ve taken and we’re going to keep continuing to take steps and still add some details and being able to adjust based on what kind of style you’re playing.

“I think that’s just the process of maturing as a team. But I like where our game’s at. It’s been fun to go through it, but it’s not like we started this and had it set in stone we got to go at this pace. The group has been very engaged and that’s allowed us to keep moving forward.”

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President of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes have provided St. Louis with players to help speed up the rebuilding process.

Thirteen of the 20 players the Canadiens dressed for Game 4 against the Sabres were acquired after this rebuild started.

Four players were drafted: Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov and Jacob Fowler.

Seven players were acquired through trades: Mike Matheson, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Alexandre Carrier, Zachary Bolduc, Noah Dobson and Phillip Danault.

Two players were signed as free agents: Joe Veleno and Alexandre Texier.

Danault, acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in December in exchange for one of two second-round picks the Canadiens held for this year’s NHL Draft, is very impressed by the rebuilding job management has done.

“I feel like they’re just one step ahead,” Danault said. “They know exactly what they need to do and what player they need to get. They like putting the bricks one after one and it just seems like it works every time.

“It’s good to see from management and it shows up on the ice, too,” Danault added. “They get the results, which says a lot.”

It’s a great book, but it’s not finished yet.

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