Blues coach cites Manchester City bench boss as someone who offers some positive inspiration as to how to motivate players prior to playing, hoping to do same for his players

ST. LOUIS – Jim Montgomery let it be known that something has to change for the St. Louis Blues when it comes to starting games on time.

And the Blues coach cited a familiar name in the world soccer world as someone who perhaps could offer some inspiration as to how to do things.

“I know a lot of coaches, and I’m a big Pep Guardiola fan, and if you watch how the culture is in soccer, he’s in the dressing room for like the last 10 minutes before they go out,” Montgomery said of the Manchester City bench boss of England’s Premier League. “He’s going around, he’s bumping everybody. Now they don’t play as many games. They’re starting to play as many games as us, but it’s a different culture. Can we bring maybe half of that? Those are things we’re looking at.

“It’s got to be something that’s communicated and that the players want it as well. Just for me to impose myself in the dressing room or to send (assistant coaches) Claude Julien, Steve Ott and Mike Weber in the dressing room to make sure the players are ready. It won’t work unless they know why we’re doing it and everything. We’re looking at a lot of things. But to me, it’s a mindset right now. I think our mindset has been about what we’re not doing. We’re trying to get our mindset today about what we can do.”

After all, why not cite someone like Guardiola who's won: six Premier League titles, two Community Shield trophies, three Champions League trophies, four EFL Cups, four UEFA Super Cups, four FIFA Club World Cups, three Bundesliga titles, two DFB Pokal titles, three Audi Cups, three LaLiga titles and two Copa del Rey titles among his accomplishments? 

The thinking comes on the heels of Montgomery’s comments following a 2-0 loss against the Dallas Stars on Saturday in which the Blues (23-23-4), who host the Vancouver Canucks (21-17-10) on Monday at 6:30 p.m. (FDSNMW, Prime in Canada, ESPN 101.1-FM), were once again slow out of the gates, are looking for something different.

“We’ve looked at routines about having everybody come in at the same time,” Montgomery said. “We’ve looked at, as coaches, spending more time in the dressing room. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not a big fan of it, but we’re looking at everything. I think the dressing room is the players’ area, and that’s their opportunity to communicate and own the room and kind of motivate themselves to get out there. I think the coach’s job is to deliver the message, whatever the message is. Sometimes it’s a motivational message, but that gets old. And sometimes it’s just strictly X’s and O’s.”

This won’t happen overnight, Montgomery said.

“I think it has to time to develop,” he said. “If I went in there tonight at the 10-minute mark and didn’t leave, everyone would be like, ‘What’s he still doing here?’ Change cannot happen overnight, but change needs to happen for us, and it’s in slow incriments that we will develop a routine that’s going to work and it’s going to get us to be a better hockey team at home, and even on the road. We’re just one game above .500. It’s not like we’re barnburners on the road either.”