Jim Montgomery’s Bruins tenure leaves behind emotions that transcend hockey

BOSTON — It’s not unusual for newly appointed coaches to dedicate a portion of the introductory press conference to saying nice things about the old coach. It’s just that Joe Sacco, who met with the media on Wednesday after being named interim coach of the Boston Bruins after the firing of Jim Montgomery, was barely in the room when he began to roll out a testimony dedicated to his predecessor.

“I want to start by saying it’s been a tough 24 hours – for myself and for the staff,” Sacco said. “Obviously we lost a really good coach in Jim, and even a better person.”

It’s worth noting that Sacco grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, a few miles up I-93 from the TD Garden. This would make coaching the Bruins a textbook “dream job,” as Sacco himself more or less acknowledged when he said, “I’m excited for the opportunity, I’m not going to lie.” But even then he referred to his sudden ascendancy as “bittersweet”. And while Sacco’s words were neither intimidating nor filled with piety, the new coach grabbed the lectern with both hands, the way he moved his head left and right in such a way that he made eye contact with everyone in the room. suggests that his remarks about Montgomery were sincere.

I like to think that a lot of Bruins fans who are upset, even with the team’s poor play this season, have feelings about Montgomery that align with what Sacco said. To take it a step further, I think a lot of Bruins fans absolutely loved the guy. Montgomery is a recovering alcoholic, which became known after he lost his former head coaching job with the Dallas Stars. This did not stop the Bruins from reaching out to him after Bruce Cassidy was fired, resulting in a July 1, 2022 presser at TD Garden to introduce Montgomery.

There was no dancing around the alcohol issue, either by management or Montgomery. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, speaking at the 2022 press conference, revealed that the team “. . . talked to an awful lot of people and we felt very comfortable moving forward with the lifelong pursuit that he has now and the family support that he has and the sponsors that he has in place.”

Montgomery was more direct that day. “For me, in my life, sobriety, family and hockey are the three most important things now,” he said.

Let’s be clear about this: Fans rarely “root” for coaches other than on a transactional basis. When the team does well, the coach is popular. When the team is not playing well, the coach’s future is a fair discussion. But it was different with Montgomery because it was so easy to identify with the man. Almost everyone has had alcoholism, either through their own struggles or that of a family member or close friend; Because of that reality, it stands to reason that for many fans, watching Montgomery’s successes as coach of the Bruins was inspiring. This was especially true during Montgomery’s first season behind the bench, where the 2022-23 Bruins set league records for wins (65) and points (135).

But the 2022-23 Bruins proved to be a colossal tease when they were shown the door in the first round by the Florida Panthers.

And then the 2023-24 Bruins scored 109 points. They got past the Toronto Maple Leafs in a seven-game opening round playoff series, setting up a rematch with Florida. The Panthers won again, en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

The 2024-25 Bruins have been boring and lackluster so far. (Sam Navarro/Imagn Images)

This year’s Bruins have been a disappointment in every phase of the game. There are always slices of blame pie to hand out when teams with high expectations fall flat, and yes, we can point to Sweeney and two offseason acquisitions — Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov — that have not paid off so far. And come on, did the Jeremy Swayman soap opera have to play as long as it did before the goaltender resumed with the Bruins?

GO DEEPER

Bruins’ Don Sweeney on Jim Montgomery firing: ‘Had to change course’

We could go on and on about Sweeney, but here’s where it gets real: Aside from occasional bursts of energy, the 2024-25 Bruins have been dull, lethargic. They began the season as the seventh-youngest team in the NHL, according to this story from Athletics‘s James Mirtle, and yet they’ve looked awfully old at times.

When things like this happen, it’s usually the coach who goes.

“We’re 20 games in and you might think it’s a small sample size, but I just didn’t like the direction,” Sweeney said Wednesday. “We had a little bit of an incremental bump in terms of playing the right way . . . but we couldn’t sustain it. Even during the games, we couldn’t sustain it.”

Asked if Montgomery had “lost the room,” Sweeney said: “No. You can’t say Monty came in and made a positive connection with players for two seasons and then turn around and say they just tuned him out.”

But either because of Montgomery or in spite of him, the Bruins have actually largely tuned out this season. And it’s little consolation that so many Bruins players now say it’s all their fault that this could have been avoided. As David Pastrnak put it Wednesday, “As players, it’s a tough day. You always feel a lot of guilt. Monty’s a heck of a coach.”

GO DEEPER

‘We didn’t get it done’: Bruins stars take blame for Montgomery firing

Only now he’s a damn unemployed coach. And that’s how it’s worked in professional sports for more than a century: When a team underperforms, it’s often the coach or manager who gets ousted.

But if you rooted for Jim Montgomery the day he was hired, it’s OK to root for him now. He lost a job this week, but in two-plus seasons behind the Bruins bench, he saved his career.

(Top photo: Len Redkoles / NHLI via Getty Images)