Management Montgomery fired - Sacco named interim coach

[UncleRico]

I did not like Monty's work this year.
On Julien he was on a 10 years run coaching the Bruins, missing the PO twice the years before. I hated that they fired CJ.
Cassidy was on a 7 years run after 8 years in Providence. I really never understood the firing of Cassidy.

But saying Sweeney is a coach killer ain't correct.

He’s on his 4th coach in barely over 9 seasons.

CJ won a cup
Cassidy was the 2nd winningest coach in the league and went on to win a cup
Montgomery was the winningest coach in the league

That’s a cold blooded coach killer.

 

[Bradely]

He’s on his 4th coach in barely over 9 seasons.

CJ won a cup
Cassidy was the 2nd winningest coach in the league and went on to win a cup
Montgomery was the winningest coach in the league

That’s a cold blooded coach killer.

I hear you. I simply disagree.

 

[dugg133]

This firing rests squarely on the shoulders of the players and Don Sweeney.....In that order.

Players deserve the most blame to me, by a lot. The guys that are paid a lot of money to lead this team on and off the ice came into camp looking mentally and physically unprepared for the season and then carried that into the first month. If Pasta was playing like the top 5 winger in the league we know he can be, McAvoy was playing like the 1D we know he can be, and Marchand wasn't turning the puck over 3 times a shift on the PP then this team isn't below .500 and Monty isn't fired right now.

I didn't love Sweeney's offseason, but nothing he did or didn't do should have the team looking this bad.

 

[GordonHowe]

1. He sucks

2. He coached in Colorado, he sucked there.

3. he sucks

4. Did i mention he sucks?

5. Don't let this bulletpoint distract you from the fact that the Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in 2016...also Joe Sacco sucks.

I would never contend otherwise.

I will be shocked if this is anything other than a caretaker position as they line up their next proper long-term head coach.

Whoever that is, they better know how to coach a three zone, defensively sound game.

Hair would be a plus.

 

[GordonHowe]

Now do Sweeney

If the Bruins fail to make the post season and leave playoff dollars on the table, you may get your wish.

fire sweeney

Preferably into the sun .

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

10 coaches were hired the same offseason as him. 2 have been fired, one retired because he was turning 70.

The majority of the coaches remained with their team still and most have done much worse than Montgomery.

This doesn’t even include the 5 other coaches who were hired 1+ years before montgomery.

Sure, coaches have a short shelf life. At the same time Montgomery didnt deserve to be one of the first few fired from the 10 coaches hired in the 2022 offseason.

The league has a short shelf life for coaches. It’s extremely short around here.

Okay fair enough. But you’re drawing from a relatively small sample size. What’s the average tenure of coaches league wide across many years? I’m not challenging you to answer that. I myself am not motivated enough to seek a definitive answer. But I do think it’s a much better measure of the point I was trying to make.

Also, wasn’t Claude Julien the longest tenured coach in the league when he was fired in 2017? Wasn’t Bruce here for five (six?) seasons? Are you drawing from even further back to say coaching tenures are “extremely short around here” because recent evidence does not back that assertion at all.

Edit: I see that my question was somewhat answered by a poster above in that last hour. I think you’re mixing things here by somewhat equating an implied “defense of Don Sweeney” with a (proven correct) assertion that the Bruins as a franchise are not churning through coaches. I’m not here to defend Sweeney, but I’m not sure why in your critique of him you are asserting something that is so easily shown to be false.

 

[GordonHowe]

The first deck chair has been repositioned.

Anything has to be an improvement.

A stop gap, near lateral move likely to pay modest dividends and little else.

It's going to be a long season, ladies and germs.

 

[UncleRico]

Okay fair enough. But you’re drawing from a relatively small sample size. What’s the average tenure of coaches league wide across many years? I’m not challenging you to answer that. I myself am not motivated enough to seek a definitive answer. But I do think it’s a much better measure of the point I was trying to make.

Also, wasn’t Claude Julien the longest tenured coach in the league when he was fired in 2017? Wasn’t Bruce here for five (six?) seasons? Are you drawing from even further back to say coaching tenures are “extremely short around here” because recent evidence does not back that assertion at all.

Bradley just posted it a few posts maybe a page up and it was 2.4 years for a coach.

So Montgomery was the winningest coach in the NHL since being hired in the 2022 offseason. He couldn’t even last the league average of 2.4 years as the winningest coach in hockey during that timespan.

 

[RoccoF14]

I didn't love Sweeney's offseason, but nothing he did or didn't do should have the team looking this bad.

We can agree to disagree on that. I've historically been a Sweeney supporter, but in my opinion, the moves he made this summer were roster malpractice. The way he handled the goaltending situation, massively overpaying for a 3rd pair defenseman that we didn't need, and the total failure to maintain, let alone improve our offensive output is fireable.

Relying on a 37yr old Marchand, who is pretty much held together with scotch tape, to be a top 6 winger when he was already showing signs of decline last year tells you all you need to know.

 

[GordonHowe]

ryan kennedy mentioned david carle as an offseason target and i'm here for that all day long

Embarrassed to say I don't know who that is, but shall perform due diligence.

Thanks for the heads up .

#FireSacco

(Getting ahead of this one early)

But why?

Why do you hate fair Philadelphia?

I am crestfallen.

 

[Cronuss]

The most important question here in regards to whether this is Monty or Cam/Sweeney's fault:

Is the team good on paper? Is this roster good?
Yes or no?

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Bradley just posted it a few posts maybe a page up and it was 2.4 years for a coach.

So Montgomery was the winningest coach in the NHL since being hired in the 2022 offseason. He couldn’t even last the league average of 2.4 years as the winningest coach in hockey during that timespan.

I added to my post if you want to check that out.

I’m not here to defend Sweeney. But you’re heavily implying (if not stating explicitly) that the Bruins/Sweeney have gone through coaches at a high rate in recent years which is a demonstrably false statement. That’s what the post you responded to was talking about and, at this point, it’s pretty evident that what I suspected is the case (the Bruins employ coaches longer than average in recent history) is true. That’s not a defense of Sweeney and I myself have doubts on any tangible effect of this particular move.

Also, the “winningest coach is hockey” over the time span is heavily, heavily influenced by that historic first season. I’m not trying to discount the positive effect Montgomery had on that team, but what we are seeing now is miles away from that. As I said in my original post in the thread, given the “success” in terms of turnaround with Sweeney’s first two coach firings, there’s no way Montgomery wasn’t getting sacked before Sweeney.

 

[GordonHowe]

Bruce was a meanie, Monty was a nice guy. Who can Coach these guys?

Also, time to move on from Donny. No, I don't have a replacement in mind but it's time for this team to move in another direction.

Again, absent playoff gate, you may get your wish.

 

[UncleRico]

I added to my post if you want to check that out.

I’m not here to defend Sweeney. But you’re heavily implying (if not stating explicitly) that the Bruins/Sweeney have gone through coaches at a high rate in recent years which is a demonstrably false statement. That’s what the post you responded to was talking about and, at this point, it’s pretty evident that what I suspected is the case (the Bruins employ coaches longer than average in recent history) is true. That’s not a defense of Sweeney and I myself have doubts on any tangible effect of this particular move.

Ehh not really. I’m more asking why is everyone here putting so much emphasis on only coaches shelf life and using it as a talking point.

Yet are completely ignoring the shelf life of GMs and the same people who want to talk about coach shelf life won’t talk about GM shelf life.

If we are holding coaches to that we should hold GMs to that.

Somehow the 12th longest tenured coaches shelf life is in question but the not 4th longest GM who has only built 1 team that’s won multiple playoff series

 

[RoccoF14]

The most important question here in regards to whether this is Monty or Cam/Sweeney's fault:

Is the team good on paper? Is this roster good?
Yes or no?

No.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Ehh not really. I’m more asking why is everyone here putting so much emphasis on only coaches shelf life and using it as a talking point.

Yet are completely ignoring the shelf life of GMs and the same people who want to talk about coach shelf life won’t talk about GM shelf life.

If we are holding coaches to that we should hold GMs to that.

ok, so how does the Bruins’ recent GM tenure compare to other franchises? I genuinely don’t know. I suspect longer than average?

I also think the reality is that there is such a thing as hope for the “new coach bump” mid season. Maybe I’m wrong but I can’t remember the last time a GM was replaced mid season and proceeded to retool the team halfway through the year propelling them to playoff berth.

Coaches are the easiest fire and offer a potentially big positive impact. Not the case with a GM.

It seems like you’re trying to force a binary argument here. Maybe I just haven’t read the thread closely enough but I haven’t seen posters applauding the firing of Montgomery while simultaneously proclaiming Sweeney’s innocence. I think when people start using rhetoric like “the problem”, they’re generalizing what is ultimately a very complex set of circumstances influenced by many different people. Montgomery got fired because the team he is coaching has looked uninspired for basically the entire season so far. Perhaps it was 0% his fault, but when a team spending to the cap performs like they have, the dominos will start to fall. And I don’t think the coach being that first domino (as it usually is) should serve as any indication that Sweeney isn’t also on the hot seat.

 

[Coach Parker]

I do expect Sweeney to make some kind of trade now to send the message that he's not putting this all on the coach.

A trade? Really? Wow.

I love your optimism but now they'll sell us that it was Jim and not the flawed lineup that was the problem.

 

[UncleRico]

ok, so how does the Bruins’ recent GM tenure compare to other franchises? I genuinely don’t know. I suspect longer than average?

I also think the reality is that there is such a thing as hope for the “new coach bump” mid season. Maybe I’m wrong but I can’t remember the last time a GM was replaced mid season and proceeded to retool the team halfway through the year propelling them to playoff berth.

Coaches are the easiest fire and offer a potentially big positive impact. Not the case with a GM.

It seems like you’re trying to force a binary argument here. Maybe I just haven’t read the thread closely enough but I haven’t seen posters applauding the firing of Montgomery while simultaneously proclaiming Sweeney’s innocence. I think when people start using rhetoric like “the problem”, they’re generalizing what is ultimately a very complex set of circumstances influenced by many different people. Montgomery got fired because the team he is coaching has looked uninspired for basically the entire season so far. Perhaps it was 0% his fault, but when a team spending to the cap performs like they have, the dominos will start to fall. And I don’t think the coach being that first domino (as it usually is) should serve as any indication that Sweeney isn’t also on the hot seat.

We had one GM for 40 years or whatever so I’m sure the bruins aren’t the best to compare.

But at the same time how many coaches do you remember who were the winningest coach of their era did you see get fired after barely over 2 years.

Do you have even one example of that?

 

[KrugAvoy]

I hope Montgomery gets scooped up by an Eastern team and they go on a run and we get a Monty Vs Cassidy cup final . I'd love to be a fly on the wall in Neely office. (Definitely not a water bottle though)

 

[Babajingo]

Fluto was on that sports show with Holly and Felger. The guy is an idiot. He said the players are quitting on Swayman cause he isn't earning the 8.25 mill. Then he ends it with saying that he is just guessing it.
Also, you are trying to tell me McAvoy (9.5 mill), Lindholm (7,75mill), Pasta (11.5mill), Coyle (5.25mill), ... are quitting on a player because he isn't earning his pay? they better look in the mirror.

 

[Coach Parker]

How many more fall guys will Don and Cam get?

Especially the ones hiring these coaches. Like holy shit. The level of safety these two enjoy with 0 success. Astounding.

The rot starts with the Jacobs and Charlie keeping these clowns around

Has Don Sweeney or Cam Neely won anything? Cam gets his name on the Cup of the Chiarelli team, right? The one coached by Julien?

 

[Aussie Bruin]

This firing rests squarely on the shoulders of the players and Don Sweeney.....In that order.

I don't disagree, but I still think the firing of Monty was correct, or at the very least inevitable. He'd visibly checked out in the last couple of weeks, was not saying anything of any substance, and had basically admitted he was out of ideas as to how to turn this team's fortunes around. As I've said before, he had all the look of a man just waiting to be relieved of a burden.

It's a weird situation. Monty's regular season W/L record is exceptional, and it's only a few months since he got 109 points out of a team that certainly wasn't close to that on paper. And the current issues need to be laid at the door of the players - the stars especially - and Sweeney first and foremost, as you said. I'm also usually in favor of patience with coaches, and I think the rate of coach turnover in the NHL is ridiculous. But for all that and as harsh as it is Monty had to go, IMO, because he simply had no answers as to what to do with this current roster. Perhaps no-one does, but this is Boston and you have to try. Can't sack the players in the short-term, and I doubt any sort of meaningful possible trades are yet available. So the coach has to be the first to feel the consequences. Not fair, but not wholly unwarranted either.

But of course it shouldn't stop there. Barring some sort of miracle turnaround, the heat should come on the players and management next.

 

[PB37]

Fluto was on that sports show with Holly and Felger. The guy is an idiot. He said the players are quitting on Swayman cause he isn't earning the 8.25 mill. Then he ends it with saying that he is just guessing it.
Also, you are trying to tell me McAvoy (9.5 mill), Lindholm (7,75mill), Pasta (11.5mill), Coyle (5.25mill), ... are quitting on a player because he isn't earning his pay? they better look in the mirror.

Yeah, that's a bunch of crap.

 

[Coach Parker]

View attachment 932862

This.

Over and over.

Coaches get blamed for a poorly constructed roster.

Simple. We all see through it as well.

 

[CDJ]

opening day of the season on Thursday! 0-0 record