Drew Bannister is out as coach of the St. Louis Blues after less than a full calendar year on the job. Jim Montgomery is back behind the bench of an NHL team five days after he was fired by the Boston Bruins.

The Blues fired Bannister on Sunday and hired Montgomery as his replacement, a stunning move a quarter of the way through the NHL season that puts a seasoned coach in charge of shepherding St. Louis through a retooling period and into the potential re-opening of the organization’s Stanley Cup-contending window.

President and general manager Doug Armstrong said he did not anticipate making a change until Montgomery became a free agent.

“This was more of an opportunity to get someone of Jim’s caliber than anything else,” Armstrong said on a video call with reporters. “When I talked to Drew today, 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.”

Armstrong showed no hesitation in cutting ties with Bannister, who had the interim tag removed from his title and became the full-time coach in May. Bannister was promoted from Springfield of the American Hockey League to replace 2019 Cup-winning coach Craig Berube last December, and the Blues missed the playoffs despite winning 30 of their final 54 games.

The Blues lost 13 of their first 22 games this season. Only two teams have scored fewer than their 2.36 goals a game, and they rank in the bottom third of the league on the power play and penalty kill while ravaged by injuries.

“It wasn’t an easy situation for him to walk into,” Armstrong said, adding he felt Bannister was learning on the fly as a first-time NHL head coach. “He was making mistakes. We were all making mistakes. … I was more than willing to go through the peaks and valleys with Drew until Monty became available.”

Montgomery, 55, is tasked with getting the most out of the talent available, something he has accomplished elsewhere. Every team he has coached for a full season has qualified for the playoffs, and his .659 points percentage ranks among the best in NHL history.

“He’s got a wealth of experience, and he’s at really the prime of his coaching career,” Armstrong said. “He’s the full package, or at least we hope he’s the full package.”

The Bruins opted to move on from Montgomery after their rough start, going 8-9-3, with the final defeat being a 5-1 home loss to Columbus. Boston won 120 of 184 regular-season games with Montgomery running the show, including setting the league records for victories and points in 2021-22 when he was the obvious choice for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

His second act as a head coach in the NHL came after Montgomery’s first ended abruptly. Hired by the Dallas Stars in 2018, he led them to the second round and then was fired in December 2019 for unprofessional conduct.

Montgomery called his dismissal appropriate, entered rehab and began putting his life back together.

“He’s obviously gone through things at the rink and away from the rink that defined who he is today,” Armstrong said.

Montgomery got his re-entry into hockey from the Blues, with Armstrong hiring Montgomery as an assistant on Berube’s staff in September 2020. That was the first sign of the longtime executive’s affinity for Montgomery, and the latest comes with job security. St. Louis signed him to a five-year contract.

Montgomery is the latest coach to be fired and re-hired midseason, a more common occurrence in the NHL than most professional sports leagues. Being out of a job for mere days is reminiscent of Bruce Boudreau’s experience in 2011, when he was fired by Washington on a Monday morning and replaced Randy Carlyle in Anaheim later that week.

This is the 23rd coaching change among the league’s 32 teams since January 2023, with the Blues among those making multiple moves in that time.

“A coach that I believe is a difference-maker became available, and we reacted to it,” Armstrong said. “We have a top-level NHL coach, and now it’s time for all of us to do our jobs and support him.”

Captain Sidney Crosby scored his 600th NHL goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night during his team’s 6-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club.

Crosby is the 21st player in NHL history to reach the milestone. He landed at 600 with 10 seconds left on a 5-on-3 power play, giving him seven goals in his past 12 games. Crosby finished a one-timer from the right side of the net, set up on a pass from Erik Karlsson at 3:11 of the second period.

“It’s hard to say. There’s lots of time to think about that, when I’m done playing,” Crosby said on the game broadcast when asked where No. 600 ranked on his list of career accomplishments. “But it’s nice to get it. I’ve been hovering right around it.”

According to ESPN Research, Crosby, the No. 1 pick by the Penguins in the 2005 NHL draft, is the seventh player in league history to score 600 goals for a single franchise and the second to do so with Pittsburgh, after Mario Lemieux finished his career with 690 goals.

“It means a lot,” Crosby said when asked how special the accomplishment is to have done so entirely for Pittsburgh. “Obviously, I’ve been here for a long time. And to be able to do it at home and have another memory, it’s special, and happy to see it go in.”

After the goal was announced, the crowd gave Crosby a standing ovation. The Penguins captain acknowledged the fans and raised his stick in the air. His parents, Troy and Trina, were in attendance for the moment.

After the game, however, his thoughts had already turned to his team and its struggles this season.

“It’s not enjoyable, obviously,” Crosby said after Pittsburgh lost for the 14th time in 18 games. “It was a nice reception and a cool moment. I thought we got some momentum and we were doing some good things, and [Utah] got one shortly after. Even with that, we were still in the game, but it got away from us.”

Dylan Guenther scored twice for Utah, while Nick Bjugstad, Jack McBain, Mikhail Sergachev and Alexander Kerfoot also scored. Karel Vejmelka stopped 27 shots for Utah.

Karlsson surpassed Borje Salming for 15th place on the NHL’s career assists list among defensemen. Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for Pittsburgh.

Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are the only active players with at least 600 NHL goals.

Pittsburgh is the second team in NHL history with multiple 600-goal scorers, joining the Detroit Red Wings‘ Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Last season, Connor Bedard was the NHL’s rookie of the year. This season, he is one of the league’s most frustrated stars.

Bedard, 19, has three goals and 12 assists in 20 games for the Chicago Blackhawks, who are tied for the worst points percentage in the NHL (.375). Heading into Saturday’s matchup at the Philadelphia Flyers, Bedard has gone 11 straight games without a goal.

“I could name 100 things [I could do better],” Bedard said Friday. “I don’t know, man. It has been frustrating, for sure. I just don’t feel like I’m really doing anything. So just keep chipping away at it, I guess, and hopefully find my game again.”

While his point production hasn’t fallen off drastically from his 61 points in 68 games last season — good enough to win the Calder Trophy — his goal-scoring pace has been cut in half. Bedard had 22 goals last season.

“It’s been a tough stretch,” he said. “You just feel like you don’t have it or whatever, and you lose a bit of confidence. And it just kind of goes on.”

Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson recently moved Bedard to a line with forwards Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson, as the young center was shifted to the wing. That paid dividends against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, with Bedard assisting on two Dickinson goals.

The three went scoreless in Chicago’s win over the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Thursday, however. They were dominated by center Aleksander Barkov‘s line, getting outshot 8-0 with a 16-2 disadvantage in attempts, but didn’t surrender a goal to Florida’s top line.

“We didn’t bring him here to be a checker,” Richardson said. “But just the way our team has a lack of scoring, we’re hunkering down on the defensive side until we get a little more confidence offensively back.”

Bedard’s take on his new role: If nothing else is working, why not try this?

“I’m not doing much offensively at all, so I’ve got to find a different way to be productive,” he said. “That was obviously different for me, but it’s good to do that. It’s good playing with those two guys. You learn a lot in that end. It’s a lot less work than at center. It’s just about positioning and knowing where to be.”

Bedard hasn’t talked about a lack of confidence much since he was drafted first overall by the Blackhawks in 2023. Richardson said Bedard addressed the issue of confidence because it’s “running through our team rapidly right now. … When you see it once, then that’s kind of the word that’s in your mind to use in an interview.”

Whatever one calls it, Bedard hopes to get back on his game as the 2024-25 NHL season reaches its quarter mark.

“Just keep going in every game,” he said. “Trying to be the best me.”