The air has cleared.

Gwozdecky will forever be remembered as a great coach in DU and college hockey history. But after what some would deem an unwarranted dismissal after last season, the air has cleared. Time has helped to forget.

In fact the more you look into the future, the easier it is to understand the buzz emanating around the hockey team. Not only will Denver Hockey make its debut in the newly formed National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), but it will, for the first time in 19 years, have a different face standing behind the bench—new Head Coach Jim Montgomery.

So, who is he?

“He’s very driven, very successful,and he was a great player,” said Associate Head Coach Steve Miller. “Sometimes it’s a struggle for great players to become great coaches, and he’s a great coach. As players, they were able to do things on the ice that separated them from other players, and when that happens there’s a level of frustration, you know ‘why can’t you do that, I can do that,’ but none of that comes true with Jim.”

From looking at the black numbers on the stat sheet, it is easy to see that Montgomery knows a thing or two about playing hockey.

Just like most stars, he started playing at a young age in Montreal, Canada, where missing teeth are as commonplace as touch football games here in the United States.

Montgomery ended up playing his college hockey at the University of Maine, and went on to be the school’s all-time leading scorer with 103 goals, and joined Paul Kariya as one of the few players honored to have their jersey retired.

From 1993 to 2005, Montgomery played professional hockey. He spent parts of six seasons in the NHL, but also played internationally in Germany and Russia.

Most recently, Montgomery headed the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the United States Hockey League (USHL) in Iowa. He served as both the head coach and general manager of a team that won the Clark Cup Championship in two of his only three seasons.

But you cannot measure a coach solely by his achievements.There are other reasons he was hired as head coach.

“He is a great teacher, and I think to be any successful coach you have to be a good teacher first and foremost,” added Miller.

Montgomery also seems to know what he wants from his players—and he has let them know.

“I think he’s very easy to talk to,” said senior Goalie Sam Brittain. “He lays out exactly what he wants our team to play like, our play book and what our team mentality is so everyone is on the same page. I think that’s the biggest thing he’s laid out for us. It’s his first year so he wants us to know what he expects of us. Those expectations have been clearly outlined.”

The expectations of Denverites are just as clear—win a national title, and do not flounder in the playoffs like the past five years.

Not to discount the 20 win season last year, and the 11 other times DU hockey reached 20 wins under Gwoz, but the bottom line is all about a championship, something he failed to deliver after back-to-back titles in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

It is a mixed bag of emotions swirling Magness Arena right now. Excitement. Anxiousness. And maybe a little bit of irritation from last year. It will take a level head and a guy with a Canadian accent to deal with it all.

Jim Montgomery could be that guy.

“We haven’t lost a game, we have been down a goal after a period so everything is rosy right now, but that’s what is exciting about the journey, when you face that adversity or you have that success is how you handle it,” Montgomery said. “That’s what we need to do as a group, focus on that every day. If we do that the results will take care of themselves.”