STL Blues coach Jim Montgomery on Johnnie Burgers being benched…
December 31, 2025
checks out…
21 comments
The “we shouldn’t have let him go” crowd will be eerily quiet about this. No surprise.
Yep. That’s just kinda what he is. Obviously wish him the best.
Poor buddy needs to find his way. Tough league, the NHL.
Glad to see him gone
Wish him nothing but the best in the NHL but reality is he’ll be in the AHL or SHL in the not too distant future.
It’s a bummer for him but there are lots of guys that have NHL talent but not the work ethic to maintain a spot in the league. This is the reason why Yzerman tends to gravitate towards drafting guys that are dogs. Skating, shooting, strength can all be coached. IQ and doggedness can’t. If he manages to find that next gear, he’d be a valuable 2nd or 3rd line player but at 25 years old, he’s pretty much what he’s going to be. He’ll make a nice living in the Swiss league.
I’ve said of all along anything..,.scoring goals is great….but when your play leads to the other team scoring mor, you can’t stick around in this league.
His only value is in the offensive zone.
Hes such a neutral zone and defensive zone liability that he can’t stick on a top 6 role, and he won’t find the playmaking linemates he needs to get him the puck on most teams bottom 6.
Since you can’t just dress him for the power play, he’s gonna sit a bunch unless he can add any other dimension to his game or score so much it out weighs the rest.
Oh shit wtff. Doing the burgs dirty on this one. Gotta give the guy some time
Hope he figures it out. Sometimes it helps to have more than just coaches wearing red clothing tell you the same stuff. Maybe someone will either say it in a way he understands, or he will flip a switch and it will sink in this time.
Or maybe hes just a tweener that never truly sticks in the NHL. Maybe Berrg doesnt have that level of compete in him and never will.
its so much about having the motor to keep chugging all 60 in nhl , its a dawgs life . in my veiwpoint theres many guys with talent like say mantha who damn well want to be able to push the pace constantly but they just dont have the actual physical heart muscle strength to keep up with the top guys on earth . in drafting ide always look at motor and iq , which i think is what yzerman does
He is who he is at this point. Glad he’s getting a chance somewhere else but wouldn’t be surprised to see him out of the league by next season.
That’s our guy. He has NHL tools but the toolkit altogether is fringe NHLer. He’ll be in Europe before he’s 30 and that’s ok.
Future SHL star
This sub loves kicking guys as they go out the door, it’s ridiculous
“Berggren is fantastic. Just needs to work on communication, strength, awareness, shooting percentage, game management, passing, slap shots, breakouts, screening, checking, positioning, power play, penalty kill, back-checking, stick-handling and getting a goal.” – Jim Montgomery
still 4 points in 5 games, i’ll wait to see how it turns out for him, but my hopes arent high
Who knew??? lol
I wish him all the best…except against the Wings lol
TLDR: “You can’t coach compete. He ain’t showing enough of it. He can be a healthy scratch til he finds some sack”
He’s played like 5 games with a new team, how bad could it have been?
Obviously I haven’t watched the games so I don’t actually know what he did wrong but man does Berggren seem held to a high standard
21 comments
The “we shouldn’t have let him go” crowd will be eerily quiet about this. No surprise.
Yep. That’s just kinda what he is. Obviously wish him the best.
Poor buddy needs to find his way. Tough league, the NHL.
Glad to see him gone
Wish him nothing but the best in the NHL but reality is he’ll be in the AHL or SHL in the not too distant future.
It’s a bummer for him but there are lots of guys that have NHL talent but not the work ethic to maintain a spot in the league. This is the reason why Yzerman tends to gravitate towards drafting guys that are dogs. Skating, shooting, strength can all be coached. IQ and doggedness can’t. If he manages to find that next gear, he’d be a valuable 2nd or 3rd line player but at 25 years old, he’s pretty much what he’s going to be. He’ll make a nice living in the Swiss league.
I’ve said of all along anything..,.scoring goals is great….but when your play leads to the other team scoring mor, you can’t stick around in this league.
His only value is in the offensive zone.
Hes such a neutral zone and defensive zone liability that he can’t stick on a top 6 role, and he won’t find the playmaking linemates he needs to get him the puck on most teams bottom 6.
Since you can’t just dress him for the power play, he’s gonna sit a bunch unless he can add any other dimension to his game or score so much it out weighs the rest.
Oh shit wtff. Doing the burgs dirty on this one. Gotta give the guy some time
Hope he figures it out. Sometimes it helps to have more than just coaches wearing red clothing tell you the same stuff. Maybe someone will either say it in a way he understands, or he will flip a switch and it will sink in this time.
Or maybe hes just a tweener that never truly sticks in the NHL. Maybe Berrg doesnt have that level of compete in him and never will.
its so much about having the motor to keep chugging all 60 in nhl , its a dawgs life . in my veiwpoint theres many guys with talent like say mantha who damn well want to be able to push the pace constantly but they just dont have the actual physical heart muscle strength to keep up with the top guys on earth . in drafting ide always look at motor and iq , which i think is what yzerman does
He is who he is at this point. Glad he’s getting a chance somewhere else but wouldn’t be surprised to see him out of the league by next season.
That’s our guy. He has NHL tools but the toolkit altogether is fringe NHLer. He’ll be in Europe before he’s 30 and that’s ok.
Future SHL star
This sub loves kicking guys as they go out the door, it’s ridiculous
“Berggren is fantastic. Just needs to work on communication, strength, awareness, shooting percentage, game management, passing, slap shots, breakouts, screening, checking, positioning, power play, penalty kill, back-checking, stick-handling and getting a goal.” – Jim Montgomery
still 4 points in 5 games, i’ll wait to see how it turns out for him, but my hopes arent high
Who knew??? lol
I wish him all the best…except against the Wings lol
TLDR: “You can’t coach compete. He ain’t showing enough of it. He can be a healthy scratch til he finds some sack”
He’s played like 5 games with a new team, how bad could it have been?
Obviously I haven’t watched the games so I don’t actually know what he did wrong but man does Berggren seem held to a high standard