NHL veteran buries Martin St-Louis coaching with the most savage takedown of the year
Pierre McGuire opened fire on Martin St-Louis Tuesday morning, calling the Canadiens head coach's Game 7 bench management a real problem in the win over Buffalo.
McGuire's line on The Sick Podcast didn't leave room for nuance. "It was wrong what they did with Arber Xhekaj," he said. That's a direct shot at a coaching call on a series-deciding night.
Montreal won that Game 7 by an OT score of 3-2 on the road. The result is glorious. The bench process, per McGuire, was something else entirely.
The criticism widened from there. McGuire said St-Louis struggled to generate offense and questioned how players in and out of the lineup were being deployed in the biggest spot of the spring.
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He pointed to Oliver Kapanen as a specific example. Dressed, then barely used. That kind of usage in a Game 7 raises questions about why he was in the lineup at all.
The Xhekaj piece carries weight. The big defenseman went plus-5 across 13 playoff games with 1 goal and 1 assist, and was producing physical minutes the Habs needed.
Why Jakub Dobes is the only reason this critique isn't louder
McGuire also said Montreal got bailed out late in the series by Jakub Dobes. The Czech netminder posted a .910 save percentage across 14 playoff games and 5 wins.
That's the cushion that lets a coach survive shaky bench decisions. Goaltending hid the cracks. McGuire's point is that goaltending shouldn't have to.
The Canadiens finished the regular season 48-24-10 for 106 points, ranked 6th overall. That's the standard now. Round-of-16 wins don't buy patience anymore in this market.
Round 3 starts Thursday in Carolina. The Hurricanes don't lose to teams that mismanage matchups and waste roster spots on healthy bodies who don't play.
So what does St-Louis do next? Trim the rotation? Lock in his bottom six? The Kapanen question alone forces a decision before puck drop at PNC Arena.
A coach gets to learn on the job until he doesn't. Pierre McGuire just put the timer on national television.
If Montreal stumbles in Game 1, the same tape gets played louder. And the bench will be the first thing dissected, not the scoreboard.
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MAY 20, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Dylan Coghlan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ben Hutton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Ross Colton | - | - | - | |
| Nic Dowd | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| Jack Eichel | - | - | - | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | - | - | |
| Carter Hart | - | - | - | |
| Nazem Kadri | - | - | - | |
| William Karlsson | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||