Joe Sacco’s first full day as the Boston Bruins interim head coach was a busy one.
Sacco conducted his first practice Wednesday at the helm of the Bruins after the organization fired Jim Montgomery on Tuesday. Sacco also met with the media, relaying how he expected to turn around the Bruins after a slow 8-9-3 start to the season.
During the latest episode of NESN’s “The Hockey Hub” podcast, Adam Pellerin and Judd Sirott discussed what they took away from Sacco’s introductory press conference.
“The one thing that stood out to me was what he learned from his time in Colorado,” Pellerin said. “Talking about, ‘Yeah, I was focused on the game plan. I was focused on the execution. But I wasn’t as much focused on the personal relationships with the players.’ And that’s something, we reference Jim Montgomery, he was a good communicator. Focused on the relationships. That’s something that Sacco is going to do moving forward.”
Sacco compiled a 130-134-30 record over his four seasons guiding the Avalanche from 2009-13. He was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award — the NHL’s Coach of the Year — after leading the Avalanche to the playoffs in his first season behind the bench. But things fizzled out after that with Colorado missing the postseason three straight years.
That was the last time Sacco got a head coaching shot as he spent the last decade as an assistant on the Bruins, working under Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy and Montgomery. And Sacco is ready to make the most of his second chance.
You can list to Pellerin and Sirott talk extensively about the coaching change on the most recent episode of “The Hockey Hub” podcast, which is set to be released Friday morning. You can catch all episodes on YouTube and Spotify.
