Dallas Stars coach Jim Montgomery is so predictable. From junior-A to the NCAA and now the NHL, his teams always play their best hockey in the second half of the season.
Year by year, Montgomery grooms his teams in a methodical fashion.
He did it in three seasons with the junior-A Dubuque Fighting Saints, and for five years at the University of Denver, and now is doing it in his first season in the NHL.
Montgomery won two United States Hockey League championships with Dubuque to get him in position to replace George Gwozdecky at DU, and what he did with the Pioneers is nothing short of legendary: five NCAA Tournament appearances, including four trips to the Elite Eight, two to the Frozen Four and winning the 2017 national championship.