{"id":577239,"date":"2026-04-02T10:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577239\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:48:09","slug":"surprising-decision-by-martin-st-louis-vs-lightning-sparks-strong-reaction-from-canadiens-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577239\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprising decision by Martin St-Louis vs Lightning sparks strong reaction from Canadiens fans"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Montreal <\/p>\n

Photo credit: Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis granted fans\u2019 wish late in yesterday\u2019s game by adjusting his usual strategy with a two-goal lead.<\/p>\n

Martin St-Louis adjusted his usual late-game strategy against the Tampa Bay Lightning, opting for a different approach with the Canadiens holding a two-goal lead.<\/p>\n

On social media, observers quickly noticed a significant change as Cole Caufield took the ice with the net empty.<\/p>\n

Usually, number 13 stays firmly on the bench in this type of scenario.<\/p>\n

The coaching staff normally prefers to use defensive specialists to shut things down.<\/p>\n

This time, the objective seemed completely different for the Canadiens\u2019 bench boss.<\/p>\n

The Lightning were desperately trying to tie the game by pulling their goalie, and Martin St-Louis ultimately decided to give Caufield a chance to score his first empty-net goal of the season.<\/p>\n

Caufield on the ice with the net empty…<\/p>\n

Martin St-Louis supports Cole Caufield\u2019s 50-goal chase with a rare empty-net opportunity<\/p>\n

Sending the sniper into the action clearly shows a desire to help him reach that milestone.<\/p>\n

Caufield still has not scored a single empty-net goal since the start of the season. which is quite remarkable!<\/p>\n

Reaching the 50-goal mark represents a massive achievement in the NHL, and Martin St-Louis knows it very well!<\/p>\n

In the stands, fans had been asking for this opportunity for several weeks.<\/p>\n

Giving a scorer the chance to boost his stats is common practice across the NHL.<\/p>\n

Now it remains to be seen whether this strategy will be repeated in upcoming Montreal Canadiens games.<\/p>\n

Fans will be watching the closing moments of games with great interest.<\/p>\n

Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

11 HOURS AGO|208 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Surprising decision by Martin St-Louis vs Lightning sparks strong reaction from Canadiens fans<\/p>\n

Do you agree with Martin St-Louis using Cole Caufield late in the game with an empty net to boost his goal total?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis granted fans\u2019 wish late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,10100,220740,10397,215596,743,448,82,745],"class_list":{"0":"post-577239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cole-caufield","11":"tag-empty-net-goal","12":"tag-martin-st-louis","13":"tag-maurice-richard-trophy","14":"tag-montreal-canadiens","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}