Jim Montgomery officially begins his tenure as the head coach of the St. Louis Blues, and we now know the lineup the team will be icing in their first game under his leadership.
The Blues skated at Madison Square Garden on Monday morning following Montgomery's opening media statements as the team prepares to face off against the New York Rangers (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN). While the new coach's lineup changes weren't drastic, he did make some tweaks to the offense.
"To me this is an offensive-slanted team, and it just shows you how hard it is to score," Montgomery said. "We've got to get the details and being in the right areas - the hard areas - at the right times to be able to score more. But we have the ability to score goals."
Forward Zack Bolduc will return to the lineup on the third line, centered by Oskar Sundqvist. This allows Radek Faksa to be reunited with Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker on the fourth line. Additionally, right wings Jordan Kyrou and Jake Neighbours look to have swapped spots on the top two lines.
While Montgomery did not speak specifically on today's game lineup, he did share his coaching philosophy as he takes the reins.
"As a coach, you coach for today, but I'm also coaching for tomorrow," Montgomery said. "So there's going to be a balance of what do we need to do to be competitive right now without losing sight of the development of the team. And the team is always going to be first; the Blue Note is always going to be first. And that's our team identity. And not letting the standard that we set slip from our structure point. And then there's some players that need to play. Learning how to win in this League is part of that development."
The defensive pairings appear to remain the same as last game, while Joel Hofer took practice in the starter's net.
