Bruins officially fire Jim Montgomery
After suffering their third straight loss Monday night, this one by a 5-1 final by the Metro-worst Blue Jackets, the Bruins have officially made a coaching change, with Jim Montgomery relieved of his duties.
The Bruins confirmed the move by way of a press release Tuesday evening.
Montgomery departs the Bruins with a 120-41-23 record over this three seasons with the club, obviously headlined by what was a record-breaking 2022-23 campaign that featured an NHL-record 65 wins and 135 points and a Jack Adams victory for Montgomery as the NHL’s top coach. But for as successful as Montgomery’s Bruins were, the playoffs told a different story throughout his tenure, with the Bruins eliminated by the Panthers in both postseasons on Montgomery’s watch. Under Montgomery, the B’s went a combined 9-11, and posted a 4-8 record at home in the postseason.
Entering the final year of his current contract, Montgomery’s status as a ‘lame duck’ head coach was seemingly hanging over the club, and each passing loss didn’t seem to help things, as pressure mounted on both himself and the Bruins to get things going in the right direction.
Speaking after Monday’s setback, Montgomery tried to take a more facing-it-all-head-on approach when asked about the struggles and the obvious intensity that comes with it.
“Everyone goes through struggles whether [in] life or your team,” Montgomery said. “That’s what life’s about: How do you pick yourself up? It’s not how hard you fall, but it’s how quickly you pick yourself up.”
But at 8-9-3, and with the team simply looking worse with each passing outing, the Bruins decided to make the change before things truly spiraled out of control.
And there’s honestly not an area of the Bruins’ game where the club does not need a drastic improvement, as the team began Tuesday ranked 31st in goals for per game (2.4), 28th in goals against per game (3.45), 25th on the penalty kill (75.6 percent), and dead last on the power play (11.7 percent).
The Bruins are also shooting just 8.87 percent as a team this season, which is the fifth-worst mark in the NHL, and does not jive well with a team save percentage of .883, giving the Bruins a PDO (your shooting percentage combined with your save percentage) that ranks as the fourth-worst in the NHL.
With Montgomery out, the Bruins will lean on Joe Sacco as the team’s interim head coach.
Sacco, who was promoted to associate coach this past offseason, most recently filled in as Boston’s head coach during then-head coach Bruce Cassidy’s six-game, COVID-related absence early in 2021-22. The Bruins posted a 3-1-2 record with Sacco behind the bench during that segment.
Prior to that six-game run in 2021, Sacco’s last run behind an NHL bench came with a four-season run in Colorado from 2009 through 2013, with a 130-134-30 record and one playoff appearance over that span. A Medford, Mass. native, Sacco has been with the B’s organization since 2014.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney will speak with the media on Wednesday morning.
