Blues fire HC Drew Bannister; hire Jim Montgomery as new HC

[Zbynek]

Well done Dubas!

 

[BretterThanYou]

Blues held off on signing a coach until it was clear Boston wasn't firing Montgomery after the postseason last year. Bannister was just a stopgap until Monty was available.

Bannister was doing an alright job behind the bench, but the Blues clearly didn't think he was the guy before and he'll get another crack at the NHL at some point (and he deserves one). Just a little unseasoned for the NHL level and a roster that's been banged up with injuries to mutiple players the team really couldn't afford to lose. He would've lasted the season had Monty not been fired. This is just the Blues guy became available and they pulled the trigger instead of waiting for him to be scooped up by the next team.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Montgomery and his wife love the city of St. Louis. They still have strong ties to the city and team. Blues pounced right on it knowing that Montgomery would be getting offers from multiple teams. Not sure how this will play out given the roster of the Blues, but I do know they now have a damn good coach who knows the Central well.

 

[TheOrganist]

Guy least happy when Monty got fired: Drew Bannister
Guy least happy when Monty got hired: Steve Yzerman

 

[Mike Liut]

Montgomery and his wife love the city of St. Louis. They still have strong ties to the city and team. Blues pounced right on it knowing that Montgomery would be getting offers from multiple teams. Not sure how this will play out given the roster of the Blues, but I do know they now have a damn good coach who knows the Central well.

The Blues have some good young players and a good prospect pool. They’ll be a WC team next year. I was hoping for a top 10 pick this year.

 

[CanMerc]

At 9 am on a Sunday?!

Just another work day

 

[The don godfather]

Good for Montgomery. Was a bs firing.

Probably smart move for the Blues

Why sacco looks decent so far?

 

[PB37]

Blues held off on signing a coach until it was clear Boston wasn't firing Montgomery after the postseason last year. Bannister was just a stopgap until Monty was available.

Bannister was doing an alright job behind the bench, but the Blues clearly didn't think he was the guy before and he'll get another crack at the NHL at some point (and he deserves one). Just a little unseasoned for the NHL level and a roster that's been banged up with injuries to mutiple players the team really couldn't afford to lose. He would've lasted the season had Monty not been fired. This is just the Blues guy became available and they pulled the trigger instead of waiting for him to be scooped up by the next team.

Yup. One of our insiders had mentioned that it would have happened if Toronto beat Boston in the 1st round. The win gave Monty some rope and negotiating room for a contract in Boston but they couldn't come to an agreement. It was also told to us a few weeks ago that a motivating factor for Monty was that his wife wanted to go back to St Louis.

 

[Mike C]

The Lords Day.

God said getting dominated by the Islanders was the unpardonable sin!!

Oops, gotta get ready for church!

 

[Mrfenn92]

Good for Monty but rough for banister with the team injuries

 

[Bread and Circuses]

Blues Cup incoming

 

[QuizGuy66]

St Louis having the 5th longest tenure and shortest tenured coach is quite the trick

For comparison John MacLean's disastrous tenure with the Devils was 33 games

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Does Julien stay, leaving the Blues with two former Bruins head coaches let go by Sweeney?

Btw, the Bruins won a couple games sans Montgomery against non-impressive teams and they're 3 pts out of first. Montgomery didn't do all that bad to have them in that position.

 

[Section 104]

Losing a game in regulation to the Islanders will cost a coach his job

 

[CanMerc]

The Lords Day.

That’s Thursday

 

[LevelingSolo]

Bannister didn’t give off HC vibes at all, this is great move for the Blues

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Smart team

 

[Bocephus86]

Great coach, there was something rotten with the Bruins that was unrelated to his coaching but everyone needs a shake up. Hope he does well for you guys.

 

[BehindEnemyLines16]

All kind of of being ecstatic. When Monty was here as an assistant, we were top 10 PP in both years. I know players have changed, but the coach clearly know a thing or two about getting the PP to work. Especially with us in the bottom 1/3 of the league currently on the PP. Solid defense in front of Binny (especially when the injured players get back) and performing on the PP when getting an opportunity should go a long way in improving the current team. Especially during a re-build/re-tool. Fully expect him to make changes along the way, and improve the younger guys. Just curious on how he will work with the existing assistants, because they were not his choice.

 

[SI90]

Blues got a good one. No disrespect to Bannister but Monty is an excellent coach.

 

[bigd]

As a Bruins fan, I knew he wouldn't be on the shelf very long.

 

[TheOrganist]

Don’t expect miracles with this roster but he just needs to re-establish the culture & identity & systems that have been vacant for 3+ years. The Blues have some decent pieces and more good, young talent will start to come on the scene next yr.

 

[PocketNines]

The one thing you can say about Drew Bannister is he is definitely alive, he's a person. Who exists. That was some extremely weak sauce though Drew

 

[BlueDream]

The writing was in the wall that Monty would eventually end up back in STL. Knew it would probably eventually happen, just didn’t expect that day to be this soon.

We’ll see what else the Blues end up doing this season, but it could be interesting judging by how aggressive Doug Armstrong has been recently.

 

[Demon Eyes]

At 9 am on a Sunday?!

Still got time to make it to church.