- St. Louis spent 13 seasons in Tampa and won the 2004 Stanley Cup with the Lightning.
- The Canadiens coach says the old ties do not factor into this first-round series.
- Read below for full details on how St. Louis and Jon Cooper are framing the matchup.
Martin St. Louis cut off any romantic framing of his return to Tampa before it even started. Asked Friday about facing the Lightning in the Eastern Conference First Round, the Canadiens coach gave a one-word thesis.
“I don’t have any emotion attached to the Lightning right now. Zero,” St. Louis said, via NHL.com.
The history is hard to ignore even if St. Louis wants to. He played 13 seasons with Tampa from 2000 to 2014, won the Hart Trophy and Art Ross in 2003-04, and helped deliver the franchise its first Stanley Cup that same spring. His No. 26 has hung in the rafters at Benchmark International Arena since January 2017.
That banner and that jersey will both be above his bench when Montreal opens the series Sunday in Tampa. St. Louis insists he is past it.
“Honestly, I think I’m so far removed from that,” he said. “I think it’s my fourth (full) year now (with Montreal). I’ve gone to the building plenty of times. The first time I went, yeah, it was a little weird. But I’m so far removed from that.”
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, who had St. Louis in his locker room during the 2013-14 season, was not surprised by the quick rebuild in Montreal. The Canadiens finished third in the Atlantic at 106 points, their second-best total in 37 years, and they enter the playoffs with Cole Caufield coming off a 50-goal season.
“Am I surprised at his success? Not an ounce,” Cooper said. “Marty is going to be successful in anything he does. He knows the game and he sees it in advance. That’s probably why somebody of his size was in the league so long.”
Montreal will be short-handed on the back end with Noah Dobson injured entering the series. Game 1 drops Sunday at 5:45 p.m. ET in Tampa, with the full first-round schedule here.
St. Louis had the second-most points in Lightning history when he left Tampa in 2014. That chapter is closed. Starting Sunday, he is trying to beat the team that made him.
