Can Jim Montgomery unlock the Blues offense? His past says yes

NEWARK, N.J. — St.Louis Blues They entered the game against New York Rangers Monday night — their first game under new coach Jim Montgomery — with an offense ranked 30th in the rankings. NHL He scored 2.36 goals per game.

Jake’s Neighbors He was leading the Blues with seven goals. around the NHL only Anaheim Ducks And Calgary Flames They did not have a player with more than seven points.

Concerns about the Blues’ inability to score were justified, as they conceded two or fewer goals in 13 of 22 matches.

They are still under warranty.

But the Blues players were adamant before Monday’s game that Montgomery would take control of the attack, and they backed that up with a 5-2 victory over Rangers. So there is reason to wonder whether this is the case.

“There’s a lot more aggression in this room than we’ve shown this year,” the captain said. Brayden Schenn he said before the game on Monday. “We’ve got good players in this room. We’ve got players who’ve had multiple 30-goal, 20-goal seasons, and right now we’re dry from head to toe. But just by showing us a few things and changing a few things, he can help us play the puck more, keep possession of the ball, play more aggressively.” We think they will.”

It was just one game, and it was against a Rangers team that took the second-most shots in the NHL, but the Blues had a season-high 43 shots on net and four even-strength goals – Zack Bolduc (2), Pavel Buchnevich and Schenn — were impressive.

Before Monday, Natural Statistics TrickThe Blues ranked 20th in the league in 5-on-5 goals (38), perhaps because they were 22nd in shots per 60 minutes (26.7).

“Shoot!” We can easily say that fans are not the only ones shouting. during games.

“I believe we’re going to try to put the puck in the net,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said Sunday after announcing Montgomery’s hiring. “It has to be perfect to put the puck in the net, and this is an imperfect play.

“I think we need to put more pucks in the net, get into tougher areas and accept what the penalty is for getting into those areas. That’s Monty’s job, figuring out how to make adjustments offensively to score goals.”

The challenge was accepted by Montgomery, who played the last 2 1/2 seasons. Boston Bruins. They ranked second in the league with 3.67 goals per game in 2022-23, and 13th with 3.21 goals in 23-24.

Montgomery may not have been following the Blues closely at the time, but he believes he had an idea of ​​what he was working with.

“I read about this team’s offensive struggles,” he said. “In my opinion, this team is an offensively inclined team and that shows you how difficult it is to score goals. To get more points, we have to take the details and be in the right areas, including the difficult areas. But we have the capacity to score goals.”

There are two factors that Montgomery will need to capitalize on as the club looks for more production.

First, when Montgomery served as an assistant coach with the Blues for two seasons (2020-21 and ’21-22), he worked with several of the team’s best offensive players, some of whom are still on the roster. In the second season, robert thomas (20 goals, 77 points), Jordan Kyrou (27 goals, 75 points) and Buchnevich (30 goals, 76 points) all had career years (up to that point).

“Many of us hold him in high esteem because he has made great strides—me, Rousy, Buchy,” Thomas said. “He showed us times when we could be more opportunistic and play riskier plays, when we needed to play the right way. This is a really important thing; finding the balance of this, especially for men who love to create. “He helped me a lot and was someone I really trusted a few years ago.”

Second, Montgomery, St. After leaving St. Louis, he gained invaluable experience coaching the Bruins’ stars. David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. Pastrnak scored the highest goal of his career in the 2022-23 season, scoring 113 points, and completed the 23-24 season with 110 points.

“He’s done this in the past,” Armstrong said. “The truth is, there are difference makers on every team, and the nights they don’t make a difference are the nights you can’t win. Hopefully he can unlock some things, maximize their talents and take them to areas that we believe they can get to. He did that with the guys in Boston and he’ll do it here as well.”

In fact, Montgomery admitted that having history with these players would give him even more credibility at the Blues.

“There’s no doubt about it because the guys in Boston are top players that are very respected,” he said. “This will not be a matter of comparison. ‘This is what I learned from them and this is what I can pass on to you.’ will be. It’s something that makes me better, and I’m going to make it part of our fiber here to make things better for our culture and how we live up to our standards of excellence.

But as Schenn said, Montgomery believes it is necessary to balance this standard with the understanding that players have talent that should not be suppressed.

“He’s detailed and planned, but he also lets his guys play hockey,” he said. “He wants his creative guys to be creative and his guys who play hard to be aggressive. He doesn’t want everyone to play the same way. He doesn’t want everyone there to be like a robot. That was kind of his message to us: ‘I’m going to hold you accountable for the things I want, but you also have to go out there and play.’”

So how does it convey this message?

It came in the form of a chat with Bolduc after a morning skate on Monday.

“I said, ‘You should look online, if you don’t like your options, that’s up to you,'” Montgomery said. “’But I want you to have a ‘robbery’ attitude.”

Bolduc had seven shots on target while scoring his first two goals of the season.

Or Montgomery’s coaching could come in the form of a text message.

“I’ll take the text strings,” he said. “It could be just one captain’s thread or it could be a whole team (thread). While I’m sitting at home reading a book – and I love making TikToks – if I see something that connects to our group, I’ll send it in a message. “When something connects with me emotionally, I’ll share it and it will let players know I’m thinking of them.”

Thomas remembers these issues from several years ago.

“He would send me a lot of motivational and mindset stuff,” he said. “I don’t have TikTok and I can’t watch these anymore, but it was a really great part of our relationship.”

Kyrou said everything Montgomery did worked, as his performance on Monday showed.

“I thought we played a solid game,” Kyrou said. “We made a lot of shots, we had a lot of Grade-A chances, we took a lot of offense, we made a lot of plays in the O zone. We were moving the puck and connecting pretty well. “We definitely have the players to do that and yesterday was a good start.”

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)