All the bosses will confirm it: the first months as a manager are confusing. We observe. We doubt. We ask ourselves questions. A lot of questions.
Posted at 7:45 a.m.
What is my place? Do I have the right tone? Am I too bossy? Not enough ?
This is the phase in which Martin St-Louis finds himself. Since February, the head coach of the Canadiens has also been a boss. A first in his career. Here he is discovering the ups and downs of the life of boss.
And how is it going?
“I don’t see myself as a boss, honestly. »
An astonishing trust. Especially since these were his very first words in our editorial interview. From experience, head coaches prefer to emphasize that they are in control. I remember an Expos manager who showed up to camp dressed as an army general. I have also known coaches who have taken advantage of meetings like this to establish a balance of power with their own boss. Martin St-Louis did not come out of the same mould.
I take care of the people who take care of the team. I don’t see myself as bossto which everyone responds.
Martin St Louis
Not all head coaches think like him, he is told. He knows it. When he was an NHL player, he says, he liked to present his ideas to his coaches. “There are coaches more open than others. He chose his camp. “You have to be open. I am not a dictator. The answers are everywhere. You just have to find them. You find them more easily [en groupe] than alone. If you can put more heads, more opinions together, you can cover more blind spots. »
Its management with the Canadian will therefore be decentralized. A courageous approach, which stands out from those of many rookie managers, inclined towards micromanagement.
“We each have responsibilities. Special units, I delegate that. Afterwards, it’s not as if I didn’t have my say. My opinion matters. But it’s important to empower the world around you. If you’re in charge, and [tes instructeurs] are all robots, they don’t grow up like coaches. I don’t like to say: you take care of that, you take care of that, and after that, we’re all in our corner. »
* * *
Martin St-Louis arrived in the National League at the turn of the century. At the time, there were fewer coaches. When the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, St. Louis had only two coaches: John Tortorella and Craig Ramsay. Today, most teams have at least four. Inevitably, the tasks of a head coach have evolved.
“Having more than coaches, that helps a lot. Especially with the importance of player development. When I started playing in the League, the coaches weren’t focusing on development. You were coming to the NHL, and you were a finished product. If the product was no good, the coaches moved on to someone else. They weren’t patient unless you were a first-round draft pick. It has changed a lot. »
And how. At the Canadian golf tournament last week, the leaders of the Canadian insisted that the development of hopes was the priority of the organization. This implies that St-Louis will have to work with several young people under the age of 25. Zs, with which many coaches have no hooked atom.
St-Louis knows the young people of this generation well. His sons are 19, 17 and 14 years old. He knows that new players place high demands on their coaches. He feels he is well equipped to work with them.
“Our generation, we followed. We took orders, at home and in hockey. We didn’t ask why. Now young people want to know why we do it like that. »
As a trainer, I’m in the business to convince my players. I’m a bit of a salesman.
Martin St Louis
Does it bother him?
No way. Even he is happy about it.
“We have evolved, in our society, in terms of communication. In sports, it’s the same. It’s better [qu’avant].
– Why ?
“Because there’s a lot more attention paid to feelings. We are talking about mental health. When you [tiens compte] feelings, the players know that you come from a good place. »
Listening to him, Martin St-Louis sounds like a coach who wants to stay close to his players. There’s an expression for that in hockey lingo: a players’ coach. Some managers see this positively. Others, no.
“Are you one? I asked him.
He did not respond immediately.
“Are you trying to distance yourself?
– Of course I distance myself. I’m close to them when I’m at the arena.
“Are you more their friend or their boss ? »
He took 10 seconds to mature his answer.
“The players know I have the hammer. But I am not a dictator. I think I’m a guy who uses my common sense, and my own experience. I coach my players as I would have liked to be coached. You ask me if I’m their friend or their boss… You can have good relations with many people, it does not mean that they are your friends. You are cordial. You are professional. I am here to help them. But to help them, it takes the truth, too…”
The truth.
It’s a word that Martin St-Louis often repeated during our 45-minute interview. It is one of its “non-negotiable” values. Others ? Love and good communication. “My values are the same here as at home,” he explains.
And what is the truth in the context of a hockey team?
It’s telling each other the real things, even when the message is hard to hear.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Martin St-Louis during a Canadiens training session last March
“A difficult thing, and I have experienced it, is when you announce to a player that he is not playing. It sucks for him. You can have positive things to say to him, it’s still difficult [à entendre] if he doesn’t play. You have to tell him the truth. The reason he’s not playing. Have perspective. It takes a plan to keep it going. […] It’s not a pleasant thing to do. It is not easy. It’s often tricky. This is not a [partie de la] job that I love, but it’s an important job. »
Martin St-Louis says he takes his job seriously – and it shows. Rarely have I come across such a mature rookie manager in the sports world. His reflection on his role as head coach is advanced. Completed? No. St-Louis rightly recalls that he only spent three months behind the bench. He is not done learning or defining his style as a head coach.
One of his projects? “Building relationships with each player. ” Easier said than done. Players have started to turn to him, he says, but only “a little bit”. “There are more introverted players. Others are more extroverted. I have to be careful not to have relationships only with extroverts. The introverts, I have to go look for them a little more.
“Once you build that, you have their trust. Afterwards, there is a lot more dialogue. I am still in this process of developing these relationships. »