November 25, 2024 | 12:06pm ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com

BOSTON NEEDS MORE THAN A COACHING CHANGE TO RIGHT THE SHIP

Bruins GM Don Sweeney

BOSTON, MA — With the Bruins firing head coach Jim Montgomery last week, the question repeatedly asked in and around Boston is will the move be enough to fix a team that is 10-9-3 after 22 games?

The answer is: no.

For two seasons, Montgomery enjoyed success behind the Bruins’ bench.

In 2022-23, the team recorded the best regular season record (65-12-5, 135 points) in NHL history. The following year, 2023-24, Boston went 47-20-15 (109 points) placing them second in the league’s Atlantic Division – one point behind the Florida Panthers (52-24-6, 110 points). Each postseason, the Bruins were considered among the favorites to win the Stanley Cup but their quest for the Cup ended in disappointing losses to the Panthers.

Expectations were high at the beginning of this campaign that Boston would ice another strong contender. Still, Montgomery’s squad did not fulfill its promise in a season in which more than one controversy has swirled about the team since training camp.

Goaltender Jeremy Swayman missed camp while negotiations dragged on toward his new contract. Swayman has yet to play his dominating game in the crease compiling a record of 6-7-2 with a goals-against-average of 3.30 and a .887 save percentage.

There was the night in Seattle when captain Brad Marchand committed a giveaway that landed in the back of the Boston net. The play incensed Montgomery who yelled in Marchand’s ear and then gave him a shove to his shoulder emphasizing his displeasure in the veteran Bruin in full view of everyone in attendance and watching the game on TV.

Montgomery made the controversial decision in Dallas to sit alternate captain and the team’s leading scorer, David Pastrnak, for the entire third period.

Both players said that they understood and accepted Montgomery’s actions, but sources close to the situation have told me that the other players did not like how Boston’s two best players and leaders were publicly humiliated.

Even with that, the Bruins’ troubles were not all the former coach’s doing. There is plenty of blame to go around.

The roster construction this season has left a team that, historically, has been at or near the top in the League’s offensive statistics for the last 10 years struggling to score goals. Boston is 32nd among the League’s 32 teams in goals scored per game at 2.32.

When healthy, Pastrnak (356 career goals) and Marchand (407 career goals) can be relied upon to score timely goals for the club. However, Pastrnak recently revealed that he sustained a lower-body injury at the 2024 IIHF World Championships. That injury limited his ability to train as he normally does during the summer. Marchand underwent three surgeries in the offseason forcing him to miss the start of training camp. Both appear to be rounding into playing shape now, Pastrnak leads Boston with eight goals. Marchand has scored six times this season but is second on the club in goals scored.

Per our friends at Elite Prospects, Pastrnak is projected to score 30 goals this season and Marchand is on pace to score 22 goals. No other Bruin is predicted to break the 20-goal barrier.

In the past, one would expect other players to fill the void in goal scoring. This has just not been the case this season. No other player in black and gold has lit the lamp more than four times leading many to believe this Bruins team is simply not good enough to be a Stanley Cup contender and they would be right about that.

It is not a coincidence that Boston ranks 28th in the League in terms of total goals scored (51). Only the Nashville Predators (50), Chicago Blackhawks (49), Detroit Red Wings (49), and Anaheim Ducks (48) trail the Bruins in this category.

How do you fix that, you ask?

Well, there is the obvious in that Montgomery is gone and Joe Sacco – who had been an assistant coach with the Bruins for 11 years – was named interim head coach.

In his first press conference as Boston’s new bench boss, Sacco said the Bruins’ systems will not undergo major changes, but there will be some tweaks here and there.

“We’re going to stick to what we’ve been doing, but we’re going to try to make some changes within the structure to what we’ve been doing that will help our guys succeed,” Sacco said.

Second, every player’s compete level needs to increase significantly.

For far too many nights, the will to do whatever it takes to win was completely missing but perhaps, no more so than last Monday when Boston lost 5-1 at home to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The loss may or may not have contributed to Montgomery being relieved of his duties the next day but the lack of effort was not entirely on the coach. That was on the players.

After the contest, Marchand addressed the issue.

“I think it starts with our compete level,” said Marchand. “I think it always starts with the compete level first and foremost. I think that in this league, you have to have the highest compete (level) every night if you want to be a good team.”

Marchand knows a thing or two about compete levels. A player does not go from a fourth-line role in his rookie season to forging a hall-of-fame career without having an innate will to work harder than the competition in trying to win every race to the puck, win every puck battle, and do anything and everything to win each night.

That has been a hallmark of the infamous Bruins culture since the first team hit the ice in 1924 and it needs to return in 2024.

What else does Boston need to improve upon? Where to start?

The Bruins rank 24th in total goals-against (70) and 20th in goals-against per game (3.18).

They are 28th in goals per period (minus 7 in the first period, minus 1 in the second period, and minus 11 in the third period).

The penalty kill (77.9 percent) is 19th and the powerplay ranks last (32nd) at a 12.8 percent success rate.

It was not that long ago, i.e. last season, when the Bruins were in the upper echelon in every one of those categories and that was due to the players’ compete levels.

And that brings us to the third thing that looks to be necessary to right Boston’s ship.

The roster needs to be reconstructed in a way that will restore the Bruins’ culture on and off the ice.

Moves were made in the offseason by GM Don Sweeney with the intent of adding size and physicality to the lineup. The thought behind the plan was that Boston would be more competitive against the Panthers and other divisional rivals such as the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning. Some of those moves have not worked out. Yes, that is on Sweeney, but it also goes back onto the players as well.

As much as compete level is important to a team, accountability is equally important.

After the Columbus game, Marchand spoke about that and how the lack of it has affected the team.

“It’s one of those things,” Marchand said. “It’s hard to do at times. I think the best players in the League are really good at it and can look at themselves in the mirror and understand the things that maybe they didn’t do great at and want to be better every day. One thing about this league is that it will humble you really quick. If you ever think that you’re too good for it, or if you deserve to be here, you know, you have to earn it every day and I think that’s a mindset we can all be better in.

“It’s something that you have to want to do. Again, it’s not easy to do, look yourself in the mirror and pick apart your game and see where you need to be better but, the best players in the League go through stretches where they have to look themselves in the mirror and be better.”

Message delivered and now it is Sweeney’s job to identify the players on the team who will receive it, take it to heart, and be accountable for their compete levels and playing the right way. If there are players presently in the lineup who cannot do it or refuse to do it, they should probably play elsewhere and, according to Sweeney, will find themselves doing so.

“We’re going to identify the guys that love being here, love representing the Boston Bruins,” Sweeney said. “And if they don’t, we’ll make some changes as a result of that and performance will drive that.”

After 22 games, the Bruins (23 points) occupy the second wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay (22) trails the Bruins by one point. The New York Islanders (22) are two points in arrears. The Blue Jackets (20 points) and Philadelphia Flyers (20) are not far behind Boston either.

Since replacing Montgomery with Sacco, Boston has won two consecutive games by playing at a faster pace and dare I say, a higher collective compete level, but two games do not a season make.

Sixty games remain on the schedule, giving the Bruins time to turn their season around.

It appears that replacing Montgomery may have been a step in the right direction, however, it will also take a consistently higher team compete level, more accountability, and a retooled roster for the Bruins to meet the expectations of ownership, management, pundits, and fans alike shared at the beginning of the season.

Retooling the roster is Sweeney’s responsibility. The rest sits squarely on the players.