For quite some time now, there have been calls from both the media and the fans to add a coach with NHL experience to Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis’ staff, and yesterday, a coach became available.
After his team had an underwhelming season start, Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was made to walk the plank yesterday. How much of his team’s dreadful start was actually his fault? Probably not much, but having signed a bunch of players to long-term deal (David Pastrnak, Elias Lindhom, Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov and, of course, Jeremy Swayman) Don Sweeney could hardly trade them all and he wasn’t going to fire himself.
Still, rightly or wrongly, the bilingual Montreal native coach finds himself out of a job and that’s all it took for people to start suggesting the Canadiens should make him a job offer. It wouldn’t be the first time the Habs jump on a Bruins castaway, in 2017 Claude Julien was fired by Boston on February 7, and was then introduced as the Canadiens’ new coach on the 14th.
There’s no denying Montgomery has had some great years behind the benches of the Dallas Stars and the Bruins. In 298 games, he has put together a 180-84-33 records with a .659 points percentage. Is he, however that much more experienced than St-Louis? The Canadiens’ bench boss has now coached 220 games in the NHL and he has a 82-110-28 record to show for it with a .436 points percentage. In other words, Montgomery doesn’t even have a full season more of experience than St-Louis. Would he fit then the “more NHL experienced” coach tag? Perhaps not, but he did coach in the USHL and the NCAA before making the jump to the big league.
Related: Times Flies: Canadiens’ St-Louis Fifth Longest-Tenured NHL Head Coach
One has to wonder how well his hiring would go down with St-Louis, would he feel threatened to an extent? After all, a coach of that pedigree would surely have his sights set on the head coaching job. What about Pascal Vincent? The Laval Rocket pilot is also bilingual and possesses a wealth of experience, not ‘s so much as an NHL head coach, but still he has spent years in the league as an assistant coach. Surely when he took the job in Laval, he was thinking it put him in a good position to one day make the big league.
Yes, Montgomery has an impressive record, he even has a Jack Adams trophy to his name, but not every coach who becomes available must be picked up by the Habs. It’s also worth remembering that he was fired as the Stars’ head coach 32 games into his second season for unprofessional conduct, which he later admitted to be binge drinking to the point of blackouts.
While Montgomery could potentially be an interesting candidate, I think a lot of internal discussion would have to happen with the people in place before Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton could entertain the idea of offering him a role on St-Louis’ staff. Chances are though, he would much rather land elsewhere with the top job than being someone else’s assistant. He has a bit of time to figure it out though as his contract with the Bruins runs out at the end of this season.
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