After stumbling out of the gate to an 8-9-3 start, the Boston Bruins have decided to make a coaching change.
On Tuesday, the team announced it had fired head coach Jim Montgomery, naming associate coach Joe Sacco as his interim replacement. Montgomery becomes the first coach fired in the NHL this season.
The Bruins were booed off the ice Monday after an ugly 5-1 loss to the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets.
Montgomery, 55, was hired in the 2022 off-season after the team fired previous head coach Bruce Cassidy. The Bruins made a leap in his first year as coach, breaking the record for wins (62) and points in a season (132) en route to winning the franchise’s fourth Presidents’ Trophy. Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s most outstanding coach after the season.
Despite regular-season success, the Bruins have failed to make an impact in the playoffs under Montgomery. In the 2022-23 season, Boston was upset by the Florida Panthers in the first round, then fell once more to the Panthers in 2023-24 in the second round. Montgomery was in the final season of his contract with Boston.
The Bruins currently sit second-last in the Eastern Conference with a minus-21 goal differential. Goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who missed all of training camp while trying to negotiate a contract, has struggled badly, posting an .884 save percentage.
Sacco was head coach of the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-13. He made the playoffs in the first of his four seasons, with the team eliminated in the opening round.
Sacco, a native of Medford, Mass., has been on the Bruins’ staff since 2014-15.
Sacco played 470 career games after being drafted in the fourth round by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1987.
