Jim Montgomery divides up players to resemble one that looks more like an NHL roster, one that has veterans competing for limited roster spots
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- It’s very uncommon for the opening of training camp to showcase so many of the NHL players in one group and so many of the prospects in the other.
Normally, players are split up, mixed and matched until camp gets whittled down to the end and those that are going to make the opening night roster.
But with training camp this year lasting less than two weeks, and as St. Louis Blues coach Jim Montgomery said, “four preseason games and we have five practices,” there is no time for formalities with the regular season opener just 15 days away and the first preseason game on Saturday against the Dallas Stars.
The Blues opened camp Thursday at Centene Community Ice Center with two groups, and it was clear which was more established than the other:
The Blues (37-33-12 last season) are not opening camp on this day looking to get in a month’s worth of work. They’re banking that players are all in shape, they’re all in hockey sense and that they’re all beyond the pond hockey days.
Thursday’s opening drills were more designed for things they would be doing a couple weeks into camp, or even on the cusp of the season opening.
“By the end of our fourth exhibition game, all we have is four games and we have five practices. The feeling-out process that you used to have in camp is gone,” Montgomery said. “Guys have to be on their toes, they’ve got to be ready, they have to push each other, and we’re trying to put the lines that we think might have a chance to start game one together right away.
“Our objective today was working on being a much harder team offensively getting to the blue paint. We scored seven goals in the scrimmage. That I thought was very successful. I thought we were creating more chaos. I thought the energy and the pace was pretty good. I thought guys (had) second and third effort. We started with 1-on-1 battles and right away, guys were digging in and they were into it and they were pushing each other to be better. I thought it was a very productive Day 1.”
And that’s why Group A pretty much resembled what a lineup will look like on opening night against the Stars in Dallas on Oct. 2.
“Well with my thinking, the Thomas line speaks for itself the way they finished and they scored two goals out there today, so they picked up kind of where they left off; they looked really good,” Montgomery said. “The second line, McTavish for us is a top-six player, McMichael has played in the middle six his entire career and Buchy has played pretty much. So let’s put those three together, see what kind of chemistry we have today. I thought they did some good things offensively. Defensively, we haven’t touched a thing yet. They got scored against, but we still haven’t worked on our D-zone coverage yet because just first day of camp. Third line that we had with the Dvorsky line, I didn’t really notice, I wasn’t coaching that team. I didn’t see an impact in the game. Fourth line looked really good. ‘Torpo’ was flying, ‘Sutes’ is always supporting and this Johnston, you can see how smart a player he is and very vocal on the bench.
“A couple of the D-pair that stood out for me. Fowler and the Carlo pair were excellent, poise, gaps were really good and I thought Lindstein and Parayko did a really good job on my bench as well.”
This wasn’t an off-season where Montgomery and the coaching staff could plan out this longer, drawn-out training camp. It was more compacted and challenging to fit many things into a smaller window.
“There’s a combination of things that influence the way it was. It was shoring up what we didn’t think were strengths that should be strengths, being hard at the offensive blue paint, being hard at the defensive blue paint,” Montgomery said. “You’ll see that tomorrow. Committing battles in practices and competition in those areas was important for us to get to those areas and create the habits that we need. You saw a lot of driving back posts today, you saw a lot of speed trying to get at the net. That’s why we were doing all those 3-on-1s, 3-on-2s. And then the other thing is the shortened … like I said, we’ve got four games, five practices. That’s nine times on the ice together before we have our team meeting before we have three practices before we play our first game at Dallas. So there’s no time to waste. Once we get past this CBA three-hour rule, we’re going to start having double video sessions. It’s going to be more like NFL training. Those are things that we’ve worked on so that we can be prepared in a three-week camp and a 13-day camp.”
One noticeable omission: the VO2 fitness testing that, well, nobody cares to do but know it was always a must.
“The coaches were really happy,” Montgomery said laughing. “Thank God I didn’t have to do the VO2 max this year. You would like to have fitness testing just because … these athletes are so well-conditioned now. It’s not an issue now like it was in the 70s where camp was six weeks long so you can get in shape to start the season. Now they have their own nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, they have speed and acceleration coaches, so they’re well-prepared. The thing is mentally, what you like about having testing is the guys know they’ve got to come and they take great pride in it, so they want to do well on the test to show everyone I’m ready to go. We don’t have that option, but the ice speaks for itself. Didn’t see a lot of guys hovering over sticks. That was not an easy practice. First day of camp, there’s nerves that are going because everybody wants to show well. So you usually can tell just by skating, and you’ll see a bag skate at the end of practice tomorrow that will kind of try and look for that.”
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