As the Montreal Canadiens navigate challenging times and Martin St-Louis faces his first real test as head coach, there’s some noteworthy news.
We are seeing several new developments.
Martin St-Louis is beginning to implement changes he had seldom done since he became the Canadiens’ head coach.
This includes rising tensions at press conferences, a tough practice on Friday, and an added element: he significantly shortened his bench in yesterday’s game, impacting Arber Xhekaj.
Indeed, St-Louis opted to drastically limit his bench during the match against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which affected two players notably.
“St-Louis shortened his bench. Xhekaj and Struble only had one shift in the first 13 minutes of the second period.”
Xhekaj logged just 11 minutes and 56 seconds of ice time, nearly matching Jayden Struble’s 12 minutes and 23 seconds.
Thus, it could be said that St-Louis effectively played the game with just four defensemen.
At the very least, his top-four defensemen were clearly distinguished from the third pair.
Mike Matheson played almost 26 minutes, Kaiden Guhle over 22 minutes, Lane Hutson more than 24 minutes, and David Savard nearly 20 minutes.
This is a situation to monitor in future games to see if this pattern persists and if St-Louis continues to shorten his bench.
Arber Xhekaj, a 23-year-old left-shot defenseman standing 6-foot-4 and weighing 240 pounds, was never drafted and has tallied 0 points in 9 games this season for Montreal.
He has a -5 plus/minus rating, though his impact on the game extends beyond the statistics.
