With five minutes remaining in the second period against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, fans in Enterprise Center let the team know their disappointment and frustration with them. The Blues found themselves down 3-0 in a game they looked outclassed, outmatched, and at times apathetic to this embarrassing performance at home. With this loss, the Blues find themselves with a record of 6-9-4, third worst in the National Hockey League.
Is coaching to blame?
Inevitably, discussions have begun on whether or not a coaching change could be on the horizon if this poor play continues. This is understandable, as we find ourselves in an era of revolving door coaching jobs, and the Blues are seriously underperforming expectations coming into the year.
On top of this, many of the apparent struggles this team has faced can be attributed to poor coaching. Lack of chemistry from constant line shuffling, horrific special teams, and a lack of mental toughness are all classic symptoms of a team without good leadership and direction. At the end of the day, Jim Montgomery is the head coach who has to answer to the fans and the organization on these issues. The question remains, though, whether firing Montgomery is something the Blues should seriously consider.
Monty isn't going anywhere
Fans looking for a coaching change are likely to be disappointed because Monty's job in St. Louis is very secure. To better understand why, we have to take a look back at when the Blues hired Montgomery almost exactly one year ago.
On November 24, 2024, the St. Louis Blues announced that they had made a coaching change, replacing then-head coach Drew Bannister with the recently fired Jim Montgomery. This made a lot of sense - Bannister was a relatively unproven and inexperienced NHL coach and was not seeing success to start the season - and the Blues sat with a record of 9-12-1 when he was removed. Along with this, Montgomery had strong ties to the Blues organization. He was hired as the assistant coach of the Blues in 2020, and many of the players had very positive experiences working with him.
Montgomery's hiring was a product of being in the right place at the right time. In his press conference following the announcement, Doug Armstrong made clear that his decision was almost entirely based on Monty's availability and not Bannister's shortcomings. "I was more than willing to go through the peaks and valleys with Drew," he said to reporters. Continuing, "This was more of an opportunity to get someone of Jim's caliber than anything else."
Clearly, Doug Armstrong thinks very highly of the current head coach of the team, and based upon his willingness last season to ride through some very rough patches with an unproven figure like Bannister, it's safe to say the 2023 Jack Adams Award winner won't need to be house shopping any time soon. Whether or not this is the right decision will remain to be seen, but until then, all Blues fans can do is trust Armstrong and have faith that a coach with as much skill and knowledge as Jim Montgomery can figure things out for this struggling team.