Four games into the St. Louis era, there's no question the Canadiens are already a better team and last night defeated the St. Louis Blues by a score of 3-2, giving their new Hall of Fame coach his first win as an NHL coach.
No player has improved under St. Louis as much as Cole Caufield has. Suddenly, he's playing like the star that the organization and its' fans thought he was when they drafted him 15th overall in the 2019 draft. Prior to St. Louis' arrival, the young star was mired in an awful slump and had even spent some time trying to find his game in Laval with the Canadiens' AHL-affiliate Rocket, both of which led to Caufield's being ridiculed on social media. Perhaps St. Louis' philosophy of "concepts over systems" -- which is allowing players to make their reads and play instinctually -- has unshackled Caufield and he's just playing the game and having fun again for the first time in awhile. Too, St. Louis is putting Caufield on the ice more than previous coach, Dominique Ducharme, ever did and the youngster's likely gained a lot of confidence as a result:
