When the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery and elevated Joe Sacco, initially it was looked at as a knee-jerk reaction to a poor start for a coach who had seemingly lost the locker room, at least to start the season. Then five days later, it turns out, Montgomery seemed to have at least one foot out the door when he was hired by the St. Louis Blues to take the spot vacated by Drew Bannister’s firing.
Sacco came into his interim head coaching role with the Bruins with just four years of head coaching experience at the NHL level with the Colorado Avalanche. Though three-quarters of those years were mostly pedestrian, he did lead the Avs to the playoffs in year one, so Boston thought perhaps he could bring that good fortune to its club in “year one” behind the bench.
Related: Meet the Boston Bruins’ Interim Head Coach Joe Sacco
Sacco has delivered thus far for the Bruins since taking over for Montgomery, and with Christmas just passing in the last week, he may very well have been the gift that they got, but didn’t know they wanted – at least not at the beginning of the season, that is.
Sacco Has Turned Boston Around in More Ways Than One
While Boston went on a nice little run, winning three of Sacco’s first five games as interim head coach, most importantly, what he got back immediately was players wanting to play for him. Not only that, but players wanted to play hard, and put in a solid effort.
At the point that Montgomery was fired, the Bruins sat in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with 19 points, barely clinging onto a playoff spot. If you look ahead to today, Dec. 29, Boston has gotten back to its winning ways and now has 44 points – more than double what they had before – and is just two points back of the Atlantic Division lead and the third playoff spot.
Perhaps most importantly, goaltender Jeremy Swayman struggled out of the gate to start the season. Now, in his past 10 games, he has gone 7-2-1 with a shutout. While Sacco can’t entirely take credit for Swayman turning it around, sometimes for certain players it is just a simple coaching change that will change an outlook on how they play, or how much effort they want to put in. This appears to be the case for Swayman.
While the Bruins still have some work to do on special teams, they have climbed up to 18th in the NHL for goals against per game and are playing much better defensively. This is even without the handiwork of defenseman Hampus Lindholm too.
Are the Bruins a True Contender Though?
The real question is whether the Bruins are true contenders in the 2024-25 season. If the season ended today, yes, they would make the playoffs. Would they make a run to the Stanley Cup Final though? Most likely not, operative words being most likely.
Some very glaring holes need to be shored up before anything can be said for certain. The defense needs to sustain its excellence and chemistry once Lindholm does come back. On top of that, discipline has been a large pill for the entire squad to swallow this entire season. They will need to be much more disciplined moving forward if they are to make it to the finish line.
Can it be done? Of course, it can be done, but the question really becomes will it be done? It does, however, rest on the shoulders of Sacco. The coach, especially interim ones, will get all the praise when things go well, but they will also get all the blame when things go bad.
Will Sacco be the Christmas gift that gets the Bruins where they want to be or will he just wind up being a gift they throw in the garbage after a few months because it “doesn’t work”? Only time will tell.
