Don't Blame Jim Montgomery for Don Sweeney's Failures With the Bruins
The scene on the ice was loud, formal, and intense at Warrior Ice Arena on Wednesday, as the Bruins practiced for the first time since firing coach Jim Montgomery 24 hours prior. Had you stumbled in there with no concept of space or time, you might've thought it was a preseason training camp session.
If you've watched the 2024-25 Bruins (8-9-3, -21 goal differential) at all—especially their last few "efforts"—you'll understand why Training Camp II needed to happen 20 games into the season. The Bruins look lost and humbled, which is a rare form for a franchise that typically has an answer for anything.
There was a reflective emphasis on a training camp gone awry in the Bruins' locker room, and no one harped on it more than GM Don Sweeney. The blame was spread all across the locker room: from Jeremy Swayman, who missed camp because of contract negotiations, Brad Marchand, who missed a few weeks because of surgery recovery, and David Pastrnak, who apparently just didn't have a great camp. Above all, Sweeney said the training camp vibe was off.
It's translated to their play on the ice.
They've drastically reduced their shot volume; Pastrnak had zero in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets Monday, and the whole team had zero in a period against Linus Ullmark's Senators recently. They're making silly mistakes that result in silly penalties, and not-so-silly goals against.
Oh, and the goalie that just signed an eight-year contract that was supposed to be your franchise netminder, Swayman? He's well below his career average, with a 3.47 goals against average and a .884 save percentage. The contentious negotiations in the preseason have a bad look all the way around.
In the end, in captain Brad Marchand's words: "Someone had to take the fall." That person was Montgomery, despite having a 120-41-23 record, a Jack Adams Award, a Presidents' Trophy as Bruins coach, and a .715 winning percentage.
"I honestly couldn't point my finger on it," Charlie McAvoy said when asked why the standard had strayed. "You want to go back to camp, or the beginning of the season. Whatever it was, we lost it. We lost it for a minute."
"I just felt our camp was just flatline across the board. To me, that was the first troubling sign. We were flat all the way through training camp," Sweeney said. "Whether or not they thought it was going to be easy, and the guys that had a really good last year come out and that it would just fall in place, this league is incredibly humbling if you have that approach to the game. And it'll expose you in a hurry. That's sort of what's happened to our group in that it doesn't come easy and you have to work harder as a result of it."
Sweeney made it a point to mention the failures of training camp at least three times in his nearly 25-minute conversation with the media today, and I believe him. I'm sure training camp was terrible, as does having eyeballs when the Bruins are taking zero shots per period.
It's just—isn't that a him problem?
"I'm always on notice," Sweeney said when asked if Bruins owner Charlie Jacobs had slapped him on the wrist at any point in his nine-year tenure as GM.
Sweeney has been rightfully criticized for a lot already. Whether it's been the poor return from Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm as big-money free-agent signings or his poor record of drafting—Bruins fans would like to forget the fact Boston had three first-round picks in 2015 and somehow missed out on Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot—the former Bruins defenseman has been catching heat for questionable decisions.
I'm more lenient on Sweeney's role in the 2015 catastrophe than most—he'd just replaced Peter Chiarelli, who'd made comically terrible decisions the Bruins decided to record and promote.
The problem is that Sweeney never really inspired confidence in the Bruins' drafting ever since. Sure, there have been successes—McAvoy and Swayman immediately come to mind—but the lack of impact players, especially at center, has come back to haunt them.
It worked on the surface, trading future assets for the here and now, given that Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, and David Krejci were the backbone of a core that won a Cup in 2010. But those great players are now retired and Sweeney's roster planning has left the Bruins in a complete mess.
At a certain point, you have to direct your attention to the one constant throughout this run. Sweeney has had three coaches: Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy and Montgomery. All have been successful with the core built before Sweeney got there. They're gone. So's the core.
Maybe Cam Neely, Sweeney, and Co. thought they were immune to ever needing to sell the Bruins as a concept. I just don't understand how they didn't manage to home-grow a center through years of Bergeron and Krejci on generous deals, as the two centers were cheap and transparent about retirement plans.
Perhaps we had too much faith in thinking Sweeney would figure out an internal replacement for Bergeron and Krejci. Then again, he also had a track record of a decade trading for veterans like Rick Nash and Taylor Hall that brought little impact.
All that's left is Sweeney.
The best training camps come from healthy competition with young players from the farm system desperately seeking to make the team. But this was going to be mostly the same roster with Zadorov and Lindholm, without a traded Ullmark and in limbo because of Swayman's contract holdout. The vibes, as the kids say, were off.
The notion that the Bruins would always figure it out stemmed from the longstanding atmosphere built by the likes of Chara, Bergeron and Krejci.
It worked like this for over a decade!
That's a gigantic success for any franchise, and it allowed the Bruins a luxury most don't get, a luxury they completely wasted—to figure out the next iteration of the center core while we're still here. Wasn't that supposed to be part of the deal? I'd love to hear Bergeron's take on the matter. Like Sidney Crosby, he's had more influence and impact—direct or indirect—on players signing with the Bruins than any general manager.
Now that Bergeron's gone, Sweeney has nothing to show for it other than firing the "player-friendly" Jim Montgomery for the "straightforward" Joe Sacco. And hey, doesn't that straightforward Joe Sacco look a bit like that straightforward Cassidy?
Cassidy, who Sweeney fired, is doing just fine in Vegas. Sacco would know—he spent a long time coaching under Cassidy. Montgomery gets to keep an historic, 65-win season with the Bruins as a memory. Cassidy gets to keep redemption via a Golden Knights Stanley Cup as a memory.
Sweeney's legacy with the Bruins has been long, sordid, and Cupless. In firing Montgomery, he's running out of excuses. "Training camp" isn't a great start.
Jim Montgomery Fired By Bruins amid 8-9-3 Start; Joe Sacco Named Interim Head Coach
The Boston Bruins have fired head coach Jim Montgomery 20 games into his third season with the team.
Associate coach Joe Sacco will replace Montgomery on an interim basis, the Bruins announced on Tuesday.
The Bruins are fourth in the Atlantic Division with an 8-9-3 record to start the season.
Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award after leading the franchise to a historic 65-win season in 2023-24. The Bruins made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons at the helm.
He will depart Boston with an overall 120-41-23 record in the regular season, and a 9-11 mark in the postseason.
In the 184 Bruins games spanning between Montgomery's hiring and exit, the franchise boasts the most regular-season wins (120) and the highest regular-season points percentage (.715) in the NHL.
Those marks may have only increased Bruins leadership's expectations for the postseason, where Montgomery had yet to lead his team has the second round. Last season the team's playoff hopes ended with a first-round exit at the hands of the eventual champion Florida Panthers.
Although the Bruins remain in the postseason conversation at the quarter mark of the 2024-25 season— were the campaign to have ended on Monday, Boston would have claimed the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference— worrying downward trends may have contributed to the decision to move on from Montgomery.
Through 20 games, the Bruins ranked in the bottom five of the NHL in both goal prevention (3.45 goals against per game, 28th in the league) and goalscoring (2.40 goals per game, 31st in the NHL.) Those are disappointing results for a team that hoped to take a step forward by adding players like Elias Lindholm this offseason.
David Pastrňák and Brad Marchand are off to slow starts to the season. Jeremy Swayman meanwhile followed up a career-best campaign with a .884 save percentage through 14 starts, which Montgomery pointed out the night before his firing followed the goaltender missing training camp amid a holdout for a new contract.
Several indications, Pastrňák's NHL-high shots total and uncharacteristically low 9.8 percent shooting rate among them, show the Bruins are due for a resurgence. Boston leadership will hope that can take place under Sacco, who previously led the Colorado Avalanche to a 130-134-30 record in three and a half seasons as head coach between 2009 and 2013.
Bruins' Brad Marchand Denies Rumor He's 'Getting Closer' to 3-Year Contract Extension
The Boston Bruins are "getting closer" to finalizing a three-year extension for captain Brad Marchand, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday.
The conclusion was later denied by Marchand, who told reporters that the report was false "for now."
"If I was to sign a three-year extension, it would be signed, you know?" Marchand told reporters on Saturday night. "Clearly, Elliotte is just wrong there. So that's about it."
Marchand is playing on the final season of the eight-year, $49 million deal he inked with the Bruins in 2016. An extension would stop him from hitting unrestricted free agency next summer, and a three-year deal would keep Marchand with the team through 2027-28.
The longest-tenured Bruin since Patrice Bergeron's retirement in July 2023, Marchand was named captain ahead of the 2023-24 season.
He has so far recorded four assists in seven games while the Bruins have gone 3-4-1 to open the 2024-25 campaign.
Marchand is skating in his 16th NHL campaign, all of which he has played with the Bruins. Last season he recorded 29 goals and 67 points in 82 games while leading the Bruins to the franchise's eighth straight playoff appearance.
The Bruins' 2024 playoff run ended last spring with a second-round loss to the eventual champion Florida Panthers.
Having signed starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year, $66 million extension, Boston will hope to make a deeper run next spring despite the team's relatively slow start to the season. Extending Marchand, and therefore avoiding any pressure to trade him at the deadline rather than risking him walking in free agency, could help further that goal.
The slow season start involved Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, who is also currently working on an expiring contract, expressing visible frustration with Marchand during an Oct. 19 overtime loss to the Utah Hockey Club. When asked about the incident Marchand defended Montgomery and expressed confidence in the third-year Bruins head coach.
Marchand ranks fifth among all Bruins players with 1,037 games played, 401 career goals and 933 career points. The veteran winger also leads the 101-year-old franchise with 56 postseason goals, and ranks second only to Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque with 138 points in 157 playoff games. He is the only remaining player from the roster that led the Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup.
Boston Bruins Reveal 'Historic Jersey for a Historic Celebration' in Epic Hype Video
The Boston Bruins will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the franchise's first NHL game by wearing commemorative uniforms during a December home contest against the Montreal Canadiens.
Bruins star Brad Marchand debuted the new sweater in a video shared on Thursday on social media.
The jerseys will be worn at TD Garden exactly one century after the Bruins won their first game in the league on Dec. 1, 1924 victory over the Montreal Maroons.
The uniform is a slight variation on the centennial uniforms the Bruins debuted during the 2023-24 centennial season, which featured the letter "B" in the center of a spoked wheel.
The special edition jerseys for the Canadiens game in December feature a patch displaying a Bruins bear marked with the number "100", as well as the date Dec. 1 and the years 1924 and 2024.
The commemorative kit also features gold on the sleeves and socks, which were black in the 2023-24 regular-season jerseys.
Inside the collar of the special uniform, players will wear the final score of the 1924 inaugural game, which the Bruins won 2-1 over the Maroons, according to a press release.
The jerseys also have a special design along the bottom hem, where the words "tradition, grit, passion and heart" are stitched as a representation of the franchise's "core values," according to the team.
The Bruins are the first American NHL team to play an 100th season in the league. Only the Toronto Maple Leafs, which celebrated the anniversary in 2017, and the Montreal Canadiens, which hit the centennial in 2009, have longer franchise histories.
The next three NHL teams to celebrate their centennial anniversaries will be the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers in 2026.
Jeremy Swayman, Bruins Agree to Contract; Rumored to Be Worth $8.25M AAV Over 8 Years
The Boston Bruins have committed to their goalie of the future.
Jeremy Swayman agreed to an eight-year contract, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported the deal is worth $8.25 million annually.
Swayman played the 2023-24 season on a $3.475 million deal reached through arbitration with the Bruins. Both parties declined the opportunity for another round of arbitration this summer.
The new extension resolves a contract dispute that led to Swayman holding out from training camp and the Bruins' preseason.
The dispute led Bruins president Cam Neely and Swayman's agent Lewis Gross to publicly disagree as to how much the netminder had been offered in negotiations.
That conflict has been resolved with a deal that will bring back the netminder who led the Bruins to the 2024 second round with an NHL playoff-best .933 save percentage through 12 games.
Usually part of a tandem with Linus Ullmark, Swayman became the Bruins' go-to starter this postseason during the first round, which he capped off with a 30-save Game 6 performance to eliminate the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Swayman went on to start all but one of the Bruins' playoff games as the team came within two wins of the Eastern Conference Finals.
That strong playoff performance followed a career-high 25 wins during the regular season as Swayman recorded a .916 save percentage and 2.53 goals against average through 44 appearances in net.
Swayman, a fourth-round Bruins draft pick in 2017, made his NHL debut in April 2021 before forming the tandem with Ullmark the following season. He has a career .919 save percentage and 2.34 goals against average in 132 appearances with 125 starts through four seasons with Boston.
As Boston transitioned from the old guard that led the team to the 2011 Stanley Cup by bidding farewell to veterans like David Krejčí and Patrice Bergeron, Swayman helped the Bruins remain a perennial postseason team.
He will now serve as a core piece around which Boston will look to build another championship contender.
The Bruins' attention will next turn to deciding which goaltender will serve as Swayman's backup next season now that Ullmark has been dealt to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Joonas Korpisalo.
Brandon Bussi, who was re-signed to a one-year, two-way deal after making 41 starts for the Providence Bruins last season, could make his NHL debut this season. Meanwhile Korpisalo is looking to bounce back from posting a .890 save percentage in 55 appearances for the Senators in 2023-24. Both could compete for the No. 2 spot behind Swayman this fall.
Jeremy Swayman Talks Bruins Tenure in Amazon NHL Doc: 'I Don't Want It to End'
Restricted free agent goalie Jeremy Swayman's future with the Boston Bruins remains up in the air amid ongoing contract discussions, but he previously made it clear he wants to remain with the Eastern Conference team.
As ESPN's Greg Wyshynski noted Thursday, Swayman was featured in the third episode of the Amazon Prime Video docuseries FACEOFF: Inside the NHL and revealed as much.
"I mean, I don't want it to end," he said of his Bruins tenure on the show. "[This] could be the last time I wear a Bruins jersey. I know I'm going to do everything in my power to be a Bruin for a long time. As a kid growing up in Alaska, this was in my wildest f---ing dreams. I never want it to end. I'm just so grateful that the sun's going to rise tomorrow and there's another opportunity to get better.
"Whatever I can do to help this team win. I know everything else will take care of itself."
At this point, Swayman has not reported to Boston's training camp ahead of Tuesday's season opener against the Florida Panthers.
That means the Bruins may need to turn toward Jonas Korpisalo in goal since they also traded Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators in June. While Korpisalo came to Boston as part of that deal, it left a hole since Ullmark was the 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner.
It was easy to assume Swayman would be the starter after the team moved Ullmark, but the contract situation means that is no longer the case.
Bruins president Cam Neely previously told reporters " I know that I have 64 million reasons why I'd be playing right now" when discussing what the team offered the goalie, while Swayman's agent, Lewis Gross, denied that Boston offered a $64 million contract.
This comes after the goalie played last season on a one-year, $3.75 million contract following a salary arbitration.
He also addressed the criticism he faced during the arbitration on the Prime Video show:
While Boston lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Florida Panthers, Swayman was largely excellent during the postseason with a 2.15 goals against average and league-best playoff save percentage of .933.
The Bruins likely need Swayman in goal if they are going to realistically contend for a Stanley Cup this season, and his comments on the show at least seem to indicate he wants to stay with the team.
But there is still ground to cover between the two sides, and time is running out before the start of the season.
Bruins Claim Jiri Patera Off Waivers Amid Jeremy Swayman Contract Buzz
The Boston Bruins have added another goaltender amid uncertainty as to Jeremy Swayman's contract status heading into the 2024-25 season.
The Bruins claimed goaltender Jiri Patera off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks, the team announced on Wednesday.
Patera spent most of the 2023-24 season with the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights while being called up for six appearances with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Swayman has yet to attend Bruins training camp amid an ongoing dispute over his next contract. Patera is now set to slot in behind Joonas Korpisalo, alongside Brandon Bussi and Michael DiPietro, on the Boston depth chart.
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said that Korpisalo was slated to get the Game 1 start on Oct. 8 against the host Florida Panthers.
Korpisalo struggled during the 2023-24 season as a first-string netminder for the Ottawa Senators, posting a .890 save percentage while leading a thin Sens roster to a 21-26-4 record.
The Bruins acquired him in a trade for Linus Ullmark, formerly part of one of the NHL's strongest tandems with Swayman, in the hopes that he could bounce back in a more sheltered role as Boston's second option behind Swayman.
But with Swayman, who is currently a restricted free agent, is holding out amid a public dispute between the Bruins and his agent as to what deal has been offered to the star netminder during offseason negotiations.
Bruins president Cam Neely said on Monday that if he was Swayman he would have "64 million reasons why I'd be playing right now," while Swayman's agent Lewis Gross said in a statement that the goaltender's camp had not received any $64 million offers.
Swayman played last season on a $3.48 million cap hit but is due a raise after earning the Bruins' starting job and posting a playoff-best .933 save percentage while leading Boston to the second round this spring.
Swayman's holdout leaves the Bruins without much NHL experience on the goaltending depth chart behind Korpisalo.
Bussi, signed as an undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan in 2022, has developed into Boston's top goaltending prospect ahead of signing a two-way extension this summer. He could be set to make his NHL debut this season.
DiPietro meanwhile found success behind Bussi as the Providence Bruins' second-string netminder last season, posting a .918 save percentage through 30 starts. He previously has made three career NHL starts, all for the Vancouver Canucks.
Patera will join this duo after being selected in the sixth round of the 2017 draft by the Vegas Golden Knights and making his AHL debut in 2020-21. The 25-year-old signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Canucks in July before he was claimed off waivers by the Bruins.
He made 25 AHL starts for the Silver Knights last season, posting a .903 save percentage and allowing 2.99 goals against per game. Patera also has a career save percentage of .902 in the NHL.
The Bruins have two more preseason games to determine where the 6-foot-3 lefthander fits in their depth chart. Patera could be slated to make his first appearance in black and gold on Thursday night at the Los Angeles Kings or Saturday at the Washington Capitals.