BOSTON — Among Joe Sacco’s first responsibilities as the Bruins interim head coach after the team fired Jim Montgomery on Tuesday, was to figure out the makeup and roles of his staff.
Sacco has been with the Bruins since 2014 and has been overseeing the penalty kill. The new coach knows he’ll be pulled in different directions in his new role, but plans to keep things status quo among his staff that includes Jay Leach, Chris Kelly and Bob Essensa.
“We’re not going to change much right now,” Sacco said on Wednesday. “I will still have my hands in the penalty kill. I know that I’m going to be pulled in different directions. Chris Kelly will still oversee the power play. We will decide on what we’re going to do as far as changing things around in the near future. But right now, we’re going to stick to what we’ve been doing. But we’re going to try to make some changes within the structure of what we’re doing. That doesn’t mean we just stand back even though we have the same people running it. We’re going to try to make some changes that are going to help our guys succeed.”
It’s been a mediocre 20 games for the Bruins, who are 8-9-3 after an ugly 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. Sacco will now be tasked to help right the ship and get the team back on track.
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Here are some takeaways from Wednesday’s press conferences:
More changes could be coming
Firing Montgomery is the only staff change general manager Don Sweeney plans to make — for now.
“From a personnel standpoint, for the players themselves, they have to understand that they’re not where they need to be,” Sweeney said. “We’re either going to get back there, or there will be continued changes across the board. … The staff will be as it is for right now, but I don’t rule out that we won’t bring in someone to complement this group.”
Montgomery didn’t lose the room
Despite a sluggish start for the Bruins, Sweeney doesn’t believe the players tuned Montgomery out.
“You can’t say that Monty came in and made a positive influence and connection with players for two-plus seasons and then turn around and say they just tuned him out,” Sweeney said. “They haven’t performed at the level they need to. That’s as simplistic as I can say. Monty’s a great coach. His communication skills are outstanding. For whatever reason, it wasn’t translating to the results on the players’ side of things.”
Turnaround is expected
Sweeney expects the Bruins to respond to the shake-up of their head coach getting fired. He hoped to see a “bounce of some kind” from the move.
“That’s what you expect. I certainly expect it,” he said. “I know what the pride level of our players is. I expect them to take ownership of where they are now and improve.”
There were extension talks with Montgomery in the offseason
Montgomery went into the 2024-25 season without a contract but nothing ever came to fruition. And while Montgomery’s tenure lasted two-plus seasons, Sweeney doesn’t have regrets about choosing him to lead the Bruins.
“I was in extension talks, contract offers, so I feel very comfortable,” Sweeney said. “The person makes it no different than another player in making a decision. We’ve got players that did that as well this summer. So there’s two sides to every negotiation, and they have to make their own decisions accordingly and we react as a result of that.”
Bittersweet for Sacco
Sacco wanted an opportunity to be a coach of an NHL team again, but feels bad it came at the expense of Montgomery.
“We obviously lost a real good coach, Jim, and even a better person. I’ve established a strong relationship, a strong bond with Jimmy over the last two and a half years,” he said. I feel like as a staff, and personally, me, we feel like we’re responsible for what happened here. We have to take some of the fall and take some of the blame as far as what happened yesterday.
“I’m going to make sure that, as a staff, we try to correct this and move forward. I’m excited for the opportunity. I’m not gonna lie. It’s a great opportunity. To get another crack as a head coach. It was always important to me. It’s not the way you want to get it. but this is an opportunity that I’ve been waiting.”
Sweeney knows Bruins need to work their way back to being tough opponent
The Bruins are six points behind the first-place Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division and are just shy of a wild card spot. Sweeney believes the roster is better than what they’ve shown through 20 games and thinks the team can get back to being a difficult opponent.
“We have to take baby steps. We have to get back to the way we’re capable of playing to find out whether or not we can challenge the elite teams in this league,” he said. “We’ve been there, I’ve been on the other side where people have asked us in terms of where we are as being one of the upper echelon teams. We’ve got to work our way back here. It’s got to start now. Before you can hope, you’ve got to build. And we have some work to do.”
