In a move that increasingly felt inevitable, the Boston Bruins have fired head coach Jim Montgomery amid the team’s sluggish start to the season and named assistant coach Joe Sacco the interim head coach.
WEEI's Rich Keefe was the first to report the news on Tuesday.
The Bruins suffered their third straight loss on Monday in a 5-1 blowout at the hands of the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets, dropping them to 8-9-3 on the season. Their minus-21 goal differential is tied for second-worst in the NHL.
"Today, I made a very difficult decision with regards to a coaching change," general manager Don Sweeney said in a statement. "Jim Montgomery is a very good NHL coach and an even better person. He has made a positive impact throughout the Bruins organization, and I am both grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him and learn from him. Jim’s accomplishments as the Bruins head coach include a record-breaking and historic season, and I want to thank his entire family and wish him, Emily, J.P., Colin, Ava and Olivia all the success and happiness with their next opportunity. Our team’s inconsistency and performance in the first 20 games of the 2024-25 season has been concerning and below how the Bruins want to reward our fans. I believe Joe Sacco has the coaching experience to bring the players and the team back to focusing on the consistent effort the NHL requires to have success. We will continue to work to make the necessary adjustments to meet the standard and performance our supportive fans expect."
Montgomery had seemingly tried just about everything he could think of to try to spark this team, but none of it worked. After trying to keep fairly consistent line combinations early in the season, he had resorted to frequent juggling in recent weeks, only occasionally and temporarily finding anything that clicked.
Montgomery had made examples of team leaders like Brad Marchand (laying into him during a game in Utah after a bad turnover), David Pastrnak (benching him for the third period in a win over Seattle after a similarly bad turnover), and Charlie McAvoy (removing him from the struggling top power-play unit prior to Hampus Lindholm’s injury).
It had all the looks of a desperate coach, which is exactly what Montgomery was. He was in the final year of his contract, and many already believed he was on thin ice after nearly blowing a 3-1 series lead to Toronto in the first round back in the spring.
Historically, coaches who are in a lame-duck situation and whose teams get off to a bad start do not get a long leash. Montgomery’s may have actually been longer than most anticipated.
Now it will be up to Sacco and the rest of Boston's staff to try to turn things around. It will not be easy. The Bruins have looked slow and disconnected as a team. They rank 31st in the NHL in goals scored per game (2.40), 28th in goals allowed per game (3.45), 32nd on the power play (11.7%), and 25th on the penalty kill (75.6%). They have taken the most penalties in the league.
Sacco, a Medford native who has been on Boston's staff since 2014 and has been in charge of the Bruins’ usually stellar PK for years, will have to find a way to get this team to play faster, create more scoring chances, stay out of the box, and be a lot better on special teams.
And if that doesn’t happen, then attention will shift to Sweeney and the roster he assembled, which should already be under the microscope given how poorly the team has played so far.
Montgomery himself could not figure out a way to shake the Bruins out of their early-season stupor. Sweeney, team president Cam Neely and the Jacobs are now hoping his dismissal will.
"On behalf of the Boston Bruins, we thank Jim Montgomery for his accomplishments and impact on our organization," Neely said in a statement. "Jim’s open and honest communication with players, staff and management, as well as the positive attitude that he brought to the rink every day, helped lead our franchise to several on-ice accolades, including a historic 65-win season in 2022-23. We wish Jim and his family the best moving forward both personally and professionally. I’m supportive of Don’s decision to address our current play and performance. Joe Sacco has a wealth of experience and knowledge of our roster and can help lead our team in the right direction. He has a strong understanding of our standards and expectations, and I trust he will do all he can to accomplish our organization’s goals this season."