So let me get this straight. Somehow Monty, while tanking the Bruins season so he could get fired, used his Jedi mind skills to control the fate of the St. Louis Blues franchise, so they would under-perform and fire their coach, thus opening the door for them to hire him! Or was it his wife who has the Jedi mind skills?
The cynical mind is ever fascinating.
I don't think you need to go full conspiracy theory to find the timing of it all at least, let's say, 'interesting'. I've said multiple times here that Monty looked completely checked out in his last couple of weeks behind the Bruins bench. Disinterested, no clear desire to fix the team's problems, fluffy, empty statements to the media. Whether he simply found it all too hard, didn't want to coach this kind of roster, or no longer got on well with management, that was a man who in the end simply wanted out.
Now did St Louis play into that mindset? We don't know. Given his past history there, and the fact that things with the Bruins had been on the rocks for a little while, I'd be shocked if he'd had no comms with Armstrong before he got fired by Sweeney, even if it was just some very early and small feelers regarding his future plans.
That's as far as I'll go though. There is no evidence of Jim deliberately tanking the Bs and I'll do him the courtesy of thinking he has too much integrity for that. He also couldn't have manipulated things in such a way that he'd be sure to just walk into the Blues job when it suited him. I do think he'd fallen out of love with coaching Boston and I do think St Louis was in some sense on his mind. The fact he had quite plausible options elsewhere probably made it less imperative for him to cling on at all costs to his position with the Bruins.
No hard feelings though. If it was no longer working out for Monty in Boston, then there was no point keeping him around any longer. Maybe he could have done more, but end of the day sometimes it's better just to cut your losses and it's better for both parties to move on. The Bruins have a chance to turn things around under Sacco. Monty can try the same in St Louis. Good luck to him.
