Dallas Stars: Jim Montgomery Can Use First NHL Year To His Advantage

For the first time in a long time, the Dallas Stars have a new head coach with no prior NHL experience. But that could very well play into Jim Montgomery‘s favor in 2018-19, so long as he uses it.

In a little less than two months, Jim Montgomery will do something he’s never done before: coach in an NHL game. And with his first game, the Dallas Stars will usher in yet another new era.

These new eras have become all too repetitive for the Stars over the past few seasons. Montgomery will be the team’s third head coach in three years, a feat that very few NHL clubs ever have to deal with.

But when Lindy Ruff couldn’t replicate the team’s 2015-16 success in 2016-17, Dallas diverted to an old accomplice in Ken Hitchcock. His second stint in Dallas was incredibly short-lived, though, as the Stars missed the playoffs for a second straight year and Hitchcock promptly announced his retirement.

Once again desperate for a change that would work and get the team back into contention, the Stars went in a new direction by hiring Montgomery out of the University of Denver. He’s only the fifth coach in league history to jump directly from college to the NHL with no minor-league coaching experience of any kind.

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So, as you can probably guess, no one knows quite what to think of him. With each of the Stars’ past few new coaches, there have come some growing pains early on. Through the first six weeks of the 2013-14 season (Ruff’s first year), the Stars were 8-7-2. A week before Thanksgiving in 2017-18 (Hitchcock’s first year), Dallas owned a record of 9-9-1.

Will these growing pains continue in 2018-19 even though Montgomery is a new mind to the NHL? Could they potentially drag out even further into the regular season? Will Montgomery even find a way to break out and hit a consistent enough stride to get his team back into the postseason? There’s no way of telling until the regular season kicks off.

A lot of questions surround Montgomery’s debut in the NHL as well as a sizable amount of pressure to succeed. Dallas seems committed to the new coach, but they need results quickly. It will be up to Montgomery to turn those in while turning this team around, and he could go about doing that in several ways.

And that might be his biggest strength of all when entering year one.

While the lack of NHL experience might affect Montgomery in a few ways, he has the potential element of surprise working in his favor.

What’s special about Montgomery’s jump is that no one has seen him coach in a professional setting before. No opposing coaches, players, or management know what he’s going to bring to the table. Sure, they can watch game footage from his time at Denver, but it likely won’t be a carbon copy of his NHL coaching style. The translation between the two leagues requires a bit of adapting.

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Take the Central Division for example. Peter Laviolette (Nashville’s coach) has been a head coach behind four different NHL benches for the past 17 years. Paul Maurice (Winnipeg’s coach) has him beat at 21 years as an NHL head coach. Bruce Boudreau (Minnesota) has 13 years of experience, Mike Yeo (St. Louis) has been coaching a Central team since 2011, and Joel Quenneville rounds them all out with 22 years behind an NHL bench.

Jared Bednar is the closest replicate to Montgomery’s situation having only two years of NHL head coaching experience under his belt with Colorado. But he had 14 seasons of experience as a head and assistant coach in the ECHL and AHL trailing him.

Montgomery is a different subject altogether. He’s never been in the NHL before, and that can play to his strength.

If you’ve noticed anything about how tenured coaches in the NHL go about their business, you’ve probably noticed that there is a bit of repetition. Established coaches aren’t coming up with new schemes for their team every year. They may have a few minor changes here and there, but the majority of their strategy stays the same.

Just look at Ken Hitchcock with the Dallas Stars in 2017-18. He used many of the same schemes and ideas that he had used for his entire coaching career. The Stars were a defense-first team that played heavy on the forecheck and back check, used big bodies to create separation, and primarily used veterans on the ice while the young guys observed from the bench (and press box, for players like Julius Honka).

He’s been using that strategy to an extent since the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. It worked and helped him become the third-winningest coach in NHL history, so why not keep accessing it?

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The only problem with that theory was that the scheme didn’t necessarily fit the 2017-18 Stars team very well and doesn’t adapt well to the changing landscape of the game and the NHL.

In his first year, no one will know what to expect of Jim Montgomery. He has a trail of success following him with every stop he’s made in his coaching career, but none of those stops have included NHL time. The big league is an entirely different animal.

He has to treat it like that and use it to his advantage. From his time at Denver, it’s easy to assess that he likes his teams playing with heavy possession and a relentless style on offense. His defense is built on mobile puck carriers that can force a turnover quickly and turn it the other way. He has the numbers and stats on offense, defense, and special teams to prove that he’s a successful coach.

The coaches in the Central Division and across the league have a firm grasp on how their opposing NHL teams play. But the Dallas Stars will have an opportunity to take control with a new style, pace, and flow in their game.

That can end up paying dividends if Montgomery can play his cards right. His team is well-equipped to make a statement early and build their case in a jam-packed Central Division, but it all starts with the style of coaching and how off-guard it can catch the opposition.

No one knows what to expect from Jim Montgomery’s first year behind the Dallas Stars bench. That can be a scary thought in some cases. The uncertainty of his first year will brings about a certain eagerness not only for the fans, but also for the rest of the league.

But what Montgomery has working in his favor is that no coach can truly prepare for what he’s bringing to the table so long as he is truly adjusting his style to fit the NHL.

The element of surprise is a good element to have as long as you use it correctly. Here’s to hoping Montgomery can get out on the right foot.