Jim Montgomery's immediate reaction to 1st win as Blues head coach
Yesterday at 11:06 PM
The St. Louis Blues made the shocking move to hire Jim Montgomery as their new head coach. Montgomery was fired by the Boston Bruins last week but was not unemployed long. He replaced former Blues coach Drew Bannister and made his head coaching debut for St. Louis on Monday night against the New York Rangers.
Things went according to plan for St. Louis at Madison Square Garden. Forward Zack Bolduc scored twice as the Blues defeated the hosting Rangers by the score of 5-2. Montgomery spoke with the media following his first win as Blues head coach. And he provided his thoughts on what went well for his team on the road Monday night.
“I loved our effort. Our execution offensively was really good. We have some areas to improve upon, but just the effort and how hard they played for each other. The blocked shots, the togetherness at the end of the 2nd … that’s Blues hockey. That’s blue-collar hockey,” Montgomery said, via The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford.
Blues players react to Jim Montgomery hiring
The Blues’ decision to hire Jim Montgomery is not difficult to understand. The former St. Louis assistant coach set the NHL single-season wins record with the Bruins in 2022-23. Boston won 65 names that year as they cruised to a Presidents Trophy.
What makes the situation interesting is the timing of it all. The Blues fired Drew Bannister to make this move. Bannister took over on an interim basis early in 2023-24 when they fired Craig Berube. After searching this summer, St. Louis removed the interim tag from Bannister.
Things certainly did not go well for St. Louis early in the season. They had a 9-12-1 record entering play Monday, for instance. However, the team had suffered injuries to key players such as Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg. Additionally, Torey Krug was ruled out for the season before the puck even dropped on 2024-25.
To their credit, St. Louis has been clear on why Bannister was fired. The team views Montgomery as a gamechanger, and decided to make the move. As a result, some Blues players have admitted this coaching change feels a bit different than others. Captain Brayden Schenn said as much before Monday’s game against the Rangers.
"This one does feel different for sure," Schenn said, via Daily Faceoff. "We know we have to play better; we're still going to hold ourselves accountable. I don't think we're going to sit here and let ourselves off the hook just because they got their guy."
Other players had a ton of praise for Bannister, as well. Defenseman Matthew Kessel spoke highly of the first head coach he’s played under as a pro. And Thomas went out of his way to speak highly of his former head coach. However, the players mentioned being excited to play under Montgomery given their previous experience with him.
"He's had probably over half the guys here with St. Louis or other teams like Dallas [Radek Faksa], but everyone likes him a lot and we're all really excited," Kessel said, via Daily Faceoff.
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