In a move that increasingly felt inevitable, the Boston Bruins are firing head coach Jim Montgomery amid the team’s sluggish start to the season, sources tell WEEI’s Rich Keefe. Assistant coach Joe Sacco is expected to take over.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the Bruins will officially announce the move, but it is expected to happen before Thursday’s home game against Utah.
The Bruins suffered their third straight loss on Monday in a 5-1 blowout at the hands of the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets, dropping them to 8-9-3 on the season. Their minus-21 goal differential is tied for second-worst in the NHL.
Montgomery had seemingly tried just about everything he could think of to try to spark this team, but none of it worked. After trying to keep fairly consistent line combinations early in the season, he had resorted to frequent juggling in recent weeks, only occasionally and temporarily finding anything that clicked.
Montgomery had made examples of team leaders like Brad Marchand (laying into him during a game in Utah after a bad turnover), David Pastrnak (benching him for the third period in a win over Seattle after a similarly bad turnover), and Charlie McAvoy (removing him from the struggling top power-play unit prior to Hampus Lindholm’s injury).
It had all the looks of a desperate coach, which is exactly what Montgomery was. He was in the final year of his contract, and many already believed he was on thin ice after nearly blowing a 3-1 series lead to Toronto in the first round back in the spring.
Historically, coaches who are in a lame-duck situation and whose teams get off to a bad start do not get a long leash. Montgomery’s may have actually been longer than most anticipated.
Now it will be up to Sacco and the rest of Boston's staff to try to turn things around. It will not be easy. The Bruins have looked slow and disconnected as a team. They rank 31st in the NHL in goals scored per game (2.40), 28th in goals allowed per game (3.45), 32nd on the power play (11.7%), and 25th on the penalty kill (75.6%). They have taken the most penalties in the league.
Sacco, a Medford native who has been on Boston's staff since 2014 and has been in charge of the Bruins’ usually stellar PK for years, will have to find a way to get this team to play faster, create more scoring chances, stay out of the box, and be a lot better on special teams.
And if that doesn’t happen, then attention will shift to Sweeney and the roster he assembled, which should already be under the microscope given how poorly the team has played so far.
Montgomery himself could not figure out a way to shake the Bruins out of their early-season stupor. Sweeney and the front office are now hoping his dismissal will.