Tortorella, St. Louis go head to head when Flyers play Canadiens

PHILADELPHIA -- John Tortorella and Martin St. Louis joined the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2000-01 season, one a full-time NHL coach for the first time, the other an undrafted forward claimed on waivers looking to establish himself in the NHL at age 25.

They went on to win a Stanley Cup together in 2004, with St. Louis becoming a Hall of Fame player and Tortorella building a Hall of Fame resume as a coach.

Along the way they've built a strong friendship, but that will be put on hold for a few hours Wednesday when Tortorella and the Philadelphia Flyers host St. Louis and the Montreal Canadiens at Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, SN, RDS).

The two have coached against each other in the NHL five times, with St. Louis and the Canadiens winning three of them.

"I felt like I grew up in Tampa and 'Torts' helped shape me, and gave me opportunities, but also taught me a lot of things about what it takes to play in this League and how to be successful and the work ethic," St. Louis said Wednesday. "Away from the game he's such a great human, so I lean on him to this day.

"I feel very fortunate that we crossed paths at a young time in my career where I needed a little help to get going, so to speak, in terms of opportunities. I forced him to give me that and he gave it to me."

They were together with the Lightning for eight seasons (2000-08), a time that saw St. Louis rise from a fringe NHL player to a superstar who won the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player and the Art Ross Trophy as the League's leading scorer in 2003-04, along with the Stanley Cup.

"Marty is one of the greatest competitors I've ever coached," Tortorella said. "He drove me crazy as player because there were so many questions. Every shift there was a question. He made me a better coach because you have to be on your toes with him. You can't leave anything for chance and you have to be ready because he's analyzing all the time."

St. Louis was hired as the coach of the Canadiens on Feb. 9, 2022, despite having no prior NHL coaching experience.

In his third season as the Canadiens coach, the 48-year-old has a record of 62-81-15. Montreal is 17-17-5 this season, six points behind the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Tortorella is at the other end of the coaching spectrum. He became the first American coach and eighth overall to reach 1,500 NHL games when the Flyers played the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 29, and his 724 wins are 10th in League history. In his 22nd NHL season, he has won the Jack Adams Award as the League's top coach twice (2004, 2017), and with the Flyers (20-14-6) third in the Metropolitan Division, he is among the favorites to win the award again.

However, the 65-year-old admits he's learned things from St. Louis during their offseason conversations.

"I've thought about changing things up because I've learned from him," Tortorella said. "He's got a brilliant mind, and a mind that thinks out of the box. I've listened to him talk about some of his things ... we talked a little bit in the summertime, and I wouldn't even know how to teach some of the things ... when he explains it to me, it goes right over my head and I have to ask questions. So I've learned from him."

St. Louis obviously has benefitted as well. And the questions he asked as a player he continues to ask now.

"He's a guy that I'm not afraid to pick up the phone and call," St. Louis said. "I have a lot of respect for how he does things, how he goes about his business."

Tortorella said he never envisioned St. Louis becoming an NHL coach, but there were signs along the way that it was possible.

When St. Louis retired as a player in 2015, one of the first things he did was start coaching his sons in youth hockey. Then in 2018-19, when he was coaching the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tortorella brought St. Louis on as a special teams consultant.

"I brought him into Columbus to help us with our power play and I'd always ask him, 'When are you going to jump in,' and he didn't want to leave his family," Tortorella said. "He wanted to make sure the boys were good and wanted to spend some time with them, coaching them, and they're turning into some successful players.

"At the time when I was coaching him, I didn't see it. But he drove me nuts with all the questions, in practice, during the game. It was like one on one all the time. But that's why he was such a great player."

Tortorella said he's trying to focus on coaching against the Canadiens, not St. Louis, but it can be difficult. Similar to the Flyers' game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, where Penguins coach Mike Sullivan is one of his closest friends, there are emotions involved.

"When the game starts, it's not Marty, it's the Montreal Canadiens for me," Tortorella said. "There's always competition. I think that's why we're in the business, you always want to beat the other guy. ... Once you're out there you don't care who's there, you want to beat them. Marty is one of the greatest competitors I've ever coached. I know he's just looking to jam it to us tonight. So yeah, that stuff goes by the board until after the game."