1 week Ago By Matthew DeFranks St. Louis Post-Dispatch
On Nov. 12, after Boston came back late to beat the Blues in St. Louis, forward Radek Faksa was catching up with fellow Czechs David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha.
It’s commonplace in the NHL for countrymen to say hello after games, but those two Bruins weren’t the only ones who would be greeting Faksa. Jim Montgomery did, too. Back then, Montgomery was coaching the Bruins, but had a relationship with Faksa dating to 2018, when Montgomery began his first NHL coaching job with the Stars.
Faksa played for parts of two seasons under Montgomery before Montgomery’s firing in 2019, and Faksa was traded to the Blues over the summer after spending nine years in Dallas. So Faksa and Montgomery are together again, only this time in St. Louis with Montgomery now wrapping up his first week of coaching the Blues, and they could laugh about their interaction earlier this month.
“I said to him today, it’s good to see he’s just a workhorse,” Montgomery said. “He just tries to execute, and he tries to do the right thing every time. There’s just no off switch.
When it’s time to practice, he works. He doesn’t stop working. When he gets out there on a shift, he works.
He’s a good guy that sets a tone really well.” Montgomery has plenty of relationships inside the Blues dressing room from his time in St. Louis as an assistant from 2020-22, and that was part of why he fit returning to the organization.
Players such as Robert Thomas and Brayden Schenn spoke about how much Montgomery helped their games, and Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich also flourished under Montgomery’s tutelage. But before this week, no current Blues player had played for Montgomery as a head coach except Faksa. “I remember he brought energy, fresh air,” Faksa said.
“The bench during the game is on fire, everyone’s talking. Practices are fun. Competing but fun.
Plus, he doesn’t like any gray areas, so if in the system there is some little hole, he will see that and he will fix it so that everyone is on the same page.” Faksa was in the first lineup Montgomery ever iced in the NHL, an Oct. 4, 2018 game in Dallas against the Coyotes.
Faksa was on the third line with Devin Shore and Tyler Pitlick that night. In Montgomery’s first season in Dallas, Faksa bounced around with different linemates (including Jamie Benn) before settling onto a checking line with Andrew Cogliano and Blake Comeau. The Stars went 60-43-10 under Montgomery overall, and lost to the Blues in double overtime of Game 7 in the second round in 2019 during Montgomery’s only playoff run with Dallas.
In St. Louis, Faksa has played a similar, albeit lessened role, now on a fourth line that mostly has featured Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker, with Mathieu Joseph expected to replace Walker on Saturday in a home game against the Flyers. The early usage for Faksa suggests a larger role on the penalty-killing unit than he had in the previous 22 games.
Instead of leaning on Brayden Schenn previously, the Blues have used Faksa to take more left-handed faceoffs on the penalty kill. In the last two games, Faksa has taken nearly half of the team’s 11 faceoffs while shorthanded. In the first 22 games, he took less than a fifth of the draws.
In the last two games, Faksa has averaged 2:47 of shorthanded time on ice to Schenn’s 56 seconds. Previously, they both were at 1:30 a night on the kill. Since playing under Montgomery, Faksa has had a handful of different coaches, which is just about on par for any player in the NHL.
He played under Rick Bowness, Pete DeBoer and Drew Bannister before reuniting with Montgomery. So he doesn’t remember if Montgomery is coaching the same systems currently as he did back in Dallas. But overall, how does today’s Montgomery compare to the one from 2018-20 in Dallas? “It’s a couple games, so it’s hard to say,” Faksa said.
“But yeah, so far, seems the same like he used to be in Dallas.”.
