NHL Notebook: Tuukka Rask Retires, Martin St. Louis Named Interim Head Coach

The second half of the season is underway and boy is there a lot of news to talk about. Especially when it comes to the Atlantic Division. Everyone thought the Tuukka Rask retirement news would be the top story of the week. But the Montreal Canadiens decided to one-up the Bruins goaltender. First, Montreal fired head coach Dominique DuCharme and named Martin St Louis as the interim head coach. Let’s take a look into those stories and more in this edition of the NHL Notebook.

NHL Notebook: Martin St Louis Named Interim Head Coach

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens made waves on Wednesday, February 9th, when they fired head coach Dominique Ducharme after they just re-signed him the off-season. DuCharme took over last season when the Canadiens relieved Claude Julien of his duties after the Canadiens were underperforming. Even with the coaching switch last season, the Canadiens struggled to grab the final playoff spot in the North Division. Montreal was down 3-1 to Toronto, and Ducharme made slight adjustments which allowed the Canadiens to go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

However, the Canadiens run covered up a lot of mistakes that happened during that season and the season prior. Montreal overachieved under Ducharme as they made it to the Final. And while not having Carey Price and Shea Weber this year hurt this team drastically, it was weird to see him get an extension. The Canadiens were having a historically bad season and changes were necessary. After Marc Bergevin was fired earlier in the year being replaced by Jeff Gorton as the President of Hockey Operations and Kent Hughes as general manager, these two knew Ducharme was not the right man for the job.

After a 7-1 loss to the Devils, the Canadiens relieved Ducharme of his duties announcing Hockey Hall of Fame player Martin St Louis as the interim coach. St. Louis has no coaching experience, but the Canadiens are trying something here in the second half of the season. What better place to begin your coaching career. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But something had to give in Montreal. There are reports that Vincent Lecavalier will be named the assistant general manager. Stay Tuned for more on this.

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Tuukka Rask

Tuukka Rask’s comeback from hip surgery is over. The Boston Bruins goaltender announced his retirement after 15 seasons in the NHL on Wednesday. There were reports coming out Tuesday night that he was ending his comeback. Rask did not look great in four starts for the Bruins this year. Though his recovery was derailed by COVID as he could not play in games for Providence this season, something was off. It takes a while for a goalie to recover from hip surgery, but the way Rask had been talking over the past couple of seasons, you felt like a retirement announcement was coming.

Bruins fans will always blame him for not winning another Stanley Cup as a starter. Rask has one as a backup when Tim Thomas and the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011. However, Rask got the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final in 2013 and 2019. And it was not his fault they lost. Rask is the all-time leader in games played in the regular season (564), wins (308), and save percentage (.921). He is also second in franchise history with 2.28 goals-against average and 52 shutouts behind Tiny Thompson with 74 shutouts.

Though he only won the Vezina Trophy once in 2014, he deserved to win another over the last couple of seasons. Probably one of the more underappreciated goalies in Bruins history.

Other News and Notes

• The St. Louis Blues announced they signed head coach Craig Berube to a three-year contract extension.
• The NHL Department of Player Safety suspended Brad Marchand for six games for roughing/high sticking Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry on Tuesday night.
• The Vancouver Canucks also announced the hiring of Hall of Famer Cammi Granato as the assistant general manager. Granato was a scout for the Seattle Kraken.