Bruised Blues, Bruins battle as Jim Montgomery returns to Boston

Just over one year has passed since Jim Montgomery was fired as the Boston Bruins' head coach and found a new start with the St. Louis Blues.

With the Blues' current form (9-11-7) looking similar to the up-and-down start (8-9-3) that ended his time with the Bruins last November, Montgomery's current and former clubs will meet for the first time since he changed benches on Thursday night when he returns to his former stomping grounds.

"Professionally, it's a bag of mixed emotions. Some great times and some very, very disappointing times," Montgomery said of his tenure in Boston, highlighted by a record-setting 2022-23 regular season.

St. Louis is 3-3-4 in its past 10 games, but a 4-1 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday was its first regulation setback in a four-game span (2-1-1). Montgomery was in the headlines for a verbal exchange with Jordan Binnington after pulling the goaltender in the first period, but cooler heads prevailed quickly in the aftermath.

"He's a competitor, he raises his games in big moments all the time. I love him," Montgomery said. "He walked off the ice, he said, 'I love you.' I said, 'I love you, too.' We're both competitors by nature, and at the end of the period, he waited for me, we apologized, we moved on."

Beyond Binnington's start (two goals allowed on five shots), the Blues saw their offensive struggles continued. They were 0-for-6 on the power play and failed to score more than two goals for the eighth time in nine games. Jordan Kyrou netted the lone goal.

"It was just one of those games where we couldn't get a lot of momentum going," Blues defenseman Cam Fowler said.

The Blues also have had a tough week on the health front. Montgomery has to figure things out regarding a slew of regulars as the team begins a three-game road trip.

Forwards Jimmy Snuggerud (wrist surgery) and Nathan Walker (upper-body injury) were placed on injured reserve and are expected to miss around six and eight weeks, respectively. Alexey Toropchenko remains week-to-week after burning his legs in an accident at home.

Health has also been a factor in the Bruins' recent run of play. A 5-4 road loss against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday was Boston's fifth defeat in an eight-game span (3-5-0), with only one win coming in regulation.

With top scorer David Pastrnak on the shelf with an undisclosed injury that has kept him out the past three games, the Bruins lost another defenseman Michael Callahan (lower-body injury) just as forward Viktor Arvidsson returned from a seven-game absence on Tuesday.

Boston chased the game at Detroit, climbing back from 3-0 and 5-2 deficits to get within one goal.

"For some reason, we can't stay healthy. We had five D all night, four D for (part of the third period)," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. "Guys battled hard, but we just have to play smarter 5-on-5 to get some points out of here."

With Callahan likely unavailable on Wednesday, Sturm expects Frederic Brunet or Victor Soderstrom to be the extra defenseman called up from AHL Providence.

In the Tuesday game, Boston got two goals from Alex Steeves. Jonathan Aspirot netted his first career NHL goal, and Hampus Lindholm (three) and Morgan Geekie (two) dished out multiple assists.

Lindholm echoed Sturm about the team's effort.

"We've shown moments where we can be a really hard team to play against, but we can't turn that on every now and then," he said. "We have to do that for 60 minutes."

--Field Level Media