BROSSARD, Que. — It starts with the player.
That’s what Martin St. Louis always says, and it’s true.
It’s why St. Louis, who played 1,241 games (regular-season and post-season combined) over his Hall-of-Fame career, also always talks about “steering or guiding a player in a certain direction,” rather than demanding they take a certain one.
He’s coaching one of the youngest teams in the NHL, and he knows the growth of its youngest players depends more on their self-realization — and actualization — than anything else. It’s why he focuses on guiding them through that process rather than just giving them the answers, and it’s what makes him the right coach for this team.
St. Louis’s nurturing approach has been at the heart of positive development we’ve seen from all the young players over the last few years in Montreal, and it’s paying off with his youngest player right now.
Would the coach have liked for it to have paid off sooner with Juraj Slafkovsky? Absolutely.
But as St. Louis rightly pointed out after the Canadiens practised on Monday, experience is a better teacher than he’ll ever be.
“There’s a timeline, there’s a chain of events that’s gotta happen,” St. Louis said. “And when the players take responsibility and have their own moments of reflection, that’s more powerful than me (saying) ‘Do this, do that.’”
St. Louis is one of many people in the Canadiens’ organization who spent a fair portion of this season steering and guiding Slafkovsky towards realizing he needs to start with perpetually moving his six-foot-three, 225-pound body to his advantage on the forecheck so he can unlock the other skills that made him such a productive player over the last half of last season.
But the coach knows better than anyone the reason the 20-year-old finally did that more in a 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators Saturday than he has in any other game this season is because the player finally convinced himself it was what he had to do.
How did Slafkovsky do that before scoring a goal, registering five shots on net and a career-high eight hits in the win over the Senators? Trial and error, and then some much-needed time away from the rink to properly process those attempts and mistakes and draw some meaningful conclusions.
No matter what anyone said to him, Slafkovsky couldn’t seem to figure it out for himself through the first 53 games of this season.
The first-overall pick in 2022 struggled in posting just eight goals and 30 points through the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. It was a big step back from scoring 13 goals and 30 points over his last 33 games last season, and his emotional response to it ultimately clouded his ability to quickly adjust.
“The failure — if you see it as failure — becomes an emotional weight,” said St. Louis. “If you see it as a learning process, now you look for the answers. That’s what you learn (is that) the answers are everywhere. But if you’re so wrapped up with the emotions of failing, you’re wasting time.”
Before Slafkovsky got so wrapped up in the emotions of his failings, Arber Xhekaj did.
The defenceman started training camp talking about taking the next step and bearing the responsibility he felt in his third season to become a role model for younger players emerging.
But when the season started, Xhekaj’s next step was backward.
It helped that it wasn’t the first time he stepped backwards since joining the Canadiens in 2022.
When we spoke with Xhekaj on Monday, he said going to Laval for 17 games last season was “a mental hit” he didn’t immediately recover from.
But once Xhekaj did, he found a fast route to fixing his problems.
“The more you fail, the more you learn,” Xhekaj said. “Success breeds confidence, but anytime you fail it’s not really a failure. It’s just a learning step that there’s something you’ve got to change or adjust to get around that hump in the road.”
The 24-year-old made quick adjustments after a rocky October, and he’s been steady and reliable ever since — a player who can be counted on for 17-18 minutes, like he was in Ottawa on Saturday.
What Xhekaj gained from that was much more than just confidence. He now has a foundation to return to when things slip, and he also now has the self-awareness to quickly identify what’s slipping and correct it.
“That’s when you become the teacher,” he said. “It’s when you can reflect on your own mistakes and you know before they (the coaches) do and they don’t even have to tell you.”
No one had to tell Xhekaj he ended up on the wrong side of a player during Saturday’s game. He went to tell director of development Adam Nicholas about that play he’d like to have back and then suggested to us that’s not something he’d have necessarily been able to do beforehand.
“Coming into this league, there’s so many things you have to learn and figure out,” Xhekaj said. “It’s not just struggles; there’s just some things you didn’t even know.”
Cole Caufield said the same thing when we spoke to him right after speaking with Xhekaj.
The sniper, who entered the NHL after breaking Auston Matthews’s scoring record with the United States National Development Program Team, potted four goals and five points in his first 10 games before scoring four more and 12 more points in 20 playoff games to help the Canadiens to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. Caufield then experienced a drought like none other he’d been through at any level of hockey, posting just three goals in 33 games.
Just like Slafkovsky (when Slafkovsky entered as a highly touted rookie), Caufield was struggling for the very first time in his hockey career and, just like Slafkovsky, he needed some guidance on how to deal with it.
St. Louis gave it to Caufield soon after being hired in February of 2022, and he’s steered him towards becoming a much more complete player ever since.
But Caufield wouldn’t have become one without realizing some things for himself and submitting to some big adjustments he had to make. He talked with us about having to get used to having the puck on his stick less often, about not being the main transporter of it like he was at the University of Wisconsin, and about the value of experience he gained along the way to make the necessary changes that would help him become the player who’s now just two goals from establishing a new career high.
Caufield scored 28 in 82 games last season, but he’s got 27 in 57 this season and can sense more are coming for him.
He can sense more are coming for Slafkovsky, too.
“As an individual, if you’re doing the right things and you’re being really good with what your strengths are, I think that goes a long way,” Caufield said.
He added he was very encouraged to see Slafkovsky playing to his strengths in Saturday’s game.
Slafkovsky beat himself up quite a bit for not being able to do that through the first few months of the season. He couldn’t seem to shake his frustration, and no one would’ve blamed him for being confused about what he should be doing to produce better results.
You could see Slafkovsky using his great hands, vision and scoring touch to try to make the plays that brought him to the league and gave him success in it last season. You could see him resisting pocketing those skills to play a more grinding and exacting style.
But over the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, watching Brady Tkachuk lead USA with that grinding style to access his great hands, vision and scoring touch made Slafkovsky say to himself that’s how you must play to have success in this league.
That’s what he told reporters in Montreal ahead of Tkachuk scoring again in the championship game versus Canada. And then he went out and emulated Tkachuk while Tkachuk watched Saturday’s game from the sidelines.
“It’s just funny how it comes when no one needs to tell me and I just focus on myself and do the things that I want to do,” said Slafkovsky on Monday. “And it comes natural and looks good on the TV and feels good on the ice. Get more opportunities, more shots, more puck, more plays. … It’s just one game, but it was good.”
That one game was something to build on.
There are 25 to go for the Canadiens, and Slafkovsky might not play them all like he did on Saturday. But he now has a foundation to get back to if things begin to slip again.
St. Louis didn’t build it for Slafkovsky, he just put the bricks in his hands. He will continue to give him the materials, but it’ll continue to be up to the player to decide how to use them.
