Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced that the club has relieved head coach Jim Montgomery of his duties. Associate coach Joe Sacco will assume an interim head coach role. Montgomery’s ousting comes after a 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. It was Boston’s third consecutive loss, and the 10th in their last 15 games. The Bruins have been outscored 51-to-28 in those games, good for a -23 goal differential – the worst in the NHL since October 19th.
To say Boston’s early season has fallen short of expectations would be an understatement. The team stands with an 8-9-3 record, and needed overtime to achieve half of their wins. No aspects of the lineup seem to be firing properly, with David Pastrnak (17) and Brad Marchand (13) the only Bruins to pass 10 points through 20 games – and even they’re scoring below their typical pace. Netminder Jeremy Swayman hasn’t been any better, with his .884 save percentage in 14 appearances outmatched by backup Joonas Korpisalo’s .901 in seven appearances. It’s been top-to-bottom struggles in Boston, sparking the first coach firing of the young season.
Montgomery will be replaced by Boston-native, and Boston University alum, Joe Sacco, who’s served on the Bruins bench since the 2014-15 season. Sacco worked under three different head coaches in that span – serving as an assistant up until this summer, when he received an aptly-timed promotion to associate coach. He’ll now take one step further, moving into his first head coaching role since 2012-13, when Sacco was fired after a four-year tenure with the Colorado Avalanche. He only led Colorado to the postseason once, in 2009-10 – his first year as an NHL head coach. He set a 43-30-9 record that year, only to fall to a dismal 88-104-21 record through his next three seasons. That includes a 16-25-7 record in the 2012-13, which paved way for Colorado to select Nathan MacKinnon first overall in the 2013 NHL Draft. Before his time in the NHL, Sacco achieved a 60-79-21 record across two seasons with the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters.
But while past precedent may not shine favorably on Sacco, his decade in Boston has provided plenty of learning experience. He’s become known for overseeing Boston’s penalty-killing unit, which ranks as the second-most effective in the NHL over the last decade. More specifically, the Bruins have three separate seasons in the top 10 of penalty-killing percentage since 2014-15 – posting a second-ranked 87.3 percent in 2022-23, a seventh-ranked 86 percent in 2020-21, and a 10th-ranked 85.7 percent in 2016-17. That’s in large part thanks to Sacco, who amassed 738 career NHL games of his own – standing out as a stout defensive-forward. Those traits will come in handy for a Bruins team currently allowing the fourth-most goals in the league.
Meanwhile, Montgomery will now look for new work less than two seasons after leading Boston to a record 65 wins in 2022-23. The Bruins were promptly ousted in the first round of the postseason, but the year was nonetheless monumental. It ended in Linus Ullmark winning the Vezina Trophy, Patrice Bergeron – again – winning the Selke Trophy, and Montgomery winning the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year. Montgomery followed it with a very strong 47-20-15 record last season, commanding Boston through the loss of longtime lineup pillars Bergeron and David Krejčí and making it to the playoff’s second round.
Montgomery’s hockey roots run deep. He was a star at the University of Maine, captaining the team’s 1993 NCAA Championship run while serving strong opposite of Paul Kariya. He signed in the NHL as an undrafted free agent soon after and became a star scorer in the minor-leagues – amassing 328 points across eight years and 451 games in the AHL. He retired from an 11-year pro career in 2005 and didn’t take on his first head coach role until 2010 – but his winning tendencies quickly came back. Montgomery led the Dubuque Fighting Saints to the USHL Clark Cup in both 2010 and 2012 – earning a move step up to the University of Denver, where he won another NCAA Championship in 2017. He was hired by the Dallas Stars in 2018, and led the team to a 60-43-10 record, though he stepped down as head coach partway through the 2019-20 season. Still, his hockey resume is as strong as it comes, and it likely won’t be long before Montgomery finds himself once again commanding an NHL lineup.
Ridiculous!!!! The dead weight is Sweeney and Neely! Montgomery is a top 5 or 6 coach.
It is interesting that Boston and Nashville both went big in free agency, and both are terrible right now.
And I wouldn’t be suprised to see Brunette be the next coach to get fired.
Why? Because he is really a blonde?
From record high wins to the garbage can
Good management
Wilf was better than Kesler
Worst fans in the league getting exactly what they deserve. Ya love to see it.
i wasnt aware the flyers and/or rangers made a change behind the bench today too
Oh I wanna hear this. Please explain to me why I am the worst fan in the league.
toronto
Toronto is second-worst.
Wow.
He’s the only reason they win at all.
Sweeney and Neely have pictures. Literal dumb and dumber.
Pens should fire Sully and hire him and the Bruins should then hire Sully.
uh. sully was already thier coach… granted 20 or so years ago(ish).
Haha pronouns can be tricky sometimes
well that just happened
And Mike Sullivan is still employed in Pittsburgh
Please Hawks go get him
Sweeney put together a flawed roster. He has managed the cap poorly. He should’ve been the first to go. Sweeney is passing the blame to Montgomery instead of looking in the mirror
If they had fired Montgomery in the off-season the Blues would’ve hired him. I wonder what they’ll do now.
It really doesn’t matter how good you are as a coach you are always the scapegoat just ask Turk Gallant.
How does Monty get fired before Lalonde? SMH
Goes to show that winning or being a Jack Adams award coach goes into the what have you done for me lately file.
You noticed that too, Claude,Bruce, PatBurns, even Don Cherry won that dreaded reward!
They never should have fired Bruce Cassidy!!
Ruff should be fired and Montgomery hired IMMEDIATELY! Adams can right a wrong right away and somehow save his last chance of his job!
The Bruins are still paying him, maybe they won’t let him go to a team in the East.
Time for change like 2 can Sam. Not always the guy running the bench.
A firing only in the second month of the season is rather rash to say the least. I mean give Jim Montgomery the season & see how it turns out. Then if things don’t go well, you can move on from him during the summer. Montgomery will find a new coaching job for sure in due time.
I don’t think Montgomery is the issue of Boston’s problems though. The roster overall is rather sketchy outside of David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand (who’s on his last leg). Don Sweeney & co haven’t really established a core for the team & haven’t replenished talent over the course either but instead doing patch job work to fill in holes.
At this point, one may argue Boston may have to blow things up similar to what Nashville & Pittsburgh may do soon & re-build to various extents as they’re clearly on the decline here.
Ridiculous. This team has zero prime talent outside Pasta, McAvoy and Swayman. That Montgomery even got them into the playoffs last year was a miracle of coaching. The decision to go big at the expense of skill was and is a huge blunder. How is Lysell not up from the A when no one else can score? Sweeney is 100% at fault here.
SACCO was told at the first of the year that if Monty got off to a bad start be ready to Step in and take over…So the brass knew it was coming ..