Doug Armstrong was succinct when he sat on a Zoom call to make his first comments following the St. Louis Blues firing Drew Bannister as coach and replacing him with Jim Montgomery.
Montgomery became available, Bannister became he sacrificial lamb, plain and simple.
Remember in August what Armstrong said about friend and fellow GM Ken Holland of the Edmonton Oilers when he submitted offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway?
“I think it was reported that I wouldn’t have done this to Kenny Holland,” Armstrong said on Aug. 20 of longtime friend and former Oilers/Detroit Red Wings GM, whose contract was not renewed after the Stanley Cup Final and former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman was hired. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth. Quite honestly, I’d do it to my mother if she was managing the Oilers.”
Well, the longtime Blues GM did it again, this time in the coaching ranks.
“When I woke up Wednesday morning, there was no inclination to make a coaching change,” Armstrong said. “When Jim got let go in Boston (Tuesday), (he) certainly was someone I’ve respected, someone I admired, someone I felt had all the attributes to be a long-term coach for the Blues. It started down that process. This was more of an opportunity to get someone of Jim’s caliber than anything else. … This decision was based, I would say, almost 100 percent on having someone of Jim’s caliber become available when I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
The Blues (9-12-1) announced the coaching change, their third bench boss in less than a year after Bannister replaced Craig Berube Dec. 12, 2023 before signing a two-year extension on May 7 after going 30-19-5 last season, on Sunday morning.
The 55-year-old Montgomery went 120-41-23 with the Bruins but was just 8-9-3 this season and was fired by Boston on Nov. 19 and replaced by Joe Sacco. The Bruins went 65-12-5, which was the best single season record in NHL history, and had 135 points and an .823 points percentage in Montgomery’s first season (2022-23); he won the Jack Adams Award voted as the league’s top coach.
The Blues signed Montgomery for five years through the 2029 season.
“When I talked to Drew today, this was more of a decision based on the availability of someone I think is a top NHL coach, someone that we have experience with, someone I do believe can coach this team and also coach the team when it reaches its ultimate level of competitiveness,” Armstrong said. “He’s done that, he’s worked with younger players in the USHL and in college, good success in Dallas, good success in Boston. He’s one of those coaches I really do believe can be with this team now and as it grows. The proof of that is the five-year commitment.
“One of the things I think is the next part for Jim’s career is to get that longevity in one spot. I look at someone like Jon Cooper now, he’s the standard bearer of what everyone wants to be, a competitive coach year in year out, deals with different players, deals with players coming and going and finds a way to stay competitive and that’s Jim’s next goal is to stay in St. Louis and I hope it’s well over a decade.”
Bannister goes down as one of the shortest-tenured coaches in NHL history and was 39-31-6. But when the Blues dropped a 3-1 decision to the New York Islanders on Saturday and sending them to 9-12-1 on the season, it dropped them to 25th in the league in winning percentage (.432).
“As far as Drew, when I talked to Drew today, the situation that we were in, a young coach learning, learning with young players,” Armstrong said. “It wasn’t an easy situation for him to walk into. I thought he did a good job. He was making mistakes, we were all making mistakes. Drew was learning as we all went along. I was more than prepared to go through the peaks and the valleys with Drew until ‘Monty’ became available and I just felt that that might not be there over the next few years. I didn’t know when the next opportunity would come and I felt it was the right thing for the Blues franchise to get someone like ‘Monty’ in here when we could. I thought Drew was doing a good job learning as he was going.”
But the players weren’t on board, as evidenced by veteran Pavel Buchnevich’s comments after the game.
The Blues were expected to be a competitive team this season but have drastically underperformed on the offensive side of the puck, scoring two or fewer goals in 13 of 22 games and one or fewer in seven of 22.
They are 30th in goals per game this season at 2.36 per game, 27th in goals (52), 25th in power play efficiency (16.7 percent), and 29th in shots per game (26.2).
“We scored a power play goal last night, but you have to get your power play back up and running at least at the NHL average point,” Armstrong said. “That adds a half a goal a game, or a goal a game. I personally think that we have to play more in front of the net. I think we have to get pucks more to the net. That’s ‘Monty’s job to find out how to tweak the offense to score goals. But doing a lot of scouting this year, I realized where a lot of goals are scored from and I believe myself that we try and pass the puck into the net. To pass the puck into the net, it has to be perfect, and it’s a game of not perfect. So I think we have to get more pucks at the net and have to go into harder areas and embrace what the reward is for the punishment of going into those areas. I think directing more pucks at the net and going into the harder areas is going to be important for any team to have success in today’s NHL.”
Montgomery, who will make his debut Monday against the New York Rangers, returns to St. Louis after being an assistant coach for two seasons (2020-22) under Berube and played 67 of his 122 NHL games with the Blues in his rookie season.
He was able to help get the best out of the Blues’ best players, including Buchnevich, who set career highs in goals (30), assists (46), points (76) and plus-minus (plus-29) in his first season — and Montgomery’s last here before signing a three-year contract to become the coach of the Bruins — in 2021-22. Jordan Kyrou established a career-high in assists (48) and points in 21-22; Brayden Schenn put up 94 points (40 goals, 54 assists) in the two seasons Montgomery was here; Robert Thomas broke out with 77 points (20 goals, 57 assists) in 21-22, and Brandon Saad put up 24 goals, 25 assists in 21-22.
“Having that relationship with the top players is certainly a benefit for the coach,” Armstrong said. “I think the top players also respond to coaching and his job is to get the best out of them. He’s done that in the past. He’s done it with players in Dallas. They had an excellent team there. He’s done it with the guys in Boston, he’ll do it here.
“The reality is when you look around the league, there are difference-makers on every team and the nights they’re not a difference, those are the nights you don’t win.”
Montgomery also coached the Dallas Stars from 2018 until he was fired Dec. 10, 2019, going 60-43-10 in 114 games; he is 180-84-33 in 297 NHL games.
