The two coaches in the NHL Eastern Conference final — the Canadiens’ Martin St. Louis and the Carolina Hurricanes’ Rod Brind’Amour — have a lot in common.
St. Louis, 50, played 16 seasons in the NHL and won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. Brind’Amour, 55, played 20 seasons in the NHL and won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006.
Both remain in fantastic shape — Brind’Amour earned the nickname “Rod the Bod” as a player — and look like they could still play.
St. Louis earned US$57.56 million during his playing career, while Brind’Amour earned US$50.86 million.
Both are financially secure and don’t need the jobs they hold. But it’s a passion for the game that keeps them involved.
“I love what I’m doing, and I’ll do it till somebody tells me I can’t do it anymore,” St. Louis said during this playoff run. “I love hockey, but I have a life outside hockey. So I’ll go watch my kids play (if he gets fired). I’m good with that.”
St. Louis and Brind’Amour don’t have the pressure of needing their jobs, which can be a big bonus. They are both modern-day coaches and can relate to young players, which is why they have had success in today’s NHL.
“Obviously, he’s a very intense coach, and you can see that behind the bench,” Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said about Brind’Amour. “But he’s just a nice guy. I can attest to it, and I’m sure Jaccob (Slavin) can, as we’ve gotten kind of older here and we start families. I think I saw a clip yesterday of (Slavin’s) son out there (on the ice) and (Brind’Amour’s) passing with him and stuff.
“He obviously brought in the family culture that we have here,” Martinook added. “He treats us all like we’re part of his family, and that’s a big thing about our team. We say that we’re a family, and I think when we start bringing our kids in and they’re saying hi to your coach and playing hockey with your coach, it’s pretty cool. We’ve been with him for a long time, so it’s just kind of second nature that we have easy conversations with him.”
Sounds a lot like St. Louis.
A big advantage Brind’Amour has over St. Louis is that he has been with his team much longer, and it has shown, as the Hurricanes took a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 Wednesday at the Bell Centre (8 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports). The Hurricanes have made the playoffs in all eight seasons with Brind’Amour as their coach and are in the conference final for the third time in four years.
The Hurricanes play a very mature and connected game and will shoot the puck from anywhere, while the Canadiens play more of a puck-possession game. The Hurricanes lost Game 1 to the Canadiens 6-2 following an almost 12-day break after sweeping their first two series, but outshot Montreal 65-25 over the next two games, winning both 3-2 in overtime.
Heading into Game 4, the Hurricanes had a 10-1 record in the playoffs, while the Canadiens were 9-8.
St. Louis realizes the Canadiens — the youngest team in the playoffs — need to find more balance between puck possession and dumping pucks into the offensive zone and retrieving them if they want to beat the Hurricanes. That’s easier said than done against an experienced team that doesn’t give the opposition much time and space anywhere on the ice.
The winner of this series will face Vegas and old-school coach John Tortorella in the Stanley Cup final after the Golden Knights swept the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference final.
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour speaks to his players during third period against the Canadiens in Montreal on March 24. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
Tortorella coached St. Louis for seven seasons in Tampa and they won the Stanley Cup together in 2004. Tortorella was one of the speakers when the Lightning retired St. Louis’s No. 26 in 2017.
“Marty was a pain in the ass to coach,” Tortorella said in that speech. “He was stubborn, he was convicted, he had questions upon questions. … Question upon question about trying to find a better way to do it. Find a better way to beat that team, to beat that opponent, that player.”
St. Louis was a coach in the making at the time.
“He’s a man that has been told no so many times early in his career,” Tortorella added in that speech. “No, you’re not good enough. No, you’re too small. Fourth-line player, back to the minors, waived out. All the things that went on with him. What I respect most about him — and this is probably, I guess, the end of the game for him with his number being retired here — but he’ll never leave the game because it’s such a great story. Such a great story for all walks of life to delve into when you have a dream. Not just in hockey, but in business, in all walks of life. Read what happened with him, how he went about his business and it is just unbelievable.”
St. Louis and Brind’Amour continue to be great stories.
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