With the salaries players earn in the NHL, it would take a real passion for the game to want to get into coaching next.
St. Louis and New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy are two examples of this.
I asked St. Louis a few years ago why he thinks he and Roy are the only two Hall of Fame players coaching in the NHL.
The two current Canadiens players I see most becoming coaches – because of the way they see the game, their intelligence, their personality and communication skills – are Nick Suzuki and Mike Matheson.
Can you get the vibe on how the Canadiens will play after the Olympic break? Or is this someone’s guess at this point?
Ed Helinsky
I’m sure the Canadiens will be excited coming out of the Olympic break, with their first game in three weeks next Thursday at the Bell Center against the New York Islanders (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS). But so do all the other teams vying for a playoff spot, like the Canadiens last season after the 4 Nations Face-Off break in the schedule.
The Canadiens had a record of 25-26-5 prior to last season’s 4 Nations Face-Off break and then went 15-5-6 in their final 26 games to earn the final wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They are in much better form this season – with a 32-17-8 record and a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division heading into the Olympic break – after going 4-0-1 in their last five games.
“It’s not going to get any easier,” Brendan Gallagher said Tuesday after the Canadiens held their first practice of the Olympic break. “I think you’re going to see a lot of desperation on a lot of teams, and it’s going to be important for us to pick up where we left off.”
According to Hockey-Reference.com The Canadiens’ chances of making the playoffs this season are 88.7 percent.
#Habs #Mailbag #Canadiens #forwards #playoffs