Blues coach Jim Montgomery: Effort ‘unacceptable’ in blowout loss to Capitals

Jim Montgomery is raising alarm bells about the play of his St. Louis Blues.

The coach ripped his slumping team’s effort after a 6-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday.

“Well this is unacceptable tonight. It’s that simple,” Montgomery said, per Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. “We have to dig in, and starting tomorrow morning when we wake up, have a good skate and get ready to play the Sabres. And show up for our fans, our city and our owners.”

After taking the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets to seven games in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Blues (4-8-2) have plummeted into a tie for last place in the NHL standings with the Calgary Flames.

On Wednesday, the Blues highlight making the rounds was goalie Jordan Binnington trying to hide the puck in his pants after Alex Ovechkin beat him for his 900th career goal. Linesperson Michel Cormier eventually asked for the puck back.

Montgomery said he had a bad feeling about the game “from the drop of the puck.

“We got the puck 10 feet before the red line in the first five seconds of the game and we (Oskar Sundqvist) iced it,” he said, per Rutherford. “We weren’t ready to play. We weren’t ready to start on time. And we got worse after the first period.”

Blues captain Brayden Schenn was also critical of the team.

“We don’t compete and battle and in this league you’re going to get your butt kicked most nights,” he said. “It’s happened way too many nights over and over again. Until we show up to the rink and compete for one another then we’ll start getting results.”

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