The St. Louis Blues fired Drew Bannister mainly because Jim Montgomery became available. The pressure is on to prove that was the right choice right now.
St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong saw a massive opportunity to improve his team now and in the long run when the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery last week.
After signing coach Montgomery to a five-year contract, Armstrong made it clear they didn't necessarily let go of Blues coach Drew Bannister based on job performance. The reasoning sounded like Bannister just doesn't have the same resume as Montgomery. And with that, there will be high expectations for Montgomery to make the most of a club dealing with injuries and looking for a return to the playoffs.
"When Jim got let go in Boston, (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,” Armstrong told media on Sunday. “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."
Montgomery takes over a Blues team that has had to deal with a slew of injuries this season. Star center Robert Thomas has played only 10 games this year. First-year Blues acquisition Philp Broberg played 12 games before suffering a lower-body injury. Brandon Saad, Nathan Walker, Alexandre Texier and Oskar Sundqvist have also missed time.
All in all, St. Louis hasn’t had a full roster night in and night out, and so it’s no wonder they’re currently in sixth place in the Central Division with a 9-12-1 record, just three standings points ahead of eighth-place Chicago before Monday's results.
But now, the Blues have a fresh start and an opportunity to get back to the place where Armstrong envisioned they’d be at their peak this season. We’re just past the first quarter mark of the year, so there’s a good deal of time left for St. Louis to rebound and for Montgomery to leave his mark on the team.
That said, some will wonder what areas Montgomery is going to address with his Blues players. And it’s clear that St. Louis needs to improve at both ends of the ice. As it stands at the moment, the Blues have the third-worst offense in the NHL at 2.36 goals-for per-game, but their defense is not much better, averaging 3.36 goals-against per-game – the 25th-best defense in the league.
In his previous NHL stints with Dallas and Boston, Montgomery has installed systems that made his teams into high-performance groups with the puck and without it. More recently, he led the Bruins to the league’s fifth-best defense last season (2.70 goals against per game), and he also steered Boston to a 3.21 goals-for per-game – not in the top 10 last season but certainly better than what the Blues have produced thus far this year.
The Blues may not have the depth and high-end talent as Central rivals, such as Colorado, Dallas and Winnipeg, and St. Louis is currently a whopping 15 standings points behind first-place Winnipeg. So, home-ice advantage in the 2025 playoffs is probably a bridge too far for the Blues. But there’s a logjam of teams in the fourth-through-eighth spots in the Central, so it’s not out of the question for St. Louis to turn things around under Montgomery and secure a playoff berth in the third or fourth spot in the division.
Unfortunately for Bannister, he couldn’t point to a resume that compared with Montgomery, and in the cold-blooded industry of NHL coaching, Armstrong chose to bolster his organization with a more-accomplished bench boss. And Armstrong told reporters he gave Montgomery the security of a five-year contract because of what he’s done at many different levels of the game.
"(T)his 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. "(Montgomery has) 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.”
Montgomery now has the pressure to produce solid results right away. If he does get a healthier lineup, Montgomery can push his group up the Central standings, but it won’t be easy, as fellow Central teams including Utah, Nashville and Colorado all will be battling for a playoff spot as well. Montgomery can go about his business knowing he’s got the confidence of his boss, but he also has to know things can change if the results aren’t there.
Thus, it’ll be fascinating to see how the Blues respond to the coaching change, There’s little time to mess around, and each St. Louis player will be under the microscope along with Montgomery.
Time will tell whether Armstrong’s hiring of Montgomery pays off, but all eyes will be on the Blues coach to see how he and the team move forward from here.