Bruins fire coach Montgomery; Sacco named interim

The Boston Bruins fired head coach Jim Montgomery after starting the season 8-9-3, the team announced Tuesday.

Boston filled the vacancy by promoting Joe Sacco to interim head coach. He's served as a Bruins assistant coach since 2014. A former NHL forward, Sacco was head coach of the Colorado Avalanche for four seasons from 2009-13.

"Jim Montgomery is a very good NHL coach and an even better person," general manager Don Sweeney said in a statement. "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. I believe Joe Sacco has the coaching experience to bring the players and the team back to focusing on the consistent effort the NHL requires to have success. We will continue to work to make the necessary adjustments to meet the standard and performance our supportive fans expect."

Montgomery was in the midst of his third campaign behind the bench in Beantown. He was hired in June 2022 to replace Bruce Cassidy.

The Bruins finished atop the league during Montgomery's first season, establishing new all-time NHL records in wins (65) and points (135), though they were upset by the Florida Panthers in the opening round of the playoffs. Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award that year as the league's top coach.

Boston was also strong in 2023-24, posting a 47-20-15 record and advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

In total, the Bruins went 120-41-23 with Montgomery over 184 regular-season games and 9-11 in the playoffs.

Boston has struggled mightily in the early days of the 2024-25 campaign, however. They're 31st in goals for per contest (2.40), 28th in goals against (3.45), and they own the league's worst power play (11.7%).

The Bruins were 14-3-3 through its first 20 games last season.

Though Boston occupies the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders are one point behind with at least one game in hand. The Bruins sit fifth in the Atlantic Division in terms of points percentage (.475).

Boston squares off against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.