“Everything is fixable and that’s really refreshing from a coach because it’s an emotional sport,” Jordan Harris said of the mistakes.
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ST. LOUIS — Hockey is a game of mistakes.
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It is also a game of calculated risks.
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Those are two things that Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis is insisting on as he looks to rebuild what was the NHL’s worst team last season.
Rookie defensemen Kaiden Guhle and Jordan Harris are averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game. They’re going to make mistakes and St. Louis doesn’t want them to worry about mistakes. Instead, he wants them to learn from those mistakes.
“I think it comes with experience and how important it is to calculate the risk you’re taking,” St. Louis said last week. “You can’t just take risks. You have to calculate why you are taking this risk right now. It’s not necessarily risk…but I think every player should have a little calculated risk and I think Jordan is managing that right now. With him and Guhls, they are able to sustain the attack but also come back quite quickly if it doesn’t work.
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Harris said St. Louis and assistant coach Stephane Robidas both want defenders not always looking for safe play and instead looking for open lanes.
“It’s kind of a fine line between making the play safe and maybe delaying half a second,” Harris said after a recent practice. “I feel like young guys – especially with me – you don’t realize how much time you have and that comes with rehearsals and experience and really trying to slow down and play the right game. is definitely one of those things that comes with learning the system and learning where the guys are going to be and not just throw the puck. Everything we do is for such a purpose and you don’t want to throw the puck away. »
Harris added that his confidence grew with each game.
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“When you come right away (to the NHL), it’s all about adrenaline and instinct,” he said. “You can make the right play, but you might not know why it was the right play. Now I’m starting to understand what the right play is and when. The timing, especially outside of our breakout , you have to wait for the right moment and the attackers to swing in. Just understand the purpose behind things.
St. Louis believes in concepts over systems and Harris described it as a more mature way to play the game while letting the puck do most of the work.
“We don’t have a ton of set-pieces or if the puck is here, you have to be here,” Harris said. “That’s the way (St. Louis) describes it because he always has the reasoning behind it. It’s really interesting. Sometimes if I make a mistake, I’ll think about the mistake. But he’ll say, “You made the mistake for that reason,” and that’s really interesting. It takes away a bit of emotion. It’s really nice the way he thinks about things and it really makes sense. Everything is fixable and that’s really refreshing coming from a coach because it’s an emotional sport. But the way he sees it, it makes sense and it helps a lot as a player because you know you could make a mistake, but it’s fixable.
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Defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic, who claimed waivers from the Winnipeg Jets before the start of the season, likes how Robidas is very upbeat and positive and “knows the game so well” after playing 15 seasons as a defenseman for the NHL.
In a game last week against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which the Canadians won 3-2 in overtime, Kovacevic said that in the first period he came up the neutral zone and made a play on the boards, that he described as “not the worst play.” He got to the bench and Robidas told him to look for the seam, which was open. Later in the period, Kovacevic found himself in a similar situation and again played the safe on the boards. He received the same message from Robidas.
In the second half, in a similar situation, Kovacevic spotted Brendan Gallagher open in the seam and hit him with a pass that led to a scoring chance. When Kovacevic returned to the bench, Robidas had a big smile on his face.
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In a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild this week, Kovacevic was skating with the puck in the neutral zone and instead of playing it safe on the boards he made a backhand pass to Gallagher in a seam which was ultimately not opened. The Wild intercepted the pass and came in to score what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Kovacevic took a risk and made a mistake.
The main thing is that he learns from it. That’s what it’s all about this season as the Canadiens look to rebuild and develop their young players.
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