Canadiens’ St. Louis Proving to Be a Strength Behind Bench for Habs

No one knows what would have happened had Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff stuck with starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the third period of their eventual 6-3 Game 5 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. More significantly, it’s hard to imagine him or anyone else knowing what the Sabres should do in a potentially deciding Game 6 Saturday night at the Bell Centre, now trailing the best-out-of-seven series 3-2.

Lyon or Luukkonen for Sabres in Game 6?

In sharp contrast, everybody knows what happened when Ruff’s counterpart, Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis, decided to stick with his now-No. 1, Jakub Dobes in the early minutes of the contest, when pulling him would have been the easy move. Dobes pulled this one out instead, in fairly impressive fashion. There should be zero doubt now he’s the guy this playoff run. That’s not exactly the case for the Sabres.

There are doubts aplenty.

Do they go back to Alex Lyon, who not only gave up one goal on three total shots in relief (albeit on the power play), effectively killing any chance of a third-period comeback for his team, but also allowed nine goals in Games 2 and 3 to the Canadiens? Or do they go back to Luukkonen? There is no clear answer… and, at this point, it’s hard to envision there being a good choice for a team whose goaltending is proving to be arguably their one weakness.

For the Canadiens, St. Louis was widely seen as a weakness, himself, at least comparatively speaking as a head coach with zero head-coaching experience upon his hiring back in early 2022. Even with his first playoffs under his belt, following the Habs’ five-game first-round exit last spring, St. Louis was pitted against a two-time Stanley Cup-champion in Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1 this year and a Jack Adams Award winner in Ruff (2005-06) in Round 2. Ruff is a finalist again this season, along with Cooper. Despite how he was arguably outcoached in Game 7 against the Bolts by the latter, you have to give St. Louis all kinds of credit for a) Still coming away with the victory and b) How he’s managed his team from behind the bench against the Sabres so far.

Game 5 against the Sabres was a great example, in which St. Louis stayed composed sticking with Dobes, when he let in goals on the second, third and fourth shots he faced by the time the opening period was half-over. At that point in time, the Canadiens had 10 of their own and were technically outplaying their opponents by a wide margin. It’s probably for that reason St. Louis decided to give Dobes more of a leash than he would have otherwise, with his team still in it, with the score 3-2.

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— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 14, 2026

It doesn’t make the decision any less significant though, even if he told the media after the game he defers to his goaltending coach in situations like that. Theoretically, you could give credit instead to Marco Marciano, a goaltending coach in his first year in the NHL himself, but that wouldn’t make for as nearly impactful of a story. Ultimately the buck still stops with St. Louis.

The vote of confidence in his goalie proved to be the right (non-)call, with Dobes staying perfect the rest of the way, to lead the Canadiens to a critical win and a chance to move on to Round 3 with another next game. Dobes ended the game with 33 saves and a .917 save percentage (SV%), which actually helped bump up his current one of .914 in the playoffs, if you can believe it. Even a chronic gambler would have balked at the odds of that happening in the game’s early-going.

St. Louis Winning Battle on Ice and in Media

Now, since St. Louis stuck with Dobes, it’s abundantly clear the goalie’s confidence is back where it belongs and the Canadiens continue to hold the advantage in net. You can definitely make a case that they do from a coaching perspective too though, despite Ruff’s literally 20-year edge in experience over St. Louis as a head coach.

It goes beyond a single goaltending decision too. It was clear after the Sabres won Game 4 that Ruff was trying to appeal to the referees by bringing attention to how he perceives the Canadiens to be embellishing calls, which is obviously his right. Gamesmanship in the media on the part of head coaches is always to be expected, especially in the playoffs. Complaining that you’re not getting the calls you think your team deserves is logically going to give the referees pause the next time around. It’s simple human nature. However, when St. Louis counters by simply saying, “I feel like if I’m relying on the refs for me to win a series I’m spending my energy in the wrong place,” he’s acting more sensei than student in the dynamic between the two.

Look at it this way: If you’re a referee and you’ve got one coach complaining about how you do your job (after a win, no less) and another who’s more laissez-faire, you’re probably more likely to give the latter the benefit of the doubt moving forward, at least subconsciously. To be perfectly clear, no one (here) is suggesting the referees are actively biased against one side. However, if the point of complaining to the referees is to try to influence them to call the game more in your favour – and what else would the point be? – there might be some fringe benefit St. Louis is looking to exploit from not blaming them.

It may be a novel way to go about doing business, especially after a loss in Game 4. However, after each of the teams got just two power plays apiece in Game 5, when the power play had helped swing the last one in the Sabres’ favour, things undeniably worked out for the Canadiens, who must have had to be looking to stay more disciplined and keep things at even strength as much as possible. The two power-play goals they got on their two opportunities were almost bonuses, even if they were undeniably critical insurance markers that padded their precarious one-goal lead late in the second period, when they took it for the first time in the game, successfully rebounding from Dobes’ poor start.

Obviously, St. Louis is not the veteran coach in this series. He’s not perfect, having made questionable decisions before. And, while he’s made undeniable progress on the deployment front, he’s still got a lot to learn. There’s a significant amount he can from Ruff. However, at least as far as who’s starting Game 6 in net, he’s got that all figured out. It’s hard to believe Ruff can say the same. And, if that is indeed the case, when you’re in the playoffs, staring down a 3-2 series deficit and the next game on the road, you’re at a serious disadvantage. That’s just not how many, if any, predicted the series going behind the bench.