Blues coaches Montgomery, Julien thrilled to be at Wrigley Field for Winter Classic

Jim Montgomery and Claude Julien will soon have the unique distinction of being the only people to coach NHL games at historic baseball ballparks Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.

Montgomery and Julien each coached the Boston Bruins at 112-year-old Fenway Park in NHL Winter Classic games separated by 13 years; Julien in 2010, the third Winter Classic game played, and Montgomery in the 2023 edition.

On Tuesday, they’ll be together on the St. Louis Blues bench for the Discover NHL Winter Classic against the Chicago Blackhawks at 110-year-old Wrigley Field in Chicago (5 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, TVAS).

Montgomery is Blues coach. Julien is an assistant.

“A little unique situation, but more than anything else I think we should feel privileged,” Julien told NHL.com in a phone interview Saturday. “Not everybody gets that opportunity to play an outdoor game, and in both of those iconic ballparks too. Privileged, lucky and appreciative.”

Montgomery, also speaking by phone Saturday, called the opportunity to coach at both stadiums “amazing.”

“You have the two most historic ballparks in North America,” he said. “Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, I’ve gone to both, I’ve watched games at both because that was a bucket list thing for me. I remember how awesome it was at Fenway, how I really took everything in. I walked the Green Monster. I sat in the dugout thinking about all those historic great baseball players, whether it’s Jim Rice or Fred Lynn or ‘Yaz’ (Carl Yastrzemski), all of them. Then you think you’re going to Wrigley Field and for me I’m more of a Cardinals fan because of all my time in St. Louis, so I think of Ozzie Smith and George Hendrick and the amazing Cardinals players, let alone Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998. I mean, just wow.”

Montgomery said the Winter Classic will be his fifth time at Wrigley Field; he has been there for four Chicago Cubs games, always against the Cardinals, the last time in the summer of 2022, when he took his boys, JP and Colin, for their first experience at the “Friendly Confines.”

“I’m going to go touch the ivy if it’s there,” he said. “The bricks for sure. I’m going to go out to right field because I remember my sons yelling at the Cardinals players for a ball and them throwing it up to my sons in the bleachers in right field. That will be pretty cool. I’m going to be thinking about Andre Dawson’s home runs sailing onto Waveland Avenue, looking at now the apartment buildings that all of bleachers of their own. It’s all that great stuff.”

When this season began, Montgomery had no idea he would be coaching the Blues in the Winter Classic. He began the season as coach of the Bruins, but was fired on Nov. 19. He was hired as Blues coach five days later.

For Julien, this will be his first visit to Wrigley Field.

“I’m going to be curious,” he said. “I’m going to want to see everything. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Who knows if I’ll ever be back there again. I may, but I may not, so take advantage of it when you can. Especially in the situation we’re going to be in, I think it’s important we take advantage of it. I’ll be taking pictures that’s for sure.”

The Winter Classic be his fifth outdoor game in his NHL coaching career, and first as an assistant.

Julien coached the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL’s first outdoor game, the Heritage Classic in Edmonton on Nov. 22, 2003.

In addition to the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park, Julien coached the Bruins in the 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. He also coached the Canadiens in the 2017 NHL 100 Classic in Ottawa.

His teams are 2-2-0, winners in 2003 and 2010, Montreal 4-3 against the Edmonton Oilers in 2003 and Boston 2-1 in overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010.

Boston lost 5-1 to the Canadiens in the 2016 Winter Classic, and Julien’s Canadiens lost 3-0 to the Ottawa Senators in the NHL 100 Classic.

He said the Fenway Park experiences stands out above the others because of the venue, the city and the outcome.

The Bruins came back from 1-0 down in the third period to win 2-1 on Marco Sturm’s goal 1:57 into overtime. Mark Recchi scored the tying goal at 17:42 of the third period.

“Well, I’m not going to lie, there’s relief, right,” Julien said of winning that day. “It was a real tight game and you’re in your own city, you’ve got 40,000 people watching your game or close to it at least, and at the end of the day the one thing you want to do for them is win this hockey game. It meant a lot. With what Fenway represents, you want to leave there with a good feeling.”

It gave him an appreciation for what the outdoor game experience means in a career.

“I always tell guys when we play in the outdoor game you win those you can walk away knowing you won that game so whenever you talk about it in the future it’ll be one of those games you’ll remember fondly,” he said. “It was so nice to win that game. Really, it made that whole experience so much more enjoyable.”

Montgomery has the same type of memory from his Fenway Park experience.

Like Julien’s Bruins, Montgomery’s Bruins were down 1-0 after two periods, but Jake DeBrusk scored twice in the third and the Bruins walked away with a 2-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 2, 2023.

“It was awesome because there weren’t many scoring chances throughout the game and it felt like the whole stadium exploded when Jake DeBrusk scored that first goal,” Montgomery said. “All of a sudden you could feel the magic of Fenway Park and what’s it’s like to be in a Game 7 of the World Series.”

He’s hoping to hear a different sound at Wrigley Field; silence from the home crowd and the smattering of cheers from the Blues fans who make the trip up Interstate 55.

“I always love the mentality of a road team,” Montgomery said, “trying to be the silent assassin so to speak.”