Even in victory, Montgomery raising expectations for Stars

The book on Jim Montgomery as he started his career in the NHL was that he might be a "player's coach," a college professor of sorts who interacted with the young minds and bonded more as a friend than a disciplinarian.
But the past few weeks is showing that the 49-year-old bench boss might be a little more "old school" than he lets on.
Montgomery on Friday demanded more from his team -- and didn't mince words.
After a 2-1 overtime win against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals that pushed the Stars to 4-0-1 in their past five games, Montgomery was disappointed and matter-of-fact in his postgame presser.

"Our troubles come from when we have success, we get way too comfortable and we have games like we did tonight," Montgomery said. "That's the history of our season, and it's really the history of last three years."
Those are strong words when you consider what this team has done in the past three seasons under three different head coaches. If you want to read between the lines, Montgomery is saying the Stars do have an identity -- as underachievers -- and that he would like to change that.
Asked originally about the Stars' 8-11-2 road record as they get ready for a three-game junket to Winnipeg, St. Louis and Philadelphia, Montgomery decided to turn the question into a class on where he sees this team.

"It's not the road, it's our mentality," he said. "We don't change at the right times, our shifts our too long; any time we face adversity, we don't dig in, we take short cuts.
"That's why we're an inconsistent hockey team."
Friday's game was a display fans have seen far too often this year -- one where stretches of fantastic play are followed by stretches of confusing play.
Dallas started the game with a 15-5 advantage in shots on goal, including 13-2 at one point. However, the Capitals dominated the second and third periods, with a 29-10 advantage in shots on goal. In a 1-1 game, the Stars were outshot 14-2 in the third period and survived only because Anton Khudobin was spectacular in goal.
Khudobin stopped 36 of 37 shots and now has stopped 85 of 86 shots in his past two games. That's a big reason the team has been able to get wins when they haven't played their best -- and Montgomery wants the players to know that they can play better.
He is raising the bar of expectations, and he's actually been doing that for a little while.
In a game two days before Christmas in Minnesota, Montgomery scratched Tyler Pitlick while the Minneapolis native had a large contingent of family and friends in the stands.

"I knew it was his hometown," Montgomery said afterward. "You don't like to do it, but we have to play guys who we think are going to give us the best opportunity to win."
The decision definitely affected Pitlick, who said he gained new motivation.
"I wasn't happy about it, obviously," Pitlick said. "I guess it was motivating. I was mad, and I felt like I have played with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, so yeah, there was a correlation."
Montgomery earlier scratched Brett Ritchie in a game where he could have played against his brother, Nick. On the surface, it seems you could get the best out of Pitlick or Ritchie in those situations, but you also could send a pretty clear message too.
"You hope that's the response you get," he said when told what Pitlick said.
And while we can argue back and forth the success rate of such moves and the risk of going to that well too many times, it's clear the entire Stars organization wants to raise the bar right now. The road record isn't good enough, the 30-to-40 minutes of strong hockey per game isn't good enough. The push for seventh or eighth place isn't good enough.
The Stars last season had an 0-7-1 collapse when Ben Bishop got hurt, and that led them to missing the playoffs. That memory is clear in the minds of everyone here, and they very much want to avoid a repeat.

They also want to simply move forward and become a much better team. Jamie Benn is 29 years old. Ben Bishop is 32. Alexander Radulov is 32. The time to win is now. With the Winter Classic coming next season, the Stars need to step it up.
Some fans would say they have needed to step it up for a couple of seasons.
We can talk about the recent goings on surrounding this team, and whether they provide motivation or not, but when John Klingberg was asked why Tyler Seguin (who had two goals Friday and now has six points in his past four games) is playing better, he said: "I think since everything happened, he really dug in and I think from all of us, we think it's not about only them (Seguin and captain Jamie Benn), it's about all of us. I think he really thinks the full team is behind him."
Bottom line, raising expectations can work.
It can work on the players where it is directed, and it can pull together players who feel a need to support. It can also blow up. The key might be to have the expectations and pressure come more from within than the outside. Montgomery said that with Benn missing the game because of an upper-body injury, the team lacked some leadership.
"It shows when we don't have our captain," Montgomery said. "That's our first game without Jamie Benn, and our bench was really quiet. There's no one reinforcing the game plan."
Montgomery said he'll push to get the alternate captains to take a bigger role and also said he wants to get veterans who don't have letters to join in and provide support.

"We've just got to keep harping on the details that we believe in, keep harping on the process, and hope that as a group that the leadership and the core guys are able to pull everybody in with them," he said.
And now is a great time to prove that.
The Stars won in Nashville because Khudobin was amazing with 49 saves. They won the third period against New Jersey because Bishop stepped up with 20 saves. They won on Friday because Khudobin stopped 31 of 32 shots after the first period.
And that's not a formula for winning hockey.
High expectations and team responsibility is.
"The second and third periods weren't good enough," the coach said. "We were lucky."
And an "old-school" coach would prefer something much more reliable than luck.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.