Martin St-Louis was ultimately undone by his refusal to make changes

We know that the coach, generally speaking, preferred to stay the course rather than shake things up throughout the playoffs. Even with his top line performing at a neutral level for much of the series, for example, St-Louis stuck to his guns and made no adjustments, except for the occasional tweak here and there.

We often talk about the lessons this young group needs to learn from its playoff run, but the coach needs to learn from it too. And not stubbornly sticking with a plan when it's not working is part of that.

Let's be clear: bringing in Arber Xhekaj or Brendan Gallagher probably wouldn't have changed the final result, considering the Habs didn't really have any gas left in the tank. That said, it would still have shown the rest of the group that the coach, for his part, is trying to find solutions. That famous vote of confidence can quickly start to look like complacency after a while, you know.

And in reality, we know that many Habs players are dealing with injuries right now. Bringing in some fresh legs could have helped give a little breathing room to a team that, throughout the series against the Hurricanes, looked completely exhausted.

I'll say it again: the final result would probably have been pretty much the same. But at least the loss would likely have been easier for fans to swallow if they'd felt the coach had played all his cards.

Overtime

Speaking of exhaustion, it also felt like St. Louis was pretty worn out during this series. And while no one blames him for that, the overnight trips to attend his sons' graduations probably didn't help either.

Once again, it would be wrong to say that the Habs lost to the Hurricanes because their coach looked tired. But just like his young team, he's learning and growing as a coach: it's up to him to draw the necessary conclusions now.