Montreal Canadiens HC reveals his "pressure vs pleasure" strategy to ensure team's focus towards making playoffs

By ARJUN B

Modified Mar 28, 2025 04:50 GMT

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Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis has a specific "pressure vs pleasure" strategy to keep his team focused on making the playoffs after their 6-4 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Canadiens dropped their fourth straight game with the loss, bringing their record to 33-29-9 and leaving them clinging to the second wild card spot in the East with 75 points.

Asked about keeping the team focused despite recent mistakes, coach Martin St. Louis said (10:02):

"To me, it's a little bit of pressure versus pleasure. We've got to have fun with these 10, 11 games we've got left. We've got to have fun with it... We've got to be direct and have good intentions, but we also have to have fun going through this process."

St-Louis acknowledged everyone is disappointed after the loss but framed their position as something that "should still be fun." He aims to remind the team of that.

When asked if the team needs a reminder that they are a good team after the month they just put in, St-Louis asserted:

"They know they're a good team. It’s a hard league. There’s no easy game. They know they’re a good team."

In the loss against Philadelphia, Cole Caufield, Christian Dvorak, Patrik Laine and Alex Newhook scored for the Canadiens, while Jakub Dobes had 24 saves.

The Flyers got goals from Sean Couturier (two), Matvei Michkov (two), Nicolas Deslauriers and Tyson Foerster, while Samuel Ersson stopped 26 shots.

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Game recap: Canadiens' 6-4 loss to the Flyers

Michkov opened the scoring for the Flyers, finding the net 1:55 into the game with a one-timer from Travis Konecny’s setup on the left side.

Newhook tied it up for Montreal at 7:55, finishing a rush to make it 1-1 before Deslauriers scored at 10:13 to restore Philly’s lead. Lless than a minute later, Couturier made it 3-1 by tipping in a shot from Michkov.

Caufield cut the lead early in the third, scoring from a tough angle at 2:14 to make it to 3-2. Foerster responded at 10:09 before Couturier followed up on the power play at 11:43, snapping a man-advantage slump and stretching the Flyers' lead to 5-2.

"We're giving up too much right now. When we're at our best we don't give up many scoring chances, we don't give up many rushes. Right now, that's not the case," Canadiens' forward Brendan Gallagher said.

"We're asking too much of our goaltenders. It's not the way we win hockey games. We have to tighten up."

Montreal cut the lead with Dvorak's goal at 13:34 to close the gap to 5-3. But Michkov quickly responded, capitalizing on a turnover by Mike Matheson to score on a breakaway at 13:52, pushing the lead to 6-3. Laine added a late goal for Montreal, but the Flyers held on to win 6-4.