Tortorella on St. Louis joining Montreal: ''I think this is a great fit''

One of the first phone calls Martin St. Louis made after accepting the Canadiens interim head coaching role was to John Tortorella.

St. Louis talked with Tortorella for nearly two hours on his six hour drive from Connecticut to Montreal, asking his former bench boss what he should expected as a first-time coach in the NHL. He told Torts, "This is the right time."

John Tortorella, who coached St. Louis for parts of seven seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, believes his former player is a great fit for the Montreal Canadiens.

"I think this is a great fit — where the team is and Marty is," Tortorella told The Athletic Wednesday night. "He's just starting his career, and it's going to be a rebuild there. I think they can all grow together. He has such a great hockey mind. He's going to love it. They're going to love him. And they'll get it done."

"He's going to make mistakes," Tortorella added. "Just like players, it's a game of mistakes. Coaches make mistakes. I'm sure along the way his emotions will get in the way. He's an emotional guy, but it's a huge part of what he'll bring to the team. There's going to be some medias that's going to try to get him into a corner. He'll have to learn."

The Laval (Quebec) native's highest level of coaching was a U13 AAA in the United States, but during the 2018-19 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who's head coach at the time was John Tortorella, brought him in as a special teams consultant.

"(Montreal) is a pretty big area out there as far as people wanting a piece of you every day — a lot of ex-players, a lot of people asking questions. I'm sure he'll do fine."

St. Louis will make his National Hockey League coaching debut on Thursday night against the Washington Capitals. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. on TSN2 and RDS.

Martin St. Louis spent good chunk of his drive to Montreal Wednesday on the phone with his former coach John Tortorella. «This is the right time,» St. Louis told him. I spoke with Tortorella on why St. Louis is a «great fit» as @CanadiensMTL interim coach https://t.co/wgy51xLpe0— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) February 10, 2022

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