Rangers seek stronger start while Blues bring in 'top NHL coach'

First periods are not going well for the New York Rangers, especially in their past two games in Western Canada.

The Rangers allowed a combined 41 shots on goal in the opening periods of the final two games of a four-game trip. They will attempt to produce an improved start and avoid their first three-game losing streak this season Monday night when they host the St. Louis Blues, who will play their first game under new coach Jim Montgomery.

The Rangers are actually outscoring opponents 20-16 in the opening 20 minutes this season, but recently are experiencing struggles right from the start. New York outscored opponents 12-3 in six opening periods when it started 5-0-1, but since then the Rangers are getting outscored 13-8 in their opening periods.

The past two were especially difficult for the Rangers, who ended a 2-2-0 four-game road trip by getting outshot 41-14 in first periods. In a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Thursday, Igor Shesterkin made 19 of his 46 saves when the Rangers escaped the first with a 1-0 deficit. Two nights later, they could not overcome their defensive struggles in a 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

Backup goalie Jonathan Quick stopped the first 18 shots before allowing two goals in the final 2:26 of the first. The Rangers never recovered, allowing two goals in the second and two more in the third to superstar Connor McDavid.

"We're leaving our goalies out to dry right now in the first period especially," New York's Vincent Trocheck said. "And we've got to come out with a little bit more -- a lot more urgency. And we've got to dig, dig deep here and look ourselves in the mirror before next game."

"These last two games, first period's been just flat-out terrible," defenseman Adam Fox added after the Rangers committed 23 giveaways vs. Edmonton. "And I mean, you're never gonna win a game when you're putting yourself in that big of a hole early."

The Blues are hoping to avoid falling further into a hole in the Western Conference after replacing coach Drew Bannister with Montgomery on Sunday morning, less than a year after firing Craig Berube. Bannister replaced Berube after 28 games last season and was 30-19-5 the rest of the way as the Blues finished six points out of the final wild-card spot.

With St. Louis off to a middling 9-12-1 start and 4-9-1 in its past 14 games, president of hockey operations and general manager Doug Armstrong fired Bannister and signed Montgomery to a five-year deal Sunday morning.

Montgomery spent two seasons as an assistant under Berube and was fired by the Boston Bruins on Monday after two-plus seasons that included NHL regular-season records of 65 wins and 135 points in 2022-23.

Armstrong admitted that was the reason for the change.

"This was more of an opportunity to get someone of Jim's caliber than anything else," Armstrong told reporters on a conference call. "When I talked to Drew (Sunday) I told him this was more of a decision based on the availability of someone I think is a top NHL coach, someone that we have experience with, someone I really do believe can coach this team and also coach the team when it reaches its ultimate level of competitiveness."

The Blues were held to one goal or fewer for the fifth time in their past 13 games when they took a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday. St Louis gave up the first two goals before Jake Neighbours scored on the power play 45 seconds into the third, but the Blues were held to 25 shots on goal, marking the 11th time they were held to 25 or fewer.

--Field Level Media