Martin St. Louis Takes a Shot at Mike Babcock

Martin St. Louis is heading into his second full season as the Head Coach of the Montreal Canadiens. In that time St. Louis has helped some of the Canadiens' best prospects succeed. This is just about as opposite from Mike Babcock as a coach can get.

In an interview done recently with St. Louis, he commented on the situation with Babcock.

St. Louis brings up the idea that players, coaches, and staff all need to be evolving. He also eludes to the idea that Babcock did not do this and that is why he failed.

NHL fans constantly complain about the recycling of head coaches. While this is still pretty common a couple of the best up-and-coming teams in the East have first-time NHL head coaches.

The Montreal Canadiens have the aforementioned Martin St. Louis. He leads a young group of players highlighted by the likes of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky into the future. The Canadiens are not in the playoff picture as of now but are drastically improved from before St. Louis arrived.

The other team is the Buffalo Sabres under Don Granato. Granato was an assistant under previous head coach Ralph Kreuger and took over after he was fired. Since then Granato has implemented a fast offensive style of play that suits the young talented Sabres. They are now on track to be in contention for a playoff spot for the first time in over a decade.

Teams who recycle head coaches tend to find that those coaches struggle with the same issues regardless of the place they are coaching. New coaches give a new voice and perspective on the game which generally leads to more success.