By Conor Ryan 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.
“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.