Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Bruins fire Jim Montgomery, Joe Sacco named interim head coach
Sacco has served as an assistant with Boston since the 2014-15 season.
After a disappointing 8-9-3 start, the Bruins announced on Tuesday that they have fired head coach Jim Montgomery.
Bruins associate coach Joe Sacco will take over as the team’s interim head coach.
Montgomery was in the midst of his third season with the Bruins, amassing a record of 120-41-23 over 184 total games as Boston’s bench boss.
Despite achieving plenty of regular-season success in each of his first two seasons with Boston, the Bruins’ sluggish play out of the gate in 2024-25 prompted GM Don Sweeney to make a coaching change.
“Today, I made a very difficult decision with regards to a coaching change,” Sweeney said in a team release. “Jim Montgomery is a very good NHL coach and an even better person.
Advertisement:
“He has made a positive impact throughout the Bruins organization, and I am both grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him and learn from him. … 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.”
Expectations were high for the Bruins entering the 2024-25 campaign, especially after Boston allocated plenty of its cap space toward signing free-agent targets like Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov — and re-upping netminder Jeremy Swayman.
But even though Boston’s roster — on paper — seemed more equipped for the grind of the postseason, the Bruins have spent most of the first six weeks of regular-season action flat and severely lacking across several facets of the game.
Advertisement:
The team has yet to win three straight games in 2024-25, and currently tied for the second worst goal differential (minus-21) in the league.
The Bruins reached their breaking point on Monday, dropping a 5-1 result to a rebuilding Blue Jackets team that entered the game with just one win in November. The Bruins’ league-worst power play was knocked for two shorthanded goals against Columbus, while top Boston players like David Pastrnak (zero shots on goal) submitted no-show performances.
“Everyone goes through struggles. Whether (in your) life or your team,” Montgomery said after the loss. “That’s what life’s about. How do you pick yourself up? It’s not how hard you fall. It’s how quickly you pick yourself up.”
More Bruins Coverage
The Bruins will not give Montgomery the opportunity to try and right the ship moving forward.
It didn’t take long for the pressure to mount on Montgomery. Boston’s head coach entered the 2024-25 season on the final year of his three-year contract, with no clarity on his future.
“I don’t think it would affect me, just being honest,” Montgomery said ahead of training camp regarding his murky contract status. “I love being a Bruin, I think I’m very fortunate to be a head coach of the Boston Bruins and my focus when I am the Boston Bruins [coach] is staying in the present and just getting better every day.
Advertisement:
“I know it sounds cliché… but I can’t allow myself to think about the future because I’d be a little bit of a hypocrite, because I’m asking our players to always stay in the moment. I have to stay in the moment. So that’s the way I look at things. Doesn’t matter if I had an eight-year contract or a one-day contract. That’s the way I proceed. That’s my process.”
But as Boston’s scoring output at both 5-on-5 play and on the power play dried up, Montgomery carried out several measures in hopes of giving his team a spark.
Beyond routinely putting his forward lines in a blender in search of a spark, Montgomery chewed out captain Brad Marchand on the bench in October and benched Pastrnak for the third period of a game against Seattle just a few weeks later.
But none of Montgomery’s moves seemed to stir a Bruins team that has regressed across the board to open the new season.
It’s an abrupt end to a coaching tenure that started out with plenty of promise in Boston.
Brought in by Boston in June 2022 to replace Bruce Cassidy, Montgomery’s lighter approach initially paid dividends for the Bruins. During Montgomery’s first year on the job, Boston went 65–12–5 and recorded 135 points — breaking both the previous NHL record for wins and points in a single season.
Advertisement:
For his efforts, Montgomery took home the Jack Adams Award as the NHL Coach of the Year.
But Boston’s record-setting season ended in crushing fashion — by squandering a 3-1 series lead en route to a shocking first-round upset at the hands of the Florida Panthers.
Some of Montgomery’s coaching calls during that series drew criticism, be it abandoning the goalie rotation in favor of an injured Linus Ullmark or several lineup reshuffles that led to middling returns.
However, Montgomery then led a cap-crunched roster to a 47-20-15 record in 2023-24, exceeding several expectations before ultimately getting bounced by Florida again in the second round of the playoffs.
Despite those strong regular-season showings, the lack of a contract extension entering the 2024-25 campaign was a foreboding omen about Montgomery’s job security this fall — one that was followed through on Tuesday.
Joe Sacco brings PK expertise, 10 years with Bruins
Sacco, 55, was promoted to associate coach in July after spending the previous 10 years in Boston as an standard assistant coach. His hallmark has been his work on the Bruins’ PK, which has long served as one of the top units in the NHL before this year’s regression (25th overall, 75.6 percent).
With Sacco now given the reins, the Medford native will have his work cut out for him when it comes to getting Boston back up to speed. Sacco has been on Boston’s coaching staff since 2014, serving as an assistant under Claude Julien, Cassidy, and Montgomery.
“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 said in the team release. “We will continue to work to make the necessary adjustments to meet the standard and performance our supportive fans expect.”
Advertisement:
Boston will look to get back on track Thursday when it hosts Utah at TD Garden.
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