Comeback win over Blue Jackets proof of Canadiens' cohesive leadership

MONTREAL— It was a bullet fired from a coach who usually keeps them in his gun, and it hit its intended target.

Martin St. Louis came into the room after a lackluster first period and first-hand accounts of his address suggest he didn’t quite go full Tortorella on the Canadiens. But St. Louis did emulate his fiery former coach in his frank assessment of their performance and ended up sparking the 4-3 comeback they completed in overtime.

“We were stubborn in the first period, and as a coach, in my opinion, you have to be careful about using your ammunition,” St. Louis said afterwards. “You have to be careful, and I try to always be rational. But after a first period like that, we had to have a very honest conversation.”

Cole Caufield scored the winning goal with 1:04 remaining in the extra frame, but Montreal’s momentum started to turn 27 seconds into the middle period, just minutes after St. Louis’ unholstered his gun and fired it in the Canadiens room.

It was captain Nick Suzuki, who capped a strong shift with his first goal of the season.

After Columbus’ Emil Bemstrom scored his second power-play goal of the night to make it 3-1 Blue Jackets, Canadiens assistant captain Mike Matheson responded on his team’s power play with 17 seconds remaining in the second period.

Sean Monahan, like Caufield, might not wear a letter on his jersey, but both of them are considered leaders on the Canadiens, and both of them connected on the tying goal with 12:12 to go in the third period.

“I liked the response,” St. Louis said.

It came from everyone on the Canadiens, but it was punctuated by the leaders.

There’s something to be said of that. It is the mark of a healthy team culture when the leadership group is in lockstep with the coach, and this win was further evidence the Canadiens have that.

“I feel I’m definitely close to them, and I think they know that I can relate with everything they’re going through,” St. Louis said. “And I’m not trying to tell them to be a certain way, I’m not trying to give them the answer of how to act. I’m trying to steer them in the right direction, and I think any kind of leadership, I think it starts at the top. I try to lead my own way, and I want them to lead in their own way, but it’s important that we just pass that down all the way through our group…”

That’s the way it has to be, and that’s what happened against the Blue Jackets to extend Montreal’s record to 4-2-1 on the season.

The leaders made the biggest plays at both ends of the ice. Suzuki stepped up immediately after the first. Matheson blocked five shots and directed six at goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. Monahan won 14 of 25 faceoffs and scored a huge goal.

And then there was Caufield, who had a goal, two assists, eight shots on net and 12 attempts, and said afterwards, “I think, today, it was Marty (who made the difference).”

Samuel Montembeault made one, too, stopping 31 shots—three of them we’d categorize as huge and timely, kicking out his pads when the Canadiens were killing a penalty through the first 1:05 of overtime.

Everyone else fell in line in between after St. Louis came into the dressing room and unloaded.

“He wasn’t happy with the way we were playing, and neither were we,” said Rafael Harvey-Pinard. “I think we made a lot of turnovers near the blue lines and started their rush with our play in the offensive zone and made it too easy for them.

“We were motivated for the second and third, we came out hard and made a big comeback into the game.”

“Sometimes, it takes what he did tonight,” said Montembeault. “I’m happy he came in like that.”

Where it went from there was even more important. The transference from St. Louis to the Canadiens leaders to the rest of the players is the big victory.

It’s an essential part of what this young team is trying to build.

“It’s my responsibility is try to pass it down to them,” said St. Louis. “I can’t ask them to do something that I wouldn’t, or ask them to act a certain way that I wouldn’t act like that, and I think it’s important for them to pass it down to the younger players.

"That’s the biggest gift of being a leader is to be able to pass it down. And there’s so many forms to lead, and everybody’s different, but I think they’re doing a good job to be able to pass it down to the rest of our group… We have so many roots, and that’s what we’re trying to have is strong roots, and that’s how you build a team and a culture with leadership. (It’s) not just one or two leaders, you need a bunch of them. It’s gotta get passed down.”