Does Anyone Have Any Concerns About Jim Montgomery’s Playoff Record To Date?

[sdaltons]

Definitely not.

[dhsux]

Here is the most concerning stat:
Montgomery coached teams are only 2-8 when they have the chance to eliminate an opponent.

"the chance to eliminate an opponent"

This, all by itself, means little to me anyway.

Most folks here know he's under .500 in the play offs and I doubt he would tout his own play off experience beyond what it is.

The question has more to do with going forward and I have responded to that and it stays the same for me.

[Sophisticated Shoes]

I'm concerned about all the winning I'm going to have to watch over the next few years, absolutely!

[SRV1990]

Here is the most concerning stat:
Montgomery coached teams are only 2-8 when they have the chance to eliminate an opponent.

Not concerning at all to me. Next.

[icon]

His current playoff record stands at 19-21, and his teams have never made it out of the second round…does that concern anyone at all? Or do you think he’ll have more success the longer he coaches.

Im a huge fan, and as long as he’s able to adjust and learns from past playoff defeats, I think the sky’s the limit, especially as the Blues youngsters start taking on more prominent roles and get some experience under their belts.

It’s not out of the question to start wondering tho if the Blues dont start advancing more in the next few years.

What say you?

My only concern is that he was seemingly unable to fix the team's biggest problem: killing penalties and 6 on 5s. And it cost the Blues the series against the Jets in Game 7. That needs to be a major focus in camp.

[icon]

Here is the most concerning stat:
Montgomery coached teams are only 2-8 when they have the chance to eliminate an opponent.

Yeah.

[theograce]

His current playoff record stands at 19-21, and his teams have never made it out of the second round…does that concern anyone at all? Or do you think he’ll have more success the longer he coaches.

Im a huge fan, and as long as he’s able to adjust and learns from past playoff defeats, I think the sky’s the limit, especially as the Blues youngsters start taking on more prominent roles and get some experience under their belts.

It’s not out of the question to start wondering tho if the Blues dont start advancing more in the next few years.

What say you?

My only concern is that he was seemingly unable to fix the team's biggest problem: killing penalties and 6 on 5s. And it cost the Blues the series against the Jets in Game 7. That needs to be a major focus in camp.

Montgomery didn’t tell Buchnevich to lazily ice the puck

[icon]

His current playoff record stands at 19-21, and his teams have never made it out of the second round…does that concern anyone at all? Or do you think he’ll have more success the longer he coaches.

Im a huge fan, and as long as he’s able to adjust and learns from past playoff defeats, I think the sky’s the limit, especially as the Blues youngsters start taking on more prominent roles and get some experience under their belts.

It’s not out of the question to start wondering tho if the Blues dont start advancing more in the next few years.

What say you?

My only concern is that he was seemingly unable to fix the team's biggest problem: killing penalties and 6 on 5s. And it cost the Blues the series against the Jets in Game 7. That needs to be a major focus in camp.

Montgomery didn’t tell Buchnevich to lazily ice the puck

The problem was hardly limited to Buchnevich.

[theograce]

His current playoff record stands at 19-21, and his teams have never made it out of the second round…does that concern anyone at all? Or do you think he’ll have more success the longer he coaches.

Im a huge fan, and as long as he’s able to adjust and learns from past playoff defeats, I think the sky’s the limit, especially as the Blues youngsters start taking on more prominent roles and get some experience under their belts.

It’s not out of the question to start wondering tho if the Blues dont start advancing more in the next few years.

What say you?

My only concern is that he was seemingly unable to fix the team's biggest problem: killing penalties and 6 on 5s. And it cost the Blues the series against the Jets in Game 7. That needs to be a major focus in camp.

Montgomery didn’t tell Buchnevich to lazily ice the puck

The problem was hardly limited to Buchnevich.

It’s more an anomaly. You always have something over a year. In addition, the blues last year didn’t have the talent/experience when compared to other teams. It’s not rocket science or a secret strategy in that situation.

[callitwhatyouwant]

The 6 on 5 problems definitely stemmed from personnel issues. When you make changes every year to your bottom 6 guys like the Blues have done for the last couple seasons, and you make a coaching change, simple things like defending 6 on 5 take a hit. You would hope it would have been figured out since it lingered for so dang long last year. Army even spoke about it in the end of the year presser. Not upset with how the team played in almost any facet, because they were getting better across the board and the metrics said so even when they weren't winning consistently. But the 6 on 5 play never improved.

Dropping guys like Kapanen who made their name on this team with their defensive play have to be replaced. As much as people hate on Kevin Hayes, he was an even player for the Blues who takes up a lot of space in odd man situations. He made a living for himself on previous rosters intercepting pucks at the point in PK situations. Those are 2 guys who didn't play heavy minutes but could log those ice times at the end of games. Blues tried to reconfigure and because they are young, probably saw themselves getting beat by situations players were new at.

That isn't necessarily on Monty. What we have heard from Monty is that he actually assigns his coaches to tear apart the other sides special teams and say how they would attack it. They call outside sources to see what the weaknesses are. They are aware, if it's not fixed this season, then it's either a mental problem for the players choking in that situation, or you can begin to put that blame on Monty.

[bstpete11]

I'm not worried. Here are Montgomery's finishes as a head coach:

2019 - Took a Dallas team that hadn't made the playoffs the previous 2 years to the 2nd round and lost in 7 games to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions

2023 - Coached Boston to arguably the best regular season in league history but lost in 7 games in the 1st round to the Panthers, who would go on to make the Stanley Cup final. That team should have gone deeper in the playoffs, but Ullmark was hurt and Montgomery didn't make the switch to Swayman. The goalie shouldn't be an issue here, we know who is going to be in net for the Blues during the playoffs, and we've seen how Ullmark and Swayman have performed since leaving Boston (not great). That Bruins team was also the oldest team in the league that year, so they may have just run out of gas at the end. It's also hard to fault a team for losing to an eventual cup finalist. They just happened to draw what turned out to be a great team for their 1st round matchup.

2024 - Led Boston to a 109 point regular season and lost to the Panthers again, this time in 6 games in the 2nd round. Florida would go on to win the Cup.

2025 - Turned the Blues season around after taking over and got them 1.6 seconds from beating the President's trophy winning Jets. No one thought the Blues had a chance in that series but they (bleep) near won it. Impressive showing, although this one still hurts.

So in the 4 seasons that he finished as head coach, he's led the team to the playoffs every year. His playoff record is a touch under .500, but that's kind of to be expected when every team you play in the playoffs is a good team. The series losses have been to: 2 Stanley Cup champions, 1 Stanley Cup finalist, and the President's Trophy winner. I'm not worried about Montgomery at all. I think the Blues have one of the best coaches in the league and I'm excited to see how far he can take the team this year.

[mizfan]

I have a bigger issue with Buchnevich costing us game seven