Management Montgomery fired - Sacco named interim coach

[PlayMakers]

Great breakdown. LQ is easily becoming one of the best voices on the Bruins imo.

Yeah, he had an interesting take I haven't heard.

He thinks Monty's style is best suited to a speed and skill team. Sweeney said he was going to add speed, and then instead went heavy. So he thinks Monty just isn't the right fit for this roster construction.

Also points out Monty's suspect playoff record as a reason not to lose sleep over the firing. I hadn't thought of the first part, but I do agree with the second point. I haven't loved Monty's playoffs and even if the Bruins were in 1st place, wouldn't have wanted a Monty extension without him showing more in the playoffs (no more too many men, better matchup choices, special teams adjustments, IMO other coaches made those changes and gained an advantage as series went along.)

 

[Bread and Circuses]

Didn't want to play for noted big meanie Bruce Cassidy.
Didn't want to play for Nice guy Jimmy.

Who the do these guys want to play for?

I heard the assistant coach of the blues is considering throwing himself on the fire out of pure pity.

 

[RoccoF14]

Yeah, all the roster complaints and prospect pool complaints feels so hypocritical to me.

I don't remember people saying they should save all those draft picks when the Bruins were going for it year in, year out for 10 years of contention. I don't remember people saying this roster was trash before the season. Now that they've struggled, everybody is saying they knew all along they were going to be terrible?

I had no issues at all with 95% of the moves Sweeney made prior to this summer. But I said it then, and I'll say it now.......this summer was a disaster. Not that it really f***ing matters, or anyone cares what I thought. I seriously was hoping to be wrong...

 

[PlayMakers]

But that's just it. This isn't a good TEAM. Its got a handful of good players who can't carry the rest of the squad, yet they are easy to blame because they get paid the most....This is who we rolled with against Columbus. That ain't a playoff worthy roster.

Marchand-Lindholm-Brazeau
Frederic-Coyle-Merkulov
Pastrnak-Geekie-Zacha
Viel-Beecher-Johnson

Oesterle-McAvoy
Zadorov-Peeke
Lohrei-Carlo

There are worse lineups in the playoffs. There are worse lineups with better power plays and better penalty kills.

I had no issues at all with 95% of the moves Sweeney made prior to this summer. But I said it then, and I'll say it now.......this summer was a disaster. Not that it really f***ing matters, or anyone cares what I thought. I seriously was hoping to be wrong...

Fair enough, you must be the one vote in the pre-season poll that said the Bruins would miss the playoffs.

 

[RoccoF14]

There are worse lineups in the playoffs. There are worse lineups with better power plays and better penalty kills.


Fair enough, you must be the one vote in the pre-season poll that said the Bruins would miss the playoffs.

I picked them 3rd in the Atlantic. This is a Bruins board, we are fans, and want them to do well. We are going to give our team the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of the season. Its human nature. That doesn't mean people here didn't have some serious concerns and it certainly doesn't make them hypocrites.

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

You have to wonder too, how long it will take for Sacco to implement any changes. They have so few practices and you can't just change a system with a white board. It takes hundreds and hundreds of reps for it to become second nature, which is when you really start playing fast because you don't have to think out the options anymore.

True, but a lot of guys here with numerous coaches, different systems, they are almost all vets. They've played different styles before.

I just think it'll be interesting to see if Sacco has some new ideas and if they work. They might. They might not. Can't be much worse than what we've been seeing.

Ultimately imo it still comes down to Swayman playing up to his contract. If that doesn't start soon, nothing else will really matter.

 

[GordonHowe]

 

[Carl Hungus]

on the bright side, looks like we get to relive the swayman negotiation discussion sooner than expected

 

[Gordoff]

Yeah, he had an interesting take I haven't heard.

He thinks Monty's style is best suited to a speed and skill team. Sweeney said he was going to add speed, and then instead went heavy. So he thinks Monty just isn't the right fit for this roster construction.

Also points out Monty's suspect playoff record as a reason not to lose sleep over the firing. I hadn't thought of the first part, but I do agree with the second point. I haven't loved Monty's playoffs and even if the Bruins were in 1st place, wouldn't have wanted a Monty extension without him showing more in the playoffs (no more too many men, better matchup choices, special teams adjustments, IMO other coaches made those changes and gained an advantage as series went along.)

As good as he was in the regular season, he's an abysmal playoff HC.
I think there's obviously a lot more going on than meets the eye.
I also think that a trade should happen next. IMO there are factions in the room pointing fingers, taking sides etc.
This is a very relaxed comfortable crew that got used to winning with ease but
that was yesterday and the layers seem to be saying "do you know who we are?" Their opponents are saying " I know who you were, and I don't care."
Swayman talking about setting the market for other goalies when his own captain as never made money an issue, only winning must gall him. Not to mention the fact that Swayman acts like it's all about him and not the team
is a slap in the face.
Brad has always seemingly left money on the table for what he thought was the betterment of the team but I doubt any of the others on this crew would ever do that.
Im remember after the Espo trade there were rumors of factions back then. Espo didn't like limiting his shifts and the coaches got irritated.
Also during the Thorton captaincy, he and Boynton were irritating the rest of the room.
Then there was the whole Tyler Seguin fiasco and botched trade return (not offering him up to all of the other teams, only Dallas.

 

[UncleRico]

Not of that exact thing no. I mean, Monty’s first year was a literally unprecedented season in terms of RS success, so it’s virtually impossible to name a direct comparable given that reality. I will say that it interesting to lean so heavily into that part of his resume while leaving the playoff performance of the team (in which he himself admitted to his own mistakes) unmentioned.

The closest recent comparable I can think of is Darryl Sutter getting canned the year after winning the Jack Adams. Not at all direct, but along the same lines.

Coaches are usually the first to go when things go south rapidly. There was no reason, even with a great 2022-23 RS to believe that it would be an exception for Montgomery this season. Regardless of roster, the team looks terrible and the coach is often the scapegoat. Monty seems like a great guy, and certainly is a skilled coach given his ascension to the sport’s highest league, but he’s not outside what are for better or worse the “norms” of the industry.

See you are entirely missing my point though.

I have no problem holding montgomery to a standard and if his shelf life is up, then it’s up.

I just think the same should apply to Sweeney. His shelf life expired quite some time ago.

It’s quite the double standard where coaches with great regular season records get fired after two years without a long playoff run.

However a GM who has one season of multiple playoff series wins in 9 seasons gets to stick around.

 

[SonnyBoy]

They had two game 6 leads. And many in this group choked game 7 vs the Blues at home as well. But hey, let's blame the coach,

That was from a start normal Rask game seven.

It's sad that Monty is taking the hit for your GM.

Big signifying this summer Lindholm and Zadorov.
Lindholm never though he was that good.
Zadorov had a great contract year

It seem to be that roughly 75% of posters here wanted both of those players. Now when it's not working like hoped, many are blaming Sweeney's stupidity.

Until they fix the line up full of players that have no fight in them things will stay the same.

This core don't mind losing and getting on with there summer vaction plans, its been a broken record year after year.

Our 11m dollar goalscorer could not manage a shot on net monday even floating on 6 power plays one would think he would hit the net once, even by accident.

No coach is fixing a players willingness to give a s***, the roster is loaded with them.

Trades need to happen

Been saying this. Quantity over quality. And when he is not even get those quantity shots anymore?
Trades need to happen. But for real pieces and not like Thornton or Sequin trade.

 

[BruinDust]

This popped up on my Facebook feed and thought it was interesting....from credit Jason Gregor.

Cassidy was 245-108-46 .642 points % and .614% win %. 2nd best in the league during his time in Boston. Won a cup the next year in Vegas.

Monty was 120-41-23 .715 points % and .656 win %. 1st in the league over his tenure.

 

[DKH]

Team on paper to me was 110 points, but I'm a homer. They HAVE to be better under Sacco, right?

Radio hosts calling for an exorcism of management and players today

Lets start the rebuild and cut ticket prices and parking in half

Gotta move Pastrnak and McAvoy to start

Cap going up significantly after next season

McAvoy to Islanders - get Eiserman and a couple of firsts

He’s from LI and Lou is in his 80’s plus Charlie can’t grow a beard so Lou will like that

Pastrnak to LA for Laferriere, Clarke, take back money

They can blow this up quick

Lindholm was best D his contract soon will be bargain - Detroit could deal Danielson

Lets get a quick 4-5 year rebuild grab a couple top 5 picks

 

[mjhfb]

As good as he was in the regular season, he's an abysmal playoff HC.
I think there's obviously a lot more going on than meets the eye.

I agree.

 

[mjhfb]

Radio hosts calling for an exorcism of management and players today

Lets start the rebuild and cut ticket prices and parking in half

Gotta move Pastrnak and McAvoy to start

Cap going up significantly after next season

McAvoy to Islanders - get Eiserman and a couple of firsts

He’s from LI and Lou is in his 80’s plus Charlie can’t grow a beard so Lou will like that

I spit out my coffee laughing after reading that. I agree he's no Bill Flett.

 

[SonnyBoy]

Firing Monty doesnt all a sudden make this teams current roster or farm system better.

Neely and Sweeney next

That is the endgame when you are trading your picks to players for playoffs, trying to win Stanley Cup. It's a different story if those trades were successful. Personally I don't like trade picks for UFAs.
I find no reason for trading first or second-round draft picks without a long-term benefit for your team.

I just read this to my wife and she turned and corroborated it to an extent.
Re. Cam "he's an A-hole, I met him twice and both times it was the same attitude."

He doesn't need to be a nice guy to everyone. Winning teams need assholes (on ice) more than nice guys. One of the bigger problems of Bruins is, that they don't have assholes on team. For example, if Frederic was more of an asshole, he would be much better player.

 

[Sevendust]

That is the endgame when you are trading your picks to players for playoffs, trying to win Stanley Cup. It's a different story if those trades were successful. Personally I don't like trade picks for UFAs.
I find no reason for trading first or second-round draft picks without a long-term benefit for your team.

He doesn't need to be a nice guy to everyone. Winning teams need assholes (on ice) more than nice guys. One of the bigger problems of Bruins is, that they don't have assholes on team. For example, if Frederic was more of an asshole, he would be much better player.

The secound rounder and fourth rounder this year are already gone .. Sweeney better not touch the first rounder

 

[DKH]

I spit out my coffee laughing after reading that. I agree he's no Bill Flett.

Wow - you are my hero

Bill ‘Cowboy’ Flett

 

[NDiesel]

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.

So now we care about regular season winning? Aren't you one of the "only the cup matters" guys when talking about Sweeney?

 

[Over the volcano]

This popped up on my Facebook feed and thought it was interesting....from credit Jason Gregor.

Cassidy was 245-108-46 .642 points % and .614% win %. 2nd best in the league during his time in Boston. Won a cup the next year in Vegas.

Monty was 120-41-23 .715 points % and .656 win %. 1st in the league over his tenure.

Sweeney's now fired 3 Adams award winning coaches.

On the bright side, he's hired two.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Good luck where evah you land Monty!

 

[PB37]

This popped up on my Facebook feed and thought it was interesting....from credit Jason Gregor.

Cassidy was 245-108-46 .642 points % and .614% win %. 2nd best in the league during his time in Boston. Won a cup the next year in Vegas.

Monty was 120-41-23 .715 points % and .656 win %. 1st in the league over his tenure.

I think most coaches would be on the hot seat if they had a start to the season as cold as this, especially if it's on a team not use to losing like the way they have.

 

[HustleB]

Sorry, to do this but I am onsite for work and don't have time to keep up. Is there anything out there about Sacco's style and do we know if there will be any immediate changes to the systems they employ either 5v5 or Special Teams? Is this just a culture change or will it be a wholesale change across the systems as well?

 

[LouJersey]

So now we care about regular season winning? Aren't you one of the "only the cup matters" guys when talking about Sweeney?

it is what it's all about, and Montgomery took a pretty meh team to the second round last year behind super human goaltending. It was Sweeney's first round won in three years.

Sweeney told you this is a play-off team capable of doing damage with this firing. He flat out believes it's coaching and not the players. They were 8th seed, slow start., He expects better and many of us did, but if they don't get it together, you get rid of him no questions asked. Time to go outside the organization like Chia and Claude and bring some new eyes in if they crash and burn.

 

[BruinDust]

Sweeney's now fired 3 Adams award winning coaches.

On the bright side, he's hired two.

Came across another graphic on Bleacher Report app that said all 3 Adams finalists from 2023 have now been fired.

No doubt when it comes to coaches in the NHL, it's become very much a "what have you done for me lately" kinda league.