Jim Montgomery took the fall. Now, it’s on an underachieving Bruins roster to right the ship.
The Bruins' 2024-25 roster has been dragged down by multiple underachieving players.
COMMENTARY
Both Cam Neely and Don Sweeney didn’t mince words on Tuesday evening.
In what stood as the third press release issued under their watch announcing the firing of a head coach, Boston’s president and general manager offered up the expected well wishes to Jim Montgomery — relieved of his duties amid a disheartening 8-9-3 start this fall.
But Boston’s top brass immediately turned to the present and the challenge that awaits interim head coach Joe Sacco as he tries to buoy a sinking ship.
“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,” Sweeney acknowledged.
“I’m supportive of Don’s decision to address our current play and performance,” Neely added. “Joe Sacco has a wealth of experience and knowledge of our roster and can help lead our team in the right direction.”
It’s a familiar tone from Boston’s management team. Look no further than the sentiment shared after the Bruins canned Claude Julien in February 2017.
“These decisions are not easy, and Don has my full support,” Neely said in a team statement after Boston elevated Bruce Cassidy as an interim head coach. “I believe that we have a better team than our results to date show. I also recognize that there are areas that we as a group need to improve upon.”
Boston is hoping that Sacco can follow a similar routine as Cassidy — with a shift in strategy and a new voice sparkling a listless roster en route to a playoff run.
Of course, Cassidy was also granted a roster still anchored by elite talent in 31-year-old Patrice Bergeron, 30-year-old David Krejci, 28-year-old Brad Marchand, and 29-year-old Tuukka Rask.
Zdeno Chara still commanded respect in Boston’s room as a top-pairing defenseman, while hope resided in young talents like 20-year-old David Pastrnak and Boston University blueliner Charlie McAvoy.
Sacco has a more daunting task with this current roster, to say the least.
Beyond expected franchise fixtures like Pastrnak, McAvoy, and Jeremy Swayman — a trio that has already underwhelmed — Boston is going to need an assortment of regressing middle-six skaters and seemingly rudderless blueliners to find their footing.
Godspeed.
With Sweeney pulling the oldest trick in the book by pulling the plug on another coach, the cascade of criticism now turns to the individuals who crafted this roster.
Sweeney and Co. deserve plenty of blame for shirking speed and secondary scoring in favor of size and a stance that several individual career years in 2023-24 would be the norm moving forward.
But the consequences of Boston’s allocation of cap space in July won’t be realized until the 2024-25 wraps — especially if this dreadful product on the ice becomes the norm the rest of the season.
In the present, any hope of the Bruins getting back on track falls on the players themselves, rather than whatever tweaks Sacco has dialed up.
It should be a collaborative effort within Boston’s room, considering there’s only a handful of players who have actually pulled on the rope this season.
Hampus Lindholm — who is currently sidelined for weeks after taking a puck off his knee last week — has shown a willingness to put pucks on net and activate off the blue line.
In an expected correlation, a fourth-line trio playing with plenty of urgency in Mark Kastelic, Johnny Beecher, and Cole Koepke was the lone grouping generating offense out of the gate.
And even Joonas Korpisalo has been steady as Boston’s backup so far this season (3-2-1, .901 save percentage).
After that? It’s a room high on established talent — and severely lacking in terms of results and response.
Much like how Cassidy unearthed more speed and offensive capabilities on Boston’s roster after taking the reins, Boston is holding out hope that Sacco can make the necessary tweaks to get the Bruins back to the layered, disciplined product of yesteryear.
But make no mistake, Sacco and the Bruins’ coaching staff can only do so much.
Sacco isn’t the one fumbling pucks at the blue line or wasting bids on the power play by passing up shots. He’s not the one who’s going to limit the lazy breakout passes and D-to-D passes that have turned what should be routine puck movement into a laughable display of hot potato.
No amount of video work will stymie opposing teams if Boston’s $66 million man in net in Jeremy Swayman is posting a dreadful -7.3 goals saved above expected.
Boston’s new interim coach isn’t going to will David Pastrnak (three 5-on-5 goals in 20 games) into taking over games once again.
His words of encouragement or system changes alone aren’t going to turn Elias Lindholm (nine points in 20 games) and Nikita Zadorov (zero goals, 13 minor penalties) from potential free-agent busts into the expected key cogs the team hoped they’d be.
The case can be made that the 2024-25 Bruins were asking to be stung by both Father Time and offensive regression.
But that dip should equate to a wild-card club, at least. Not whatever uninspired, listless display has been put on the ice for weeks now.
The 2024-25 Bruins appear to be a flawed club short on skill and speed.
But there’s still talent there.
Enough talent to not trudge through the first six weeks of the season with the league’s worst power play (11.7 percent) and a 25th-ranked penalty kill (75.6 percent). There’s enough talent that middle-six cogs like Pavel Zacha, Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle, and Morgan Geekie should not have seven total even-strength tallies through 20 games.
Enough talent to not enter Tuesday with the third-worst goal differential (minus-21) in the league behind only the Penguins and Sharks.
After objecting to Cassidy’s blunt delivery and exacting approach, the Bruins opted for a softer voice in Montgomery.
It worked … until it didn’t, with Montgomery closing out his tenure in Boston with shouting matches against Brad Marchand and stapling Pastrnak to the bench.
The Bruins players have had their say — and it hasn’t worked. Now, the onus is going to have to fall on them to dig this team out of these depths.
“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,” Sweeney added in his statement.
That’s all well and good.
But it won’t matter all that much if the players themselves aren’t carrying their weight.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com