What stands out about a Jim Montgomery-led Blues team?

The St. Louis Blues made waves when they hired Jim Montgomery to become the 28th head coach in franchise history–just days after he was let go by the Boston Bruins.

However, the move might be proving dividends for a team that is in the bottom-half of the Central Division.

The Blues have shown signs of improvement in Montgomery’s first three games behind the bench. Though they were only able to salvage a point in an overtime loss against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, St. Louis looked good on the road last week when they defeated both the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils.

Some might say it is in relation to the “dead-cat bounce” following a coaching change, but the Blues are noticeably playing with more poise and confidence, leading to some solid performances, helping St. Louis slowly creep back into Wild Card contention in the Western Conference.

During the Coaches Room segment of Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Jon Goyens joined Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen to discuss what the Blues are doing differently under Montgomery.

Jon Goyens: It’s knowing Monty and how he wants to coach and how he wants his teams to play. It’s very similar to the roster he had last year in Boston. They want to play a lot of half-court hockey, but the reality is, areas that he’s going to focus on defensively is loose-puck recoveries and closing off time and space, especially in the neutral zone quickly so that their transition game can improve. Then, through the neutral zone, a lot of the counter-attacks that they can create by bumping pucks up quickly, they’re processing the game at a quicker pace and jumping that second [defenseman] up in the rush more.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…