5 things to know about interim Bruins head coach

Bruins

Joe Sacco first joined the Bruins as a coach prior to the 2014-15 season.

The Bruins made their coaching reshuffle on Tuesday afternoon, firing Jim Montgomery after just over two seasons as head coach.

In the subsequent move, Boston named longtime assistant Joe Sacco as the team’s interim head coach. Sacco, 55, has been on Boston’s bench for more than a decade, and will now look to right the ship after a disappointing 8-9-3 Bruins roster.

“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 be successful,” Bruins GM Don Sweeney said in a team release Sunday. “We will continue to work to make the necessary adjustments to meet the standard and performance our supporting fans expect.”

Here are five things to know about Boston’s new bench boss.

He has been on the Bruins’ coaching staff since 2014

Sacco is no stranger to the Bruins’ bench.

Before taking the reins in the Original Six series on Tuesday, Sacco served as an assistant for three different Boston head coaches in Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy and Montgomery.

Sacco was hired by Boston in July 2014, joining his hometown team after spending 11 years coaching in the AHL and NHL. After spending his first 10 seasons with Boston as an assistant, he was promoted to associate coach last July, elevating him ahead of the team’s other assistant coaches, Chris Kelly and Jay Leach.

“Really, not much will change with my role,” Sacco told Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont from his offseason promotion. “But this should give me the chance for Jim and I to talk more … about things I see and vice versa during games. I don’t have to be as focused on matchups as Jim is, and Jay will see more on the defensive aspects of our game.”

As noted by Dupont, Sacco entered the 2024-25 campaign along with Carolina’s Jeff Daniels with 10 years as an assistant for their respective clubs, the most active among NHL coaches.

Now he will get a chance to try to lead Boston out of its current malaise.

“I always felt like I wanted a second chance,” Sacco told Dupont. “I’ve looked around at a lot of guys who were coaching their second time … they had moderate success (the first time), but when they got the second opportunity, they really took off.”

Sacco is a Massachusetts native

Sacco has plenty of local ties, including putting himself on the map as an NHL prospect during his days at Medford High School.

After totaling 114 points (52 goals, 62 assists) over his final two seasons (41 games) at Medford High, Sacco continued his collegiate career at Boston University. He spent three seasons with the Terriers from 1987-90, scoring 63 goals and 128 total points over 111 games in a scarlet and white sweater.

Sacco had several teammates at BU who ended up in the coaching ranks, including Mike Sullivan (1986-90) and David Quinn (1984-88). BU reached the Frozen Four in Sacco’s last season on Commonwealth Ave., where the team ultimately fell short against Colgate at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.

He is a former NHL player

A fourth round pick (71st overall) of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1987 NHL Draft, Sacco appeared in parts of 13 seasons in the NHL. In total, he appeared in 738 games between the Maple Leafs, Ducks, Islanders, Capitals and Flyers.

Sacco recorded 94 goals and 119 assists for 213 points during his NHL playing career, with his most productive season coming with the Ducks during the 1993–94 campaign (19 goals, 37 total points).

Although not a top-six talent at hockey’s highest level, Sacco carved out a long career with his profile as a steady, defensive forward.

He retired at the end of the 2002–03 season, making the jump to coach with the AHL’s Lowell Lock Monsters, Albany River Rats and Lake Erie Monsters from 2004–09.

The Bruins’ PK has been Sacco’s forte

Sacco’s reputation as a detail-oriented, two-way forward made him a natural fit as Boston’s PK coach over the years – with the Bruins establishing one of the most consistent shorthanded units in the league over the last decade.

“They are incredible,” David Pastrnak said last year about working against Boston’s PK unit. “It’s horrible to practice against them. Sometimes you think your (power play) has to improve when you practice against the best PK in the league, but our PP gets worse because of it.”

Since Sacco first arrived in Boston prior to the 2014-15 season, the Bruins have posted a top-10 penalty kill in seven of his 10 full seasons with the team, including a pair of first-place finishes in both 2022-23 (87.3 percent) and 2016 -17 (85.7 percent).

Even after the loss of strong PKers like Patrice Bergeron and Tomas Nosek during the summer of 2023, the Bruins finished last season with a seventh-ranked shorthanded unit (82.5 percent).

Sacco has taken an active role over the years in creating scouting reports for opposing power-play units during his time with Boston.

“The PK is basically, for me, just giving the players the exact information they need to go into the opponent that we’re playing that night and try to find their strengths as a group, what they make good on their power play, what are their tendencies and what we can do to try to take it away from them,” Sacco told Boston Globe’s Jim McBride last season.

“It’s nothing that’s new, it’s just you look at a power play and you say, ‘OK, they tend to do this and this is option one, this is option two. What can we do to take it away, or how shall we take it away from them?’”

Despite Sacco’s track record, the Bruins’ PK — like several other areas of strength this fall — is completely eroded in 2024-25. Boston ranks 25th in penalty kicks through 20 games (75.6 percent).

Sacco has NHL head coaching experience

This is not Sacco’s first opportunity to coach an NHL roster.

After spending two seasons coaching the Avalanche’s AHL affiliate in Lake Erie, Sacco was promoted as Colorado’s head coach in June 2009.

He was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, given annually to the coach who has contributed the most to his team’s success, after leading the Avalanche to a 43-30-9 record and a playoff berth in his first season at the helm .

Sacco eventually went 130-134-40 with the Avalanche from 2009-13. The Avs fired him after a 16-25-7 lockout-shortened 2013 campaign and three straight seasons without a playoff appearance.

Sacco has already filled in as Boston’s head coach at times, taking over for Cassidy during his six-game, COVID-related absence in the 2021-22 season. The Bruins went 3-1-2 with Sacco behind the bench over that stretch.

“You grow from your experiences as a coach,” Sacco told Dupont last season. “You’ll be a better coach the second time around. So yes, of course, if the opportunity is there, and it presents itself, and it’s the right situation, I’d like to take it up again. But I feel very fortunate to be in the position that I am (with the Bruins).