Monty Revisited

[jgatie]

My thoughts:

Monty is a frontrunner - great guy when things are going well - and jumped out to a great start in the 22-23 season when there weren't great expectations for that team and no pressure on him. Tactically a good coach. His breakouts and attacking style made the best of his roster.

The problem is mentally he's weak. The big moments get to him, he goes into full panic mode come playoff time, and more than anyone he carries the weight of responsibility for the collapse that year. Fiddling around with the lines after great road victories in games 3 and 4, seeing a goalie who was clearly and obviously injured and waiting six games to make a change (and this isn't just a matter of leaving Ullmark to dry, it's also throwing Jeremy Swayman to the wolves by putting him in ice cold after two weeks into a do or die winner takes all game.). Benching Grzelcyk as punishment when Ullmark gave the pick away in overtime of game 5, then watching Clifton get beat over and over in game 6. Etc, etc.

I'd be more forgiving of that if Jim showed any accountability at all over that. But every press conference was deflecting blame, like "ask Goalie Bob". His interviews from earlier this year when things were going bad showed more of that attitude.

When the team is doing well, he's a great guy to have around and practically a motivational speaker. When things turn south, you get a guy who runs from responsibility and passes the blame around.

My opinion of how things went down this year is that Sweeney wasn't willing to commit to him long term so extension talks were slow and they were waiting to see how the team performed with the additions to the roster. He then went and signed guys like Lindholm who didn't fit well into the preexisting system. That plus the Swayman situation made training camp a complete disaster and I think Monty became more and more aloof from the team. And the elephant in the room is that I am 99.999% sure that there was some tampering going on with Monty and Doug Armstrong. Who reached out to who first is up in the air, but knowing that extension talks were not progressing, plus the fact that Jim and his wife had a fondness for the St. Louis area, I'm sure that they were talking and Monty had a job lined up. And since the team lost a lot of guys to retirement and free agency and stumbled out of the gates and he saw greener pastures. Wouldn't be bold enough to say he tanked it intentionally to get fired, but I am confident that his heart wasn't into fixing things here and he was checked out for the first few months knowing that if he was fired he'd have the job he really wanted within a week.

I'm pretty sure Sweeney offered Monty a 3 year extension after 23-24 and Monty turned him down. He stated so at the time, and after the firing. So in my opinion, Monty was in St. Louis before last season even started.

 

[Over the volcano]

Just pointing out how many people have zero credibility and change their minds when these players or coaches are ex employees. Cassidy was mean to the players. Monty was really an idiot. Good stuff

Oh yeah you are

 

[Aussie Bruin]

I'm pretty sure Sweeney offered Monty a 3 year extension after 23-24 and Monty turned him down. He stated so at the time, and after the firing. So in my opinion, Monty was in St. Louis before last season even started.

Yeah I think an extension was offered, but it was allegedly pretty low ball. Not an insult, but the sort of offer that you know is only a starting point for negotiations, not the final deal. So they say anyway.

Regardless, I think you're right. Monty wanted out even in the offseason. And I think Sweeney knew it, or at least suspected. But then what to do? Fire the guy or agree to a mutual parting of ways even though at that point pre-debacle he'd just coached the team to back-to-back playoffs with a crazy high W/L record? That would be a bold call, especially with no obvious replacement to hand.

On the other hand, just feels like leaving him there as a lame duck, with a roster he didn't like and his mind elsewhere, was always asking for trouble. Perhaps though it was unavoidable. You look at man management and wonder if more could or even should have been done to keep Monty happy in Boston, but perhaps nothing would have changed his mind, and end of the day there's no getting around the fact that his conduct through October-November was pretty shameful and that's on him and him alone.

I just come back to the fact that the whole thing was a damaging mess that it feels like should have been avoided, but perhaps it was simply in the stars. Bottom line is the Bruins had a horrible offseason, with plenty of blame to go around, and boy have they paid for it.

 

[Bruin4]

I don't know if there's a video compilation of it on YouTube. But there's the Marchand altercation. There's the games where he was just staring off into the distance, completly detached from the play as it was happening. Another game where he was legit yawning on the bench. Another game where he was face palming and rubbing his eyes when the game got out of hand. One of his guys gets boarded from behind and taken off the ice ( Carlo ) with no reaction by him.

In a vacuum, I can understand anyone doing that with how bad the Bruins have been. But he's the f***ing coach, not a fan off the street.

Dreams of being a Hab or a Blue, never seemed genuine to be a Bruin.

 

[Dr Quincy]

As I mentioned in another thread, my hunch is that there were/are cliques in the locker room.

Monty clashed with the captain Brad Marchand, Swayman held out, two outsiders were brought in and paid big money (Lindholm, Zadorov), Sweeney's attention was diverted building Team Canada, Ullmark was traded, and well before Swayman was signed, rumors surfaced that Marchand and Pastrnak didn't get along, top two D went down, Marchand got traded at his request, and to arch rival Florida, no less.

Monty was a lame duck, which could've been as much him not wanting to extend as the B's not wanting to keep him.

On paper the B's aren't as bad as their record indicates. If not dysfunctional, I would pit the B's against whoever gets the wildcard spots in both conferences.

We'll likely never know the full details, but I did lose some respect for Monty. In post game pressers after losses, he didn't even try to offer solutions. Both Julien and Cassidy gave it everything they had until the bitter end: which I did not feel Monty did.

His job wasn't to offer solutions to reporters after the game. I couldn't care less about that.

If you want to say he didn't offer solutions to the team, fine, you can make that argument.

And what solutions have Neely and Sweeney offered publicly? When has Cam stood in front of reporters and faced the music.

The 2 of them outright lied about signing a player and denied knowing what was public knowledge.

 

[Dr Quincy]

Yeah, its almost like he's the main reason that "greatest regular season" didnt get out of the 1st round in the playoffs between playing a banged up Bergeron and Krejci in meaningless games causing them to miss playoff games or starting and leaving in an obviously injured Ullmark in game 6.

This is such a phony argument. There isn't a coach in the NHL that would have told Bergeron he was going to sit in order to play Charlie Coyle instead. Not one.

There also isn't a coach in the world who up 3 games to 1 is going to change goalies. Not one.

Not starting Swayman game 6? Fine, that's an argument people can make.

BTW... how are the people complaining now about not starting Swayman earlier feeling about Swayman vs. Ullmark right now?

 

[LJReborn]

I question if the GM ever had Monty in his future plans.
Either he knew his coach's mind was to want to leave, or he was planning for life beyond him already.
The team assembled this summer could not play the style Monty utilizes nor did Jim even try to change his coaching plan.

This was a fumbled summer for Don and I wonder if this is what he will be known for beyond all his teams successes with him at the helm.

Great to see him happy and successful with St. Louis.
If we did not move on from him the result would have been the same and possibly even more painful.

He was a great to very good GM for most of his tenure here. Team is now in the shitter, and was before the trades, but I do appreciate him cleaning house. At what point is he held responsible for the current state of this team?. He had an AWFUL summer in a year they were supposed to be big time with all that money to spend. He's on his third coach and soon to be a fourth (unless he keeps him so he can fire him next year), cleared out the leadership group (who put those guys there?). Developed zero rookies in a putrid season. Why is it a crime against humanity to suggest he's not the guy to lead the obvious rebuild? They have been passed by Montreal and Ottawa. Tampa, Toronto and Florida are already better. Thank goodness for the hapless Sabres and terrible Yzerplan.

 

[PlayMakers]

There was something off right from the jump this season. Clearly, Monty can coach. He has the track record before, during (for most of his time here) and now after the Bruins.

How does an entire team show up out of shape just because the captain can't participate in camp? Where were the checks and balances on players off-season training? How did they fall so far in terms of their team game and systems play?

I don't know what happened. I'm not trying to make excuses for coaches, players or management... but I do think Monty was given enough time to turn things around. We watched a relatively healthy team play horrendous hockey for months. They certainly played better in the immediate wake of the firing. What did that mean? They played better up until New Year's and then injuries hit and the wheels fell off.

(Now we're watching a depleted team play horrendous hockey.)

 

[ranold26]

Swayman's holdout set the trend for this season.

 

[whatsbruin]

As I mentioned in another thread, my hunch is that there were/are cliques in the locker room.

Monty clashed with the captain Brad Marchand, Swayman held out, two outsiders were brought in and paid big money (Lindholm, Zadorov), Sweeney's attention was diverted building Team Canada, Ullmark was traded, and well before Swayman was signed, rumors surfaced that Marchand and Pastrnak didn't get along, top two D went down, Marchand got traded at his request, and to arch rival Florida, no less.

Monty was a lame duck, which could've been as much him not wanting to extend as the B's not wanting to keep him.

On paper the B's aren't as bad as their record indicates. If not dysfunctional, I would pit the B's against whoever gets the wildcard spots in both conferences.

We'll likely never know the full details, but I did lose some respect for Monty. In post game pressers after losses, he didn't even try to offer solutions. Both Julien and Cassidy gave it everything they had until the bitter end: which I did not feel Monty did.

I agree with this thought.
I think he did not want to be here and made Mgmt get rid of him. Not sure why he didn't want to be here, had 2 very good years, but if I had to guess, he had already spoken to STL, and knew he would be hired if he got fired, so he made it happen. Again, just a guess.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

There was something off right from the jump this season. Clearly, Monty can coach. He has the track record before, during (for most of his time here) and now after the Bruins.

How does an entire team show up out of shape just because the captain can't participate in camp? Where were the checks and balances on players off-season training? How did they fall so far in terms of their team game and systems play?

I don't know what happened. I'm not trying to make excuses for coaches, players or management... but I do think Monty was given enough time to turn things around. We watched a relatively healthy team play horrendous hockey for months. They certainly played better in the immediate wake of the firing. What did that mean? They played better up until New Year's and then injuries hit and the wheels fell off.

(Now we're watching a depleted team play horrendous hockey.)

Spot on. The offseason really was a perfect storm. Almost everyone seemed to be off their game in some capacity. Most of the offseason moves Sweeney made didn’t work, at least not yet, and the roster as a whole did not gel well at all. He then got into a spat with Sway’s camp, the consequences of which carry on. Sway himself was clearly distracted by the same and has underperformed ever since. As you said, far too many of the players turned up to camp underdone and unfit. Inexcusable. The leadership group appears to have lacked respect and influence and we’ve seen the consequences of that. And a distracted or disinterested Monty ran a horrible camp, gave a half-hearted effort at coaching this roster, quickly gave up and then buggered off as soon as he could. A shambles.

I watched a sports doco recently on a local rugby team. They showed a preseason meeting where a former player was talking to the current squad. This particular team has long had a great culture. But the former player made an excellent point – as a new or younger guy, you can’t just show up to a good team and say “great, I’m in a good place, and I can now benefit from this great team culture”. The current players have to make the culture and work hard to upkeep what was built by those who went before them. Culture’s not a tangible or fixed thing, it requires constant effort to maintain.

I suspect the Bruins have fallen into that trap – everyone knows the great culture and winning ways built by Chara, Bergy and co., and too many current players, and maybe coaches too, likely simply assumed that would continue without them personally having to do too much to keep it up. But with the ranks of the old guard rapidly thinning out, and not enough other guys picking up the baton, the culture and standards both atrophied, and we’ve now seen the results. Monty for his part didn’t like what he was seeing (and frankly could have been partly responsible for it himself), and either couldn’t or wouldn’t fix it, and chose instead to get out.

If there’s a positive to take out of that, it’s that the break with the 2010s era and its culture is now complete. There can be no even pretending or temptation to cling on to times past. They’re gone and the current and any future players and coaches will have to create something new and take full ownership of it, driven by new leaders. Whether they build something good remains to be seen, but they’ll at least have to try.

 

[sarge88]

I think this was just an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events that, individually, may have had little impact, but together resulted in tragedy….the sports version.

Swayman’s holdout
Slow starts from Pasta, Geekie
Zacha, E. Lindholm, McAvoy having down years
Frederic being nearly invisible for weeks at a time
Carlo, Peeke providing zero offense, especially while McAvoy, Lindholm were out
No emergence from Poitras, Lysell
Lohrei’s generally poor defensive play
The PK being lousy
The PP being worse
Too many late period/game goals against

Just too many obstacles to overcome.