Confirmed with Link: Bannister Out, Monty In

[PocketNines]

Petro wasn’t re-signing here, so Army had to scramble

That ... is not accurate. He would have signed. He said, treat me like similarly situated players and give me the ability to veto a move, I have four very young children, I want to have a say in it. He was not asking for prima donna money, he would have signed for less than Kyrou AAV had he just received the ability to say no to a trade.

 

[Mike Liut]

That ... is not accurate. He would have signed. He said, treat me like similarly situated players and give me the ability to veto a move, I have four very young children, I want to have a say in it. He was not asking for prima donna money, he would have signed for less than Kyrou AAV had he just received the ability to say no to a trade.

I’ve heard he wasn’t re-signing here and him and his wife fell in love with Vegas after their visit. Maybe I’m wrong

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

Me when the Petro convo comes up for the millionth time in a thread that has nothing to do with him

 

[PocketNines]

Yep that's how history and life works, some events are more impactful than others and the bigger impact events have a ton of resonance.

 

[Xerloris]

View attachment 935035

Me when the Petro convo comes up for the millionth time in a thread that has nothing to do with him

Some people are stil acting like an ex gf and not accepting the fact that he didn't love them and wanted to move on.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

Some people are stil acting like an ex gf and not accepting the fact that he didn't love them and wanted to move on.

Lmao for real. It’s been YEARS, we need to let it go.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

 

[PocketNines]

It came up because one of the topics this thread provoked is: "Will Tom Stillman do anything to win?"

That's how resonance works.

We have seen this franchise and many in the fan base not learn this exact lesson before with Pronger, then make this staggering mistake again, so it would be strategically wrong not to keep this front and center, due to the complete lack of memory ability people have.

You might as well complain to life that it's unfair ...

 

[nORRis8]

Congrats on hiring an excellent coach!
Top notch!
All the best.

 

[jani]

Gratz, great move. Playoff bound next season.

 

[shpongle falls]

Holy F***ing Sh*t. Wow. I didn’t think they would make a move like this but then again Army ain’t f***ing around he wants them to win NOW. And for 5 years too? They really didn’t want anyone else to snag Monty eh?

With Monty, Julien, Ott, Weber I like this staff. I hope they can right the ship and get this team to the playoffs.

 

[Stealth JD]

What happens when the Blues are sitting 6th in the Central this time next year, with Montgomery as coach? I don't think a 40-year old Scotty Bownman would lead this roster to the playoffs.

Steen just inherited his first head coach...not that he likely wasn't a part of the discussions around the hire. It's just a weird situation with the GM on the way out, the roster in need of dire talent infusion and we're watching them shuffle the chairs on the deck of the titanic. I get they wanted to hire Montgomery...but is the club really at the point where they need a top-notch coach? They're probably 2-3 years from contending for anything; doesn't seem like head coach was the biggest priority to shore up.

But they got their man, I guess. Hopefully they'll give him a longer leash than they gave Berube and Bannister when the season started to slip away.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

This team still has more to give, and I feel confident that Monty -- who the players seemed to really like when he was here -- can get more juice out of what's here.

With that said, we still only have one top-6 center, and he's playing on a broken foot. Arguably our best defensemen is also out with an injury. Our goalies have regressed to the mean a bit since last year (no knock on them, it happens). Even with a better coach implementing a better system, I don't know if I believe this is a playoff team. Maybe the more important thing is that they -- especially the younger "core" guys -- start not looking entirely lost out there. And we'll probably go from drafting 9th OA to drafting somewhere in the mid-teens.

Clearly "taking a step back from last season" was not an outcome the FO was willing to accept from Bannister.

 

[HighNote]

I think we still have a decent shot at the playoffs this season. When Broberg is back, if we can avoid any other major long-term injuries, I think we can climb our way to a wild card spot. This is a bubble team when mostly healthy, and now with a coaching upgrade the outlook is even better.

My biggest worry is the powerplay. We need to find a way to start drawing more penalties and capitalizing on the powerplay. That alone will win us games here and there. Boston's powerplay is somehow worse than ours, but they've drawn nearly twice as many powerplays than us, so maybe Monty can at least improve us in that department. I don't doubt that having so few powerplays can make it difficult for your PP units to get into a groove. And obviously not having Thomas for a month hurt us.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Armstrong straight up says this move isn't based off of the results of this season, it's because Monty was available. Sounds like if Monty didn't become available they were going to ride Bannister until the end of the season, or longer, until Monty was available.

 

[Celtic Note]

I'm wondering if this makes Ott want out. 3rd time he's been passed up for the Head Coach job.

Hopefully

 

[AyeBah]

What happens when the Blues are sitting 6th in the Central this time next year, with Montgomery as coach? I don't think a 40-year old Scotty Bownman would lead this roster to the playoffs.

Steen just inherited his first head coach...not that he likely wasn't a part of the discussions around the hire. It's just a weird situation with the GM on the way out, the roster in need of dire talent infusion and we're watching them shuffle the chairs on the deck of the titanic. I get they wanted to hire Montgomery...but is the club really at the point where they need a top-notch coach? They're probably 2-3 years from contending for anything; doesn't seem like head coach was the biggest priority to shore up.

But they got their man, I guess. Hopefully they'll give him a longer leash than they gave Berube and Bannister when the season started to slip away.

There's a reason he got 5 years. This is the coach for the present and future team

 

[Majorityof1]

Whelp, I admit it, I was wrong. I did not think we'd make a coaching change this year. In my defense, I do think Monty is on a short list of guys we would have done this for. I think we had 2-3 names this past off-season, and when we couldn't pull them from their current jobs, we went with Bannister. Monty was obviously one of the names.

Although I am happy with have Monty back as the coach, I wish this could have happened last offseason. I feel bad for Bannister. We’ve been terrible this year but this is probably his one big shot and we just tossed him aside after 20 games as the full time head coach.

At least he’s getting two years of NHL salary so hopefully that will take some of the sting off.

I'm not nearly as down on Bannister as most were, but I'm happy about this. I view this move as "getting your guy" rather than being an indictment on Bannister. Monty has a hell of a resume and our front office already knows him well.

I wonder what's next for Bannister. He's grinded a career largely away from his family and I'm happy for him that he at least turned an interim position into some real financial security for his family.

Great posts, above. I agree wholeheartedly. I feel bad for Bannister. He inherited an awful situation, lost key players early and did not get time to fully implement what he was trying to implement. Thank you Brian for adding that financial security piece. That is a good point. He may have gotten fired 20 games in, but he gets two years of money that is probably worth more than he would have made in 5+ years in the AHL

Damn! I really didn’t think they’d move quickly like this! Excellent move!

Bannister was out of his depth at the pro level.

This is great news. It makes all the sense in the world but I was skeptical it would actually happen. Sucks for Bannister but let’s be honest he’s a pretty shitty coach and has done a terrible job in helping to develop the kids which is what he’s supposed to be good at

How can we know this, ie he was out of his depth or he did a shitty job developing the kids? He had 20 games. We had major injuries. Monty who is not a shitty coach or out of his depth coached a much better team to a roughly equal result. Do you really judge young player development after 20 games? Sure we'd all have liked to see Bolduc more, but maybe there was a plan and we just had not see the results of it so soon. It seems very early to write off his young player development 20 games into the season.

We are going to still suck this year. This won't be a worst to first 2019. How soon before fans turn on Montgomery, I wonder?

 

[Ranksu]

Feels like we got champion caliber race driver, but he needs to drive frigging De Lorean's.

 

[SirPaste]

Whelp, I admit it, I was wrong. I did not think we'd make a coaching change this year. In my defense, I do think Monty is on a short list of guys we would have done this for. I think we had 2-3 names this past off-season, and when we couldn't pull them from their current jobs, we went with Bannister. Monty was obviously one of the names.





Great posts, above. I agree wholeheartedly. I feel bad for Bannister. He inherited an awful situation, lost key players early and did not get time to fully implement what he was trying to implement. Thank you Brian for adding that financial security piece. That is a good point. He may have gotten fired 20 games in, but he gets two years of money that is probably worth more than he would have made in 5+ years in the AHL







How can we know this, ie he was out of his depth or he did a shitty job developing the kids? He had 20 games. We had major injuries. Monty who is not a shitty coach or out of his depth coached a much better team to a roughly equal result. Do you really judge young player development after 20 games? Sure we'd all have liked to see Bolduc more, but maybe there was a plan and we just had not see the results of it so soon. It seems very early to write off his young player development 20 games into the season.

We are going to still suck this year. This won't be a worst to first 2019. How soon before fans turn on Montgomery, I wonder?

I’m talking about his entire tenure with the Blues organization. To act like it’s just 20 games is a bit disingenuous as he was here the majority of last season as well and coached our AHL team for years before that. Didn’t really see any of our prospects thriving under him at the AHL level, unless I’m wrong who exactly has he had a hand in helping to develop over the years he’s been here?

 

[BlueDream]

How can we know this, ie he was out of his depth or he did a shitty job developing the kids? He had 20 games. We had major injuries. Monty who is not a shitty coach or out of his depth coached a much better team to a roughly equal result. Do you really judge young player development after 20 games? Sure we'd all have liked to see Bolduc more, but maybe there was a plan and we just had not see the results of it so soon. It seems very early to write off his young player development 20 games into the season.

We are going to still suck this year. This won't be a worst to first 2019. How soon before fans turn on Montgomery, I wonder?

He hasn’t been the coach for only 20 games, lol.

 

[Majorityof1]

He hasn’t been the coach for only 20 games, lol.

Ok, 70 or whatever. But coming in as an interim coach is a lot different than coming into a training camp and setting up your systems. Its still a small sample size.

I’m talking about his entire tenure with the Blues organization. To act like it’s just 20 games is a bit disingenuous as he was here the majority of last season as well and coached our AHL team for years before that. Didn’t really see any of our prospects thriving under him at the AHL level, unless I’m wrong who exactly has he had a hand in helping to develop over the years he’s been here?

How much AHL did you watch? The Blues watched his AHl coaching and his coaching last season and felt he was the most qualified available. They obviously wanted Montgomery more. I don't remember anyone saying, oh Bannister is horrible, look at his AHL/interim coaching when we took off the interim tag. People preferred other big name coaches, but nobody was calling him shitty then. If you did, I apologize, but it seems like most people turned from being meh on him to being vehemently against him over the course of this season. And this season has not been ideal at all.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

Won’t speak for Majorityof1 or anyone but myself, but to me the main point of this is the opportunity to get a coach you have full confidence in as one of the best in the game vs anything about Bannister other than his general inexperience stepping in for the one guy that won a cup here.

It objectively sucks for Bannister, but it was also the right move.

The biggest problem with it kinda is the timing, in that there is significant risk that a significant portion of our fan base will morph into the reactionary short term mindsets about him too, over these next 18-24 months. Because this roster doesn’t seem particularly ready for the prime time, because there is still some significant dead money and term to limit the ceiling….but it’s really important that the progression of a pretty good seedling of a core doesn’t stall out and not get the coaching and development they will need.

I feel like this move takes that variable and risk down several pegs, and it’s a clearer way for ultimately Steen to evaluate what he has and what he needs.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Sweet Baby Jeebus!!

 

[DatDude44]

BELIEVE

I bet we get our Buchnevich back