Jim Montgomery quickly made a difference with the St. Louis Blues after taking over as head coach from Drew Bannister. In his first game, Montgomery led the team to a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers.
“It felt like something,” said Blues captain Brayden Schenn. “It felt like we were having fun out there. That’s the main part. It felt like we weren’t sitting back and we played with energy tonight, and we played with the puck. Just wasn’t a couple chances we were able to generate. Power play had a couple good looks. It was just fun to be out there.”
The Blues will try to keep their momentum going on Wednesday night when they face the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J.
St. Louis lost 3-1 to the New York Islanders on Saturday, dropping their record to 9-12-1. On Sunday morning, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong hired Montgomery to replace Bannister.
Montgomery, who was let go as the head coach of the Boston Bruins last week, had previously worked as an assistant coach for the Blues and had formed connections with many players on the team.
“He brings a ton of energy to the rink,” Schenn said. “He likes to have fun. At the same time, he’s detailed and he’s serious and he’s respected. It’s our job to bring the energy with him.”
At the time of the coaching change, the Blues were struggling, ranked 26th in the NHL standings by points percentage, 25th on the power play, and 24th in penalty killing. They were averaging just 2.48 goals per game, the fifth-worst in the league.
“This is a talented roster,” Montgomery said. “We’ve got a lot of guys with really good offensive hockey sense. If we’re committed to checking like we were, the offense is going to come.”
The Blues will face a New Jersey team that has been playing very well. The Devils have won three straight and eight of their last 10 games. After starting the season 5-4-2, New Jersey has gone 10-3-0.
They are coming off a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Monday at home.
“Every game, we have a plan,” said Devils captain Nico Hischier. “If you execute it, it gives ourselves a chance to win a hockey game. The plan switches, depends who you’re playing.”
Hischier led the Devils in Nashville by scoring his first NHL hat trick.
“Just happy for him,” said Devils center Erik Haula. “He’s just such an important player for us, obviously. Eight years and first hat trick. You’d think he has five or six of them.”
Before his hat trick, Hischier had gone 10 games without scoring a goal.
“He starts the season on absolute fire, and then he goes cold for a while there,” said Devils coach Sheldon Keefe. “His demeanor didn’t change, his game didn’t change, most importantly he didn’t cheat the game. He continued to meet the tough matchups every night head on, continued to lead the way for us in the faceoff circle and penalty kill.”
New Jersey will be without forward Timo Meier on Wednesday as he has been suspended for one game after cross-checking Nashville’s Zachary L’Heureux and drawing blood.
