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Jim Montgomery with the Blues: the real loser is Claude Julien

 Michaël Petit
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Jim Montgomery with the Blues: the real loser is Claude Julien
Credit: One piece of news that came out of nowhere over the weekend was that of Jim Montgomery’s signing with the St. Louis Blues. After firing Drew Bannister on Sunday morning, the Blues went big for Montgomery, who was recently fired by the Boston Bruins. It seems to have been a spur-of-the-moment move for the Blues, […]

One piece of news that came out of nowhere over the weekend was that of Jim Montgomery’s signing with the St. Louis Blues.

After firing Drew Bannister on Sunday morning, the Blues went big for Montgomery, who was recently fired by the Boston Bruins.

It seems to have been a spur-of-the-moment move for the Blues, but the choice seems justified.

Montgomery is an excellent coach and there had to be a change in St. Louis.

What’s more, the Montreal coach has already been an assistant in St. Louis in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

However, my problem isn’t with the choice of Montgomery, but rather with the fact that Claude Julien has been completely forgotten.

The club should have taken a closer look at them, so it’s not necessarily Bannister who’s the loser in this story.

The big loser is Claude Julien, who was already an assistant.

Julien has proved in the past that he can be a very good instructor, and the Blues should have looked in their own backyard before taking their business elsewhere, although Montgomery isn’t a bad choice.

On the other hand, like the Blues’ new coach, Julien also has a Jack Adams trophy in his pocket.

And I think it’s a bit disrespectful not to have at least looked at Julien for an interim position, while they looked at their options.

Not interviewing an assistant already in your backyard, when the latter has specifically said he wants to coach this team, is indeed disrespectful.

Interestingly, the last three Boston Bruins head coaches fired were all Jack Adams winners (Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy and Jim Montgomery).

And they all found new jobs in eight days or less.

Montgomery should still pay off for the Blues, and hockey remains a business first and foremost.

But this seems to be a whim and Julien could have been as good a candidate as Montgomery.

Only time will tell if this was the right choice for the Blues.


Overtime

– A player on the waivers to make room for a youngster: why doesn’t the Habs do the same?

– A nice arrow aimed at Ryan Reaves.

– Am I the only one who really likes Pezzetta’s moustache? Obviously, it’s not a mustache of the calibre of Lanny McDonald’s, but still!

– What a mind-boggling start from Jaylen Brown.

– Heavy loss for the Charlotte Hornets.

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