Blues coach Jim Montgomery puts forward lines through blender at practice on Friday.
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Jim Montgomery walked into his Friday press conference on Friday and all he needed was a stoneware-type butter churn.
Because that’s what the St. Louis Blues coach was doing with his hands and making the sounds when asked about his thoughts on putting the forward lines through a makeover at practice.
Here’s what the lines looked like and the expected lineup on Saturday when the Blues (2-2-0), coming off a rough 8-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, host the Dallas Stars (3-1-0):
“We’re going to blender it up,” Montgomery said. “We just want to see different people. There’s some of these combinations that I thought, ‘You know what, it’s always going to present itself.’ You’re always going to go through a situation where we’re not generating enough offensively, we’re turning over too many pucks. It’s just the way we are right now, so I want to find more speed offensively, be a little more vertical on entries and we’re trying to put people that complement each other well. We thought we had that before, but season’s long, it might end up back that way in another two weeks because we know the way it was has worked before.”
The power play also got a makeover, with new units that have Robert Thomas at the goal line/ net front with Jordan Kyrou and Dylan Holloway on the flanks with Pavel Buchnevich in the bumper and Cam Fowler on the point; the other unit had Jake Neighbours at the net front, Jimmy Snuggerud and Brayden Schenn on the flanks, Pius Suter in the bumper and Justin Faulk on the point.
“There’s no flow, there’s no mojo when we go over the boards right now,” Montgomery said. “It’s been OK, the power play. We’re generating chances, but the momentum it’s given our team’s not at the level we want, so we’ve gone with one unit where we put Kyrou and Thomas back together, and the other unit, we get to see Snuggerud on the elbow and get to use his shot.”
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