The Dallas Stars turned an inconsistent start in the 2018-19 season into one of their most successful campaigns of the previous decade. A large part of that has to do with the coaching of Jim Montgomery. But how does his first year compare to the first year of other Stars coaches?
Five. That’s the number of head coaches that have stood behind the Dallas Stars bench in the past nine seasons. And if that seems like an excessive number of coaches to go through in less than a decade, that’s because it is.
While the Stars have had their fair share of problems across the organization throughout the twenty-first century, finding the right head coach has been near the top of the list.
Following Ken Hitchcock’s stretch of success that carried the Stars into 2002, Dallas fired the only coach that brought them a Stanley Cup and replaced him with assistant Rick Wilson on an interim basis. Next was Dave Tippett, and he brought relative success with him over a seven-year span. Following him was Marc Crawford, with Glen Gulutzan coming shortly after.
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And when GM Jim Nill was hired by the Dallas Stars in April 2013, he fired Gulutzan and brought in veteran bench boss Lindy Ruff. The hiring led to five seasons of ups and downs with Ruff, including both a Central division title and a 79-point season that ultimately led to his removal from the position.
In 2017, Nill hired Hitchcock for a second stint with the team, but things didn’t pan out properly in the 2017-18 season and the Stars missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a second consecutive season.
This winding and twisting path brings us to Jim Montgomery, who was hired by Nill and the Stars in May 2018.
In a lot of ways, it was the most critical decision of Nill’s tenure as general manager. With the franchise falling into another inconsistent spiral and the primes of certain superstar players being burnt through, Nill made a bold and somewhat risky choice by hiring the Denver University coach. Montgomery boasted no prior NHL coaching experience and, other than 122 career NHL games as a player from 1993-2003, had not been around the league in any capacity.
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So, there was a fair amount of risk going into the hiring, especially with the state of the franchise.
But in his first season, Montgomery did nothing but impress behind the bench. After hitting some bumps through the first half of the regular season, the rookie head coach continually found ways to adapt his scheme and keep the team on track. He changed his philosophy, worked to the team’s strengths, and found a way to mold his lineup into a playoff contender.
That’s not an easy task for any head coach in his first year with a team, but it has proven to be especially difficult for rookie head coaches with no prior NHL experience. And that’s why Montgomery’s first campaign was such a successful one.
But it wasn’t just an impressive performance when comparing it to that of other NHL rookie coaches. In fact, it turns out that Monty’s first year with the Stars was one of the best first-year performances of any Dallas Stars head coach.
Let’s start with Ken Hitchcock since he was the first bench boss to solely coach in Dallas for the franchise. Bob Gainey had served as the head coach in the final few years of the team’s stay in Minnesota and transitioned with the team to Dallas, where he lasted a little over two seasons before hiring Hitchcock.
And in Hitchcock’s first full year behind the Dallas Stars bench (1996-97), he generated immediate success. The Stars went 48-26-8 with 104 points and captured the Central division title. The Stars had bounced back from a rough 1995-96 campaign and took Hitchcock’s defense-first mindset to heart as the Stars finished with the third-lowest goals against average in the league. But even after a promising regular season, Dallas was ousted in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game series.
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A few years later in 2002-03, the Dallas Stars began writing the next chapter of their coaching history when they hired Dave Tippett. In his first year behind the bench, the Stars once again propelled themselves to an impressive finish in the regular season. The Stars finished the year with a 46-17-15-4 record and 111 points and claimed first place in the Pacific division. But after picking up a six-game series win against the Edmonton Oilers in the opening round of the playoffs, the Stars fell in six games in round two against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
The 2009-10 season brought Marc Crawford to the bench, but it was a short-lived stay for the coach. After a 37-31-14 record with 88 points in his first year with the team that saw the Stars finish in last place in the Pacific, Crawford was relieved of his duties one year later after another last-place finish in the division.
Then came the short era of Glen Gulutzan. While trying to lead a rebuilding franchise back to prominence, Gulutzan pushed the Dallas Stars to 42-35-5 in his first year with the club. That finish was good enough for fourth in the Pacific in the 2011-12 season and seemed to set a wave of change in motion for the organization. One year later, both Gulutzan and GM Joe Nieuwendyk were fired, giving way to GM Jim Nill and a new era of Dallas Stars hockey.
Lindy Ruff’s first campaign with the team in 2013-14 was an impressive one simply because the Stars broke their five-year playoff drought. Dallas went 40-31-11 with 91 points and secured the final wild card spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs before being knocked out in a six-game set with the Anaheim Ducks in round one.
And after a few rollercoaster seasons with Ruff, the Stars turned to Hitchcock for a potential resurgence. That didn’t happen, though, as Hitchcock posted a 42-32-8 record with 92 points. They fell three points short of the postseason cutoff, once again took on an early offseason, and hired Montgomery less than one month after Hitchcock’s retirement.
So, when you compare Monty’s campaign to the other Stars coaches in their debut seasons, it’s clear that he arguably produced the best opening campaign.
Montgomery led the Stars to a 43-32-7 mark with 93 points and helped Dallas to the top wild card spot in the Western Conference. From there, they knocked off the Central division champion Nashville Predators in a six-game series. The Stars advanced to the second round where, as we know, they eventually fell in double overtime against the St. Louis Blues in Game 7.
The fact that Montgomery pushed his team to the point where they fell one win short of a trip to the Western Conference Final is an impressive feat, considering the circumstances. And when you compare it to the Dallas Stars coaches that came before him, it’s an encouraging point of reference.
With that being said, however, a standard and expectation has been set for the season ahead. Where Montgomery can take it? We’ll find out soon enough.