BOSTON — The Bruins parted ways with head coach Jim Montgomery on Tuesday after starting the season 8-9-2.
Don Sweeney told reporters that the decision was strictly results-driven.
“It came from a decision of our team really just not performing to the level of expectations that we had grown to appreciate as a fan of the sporting community here,” he said. “…The underperformance of the team reared its head for 20 games, and I had to make a decision.
“And moving forward, that rests with me now. The personnel standpoint, the players themselves, they have to understand that they’re not where they need to be. And we’re either going to get back there, or we continue to make changes across the board.”
The new era of the Bruins officially got underway when interim head coach Joe Sacco held his first team practice on Wednesday, and Sweeney believes it was the best move for the franchise moving forward.
“We’ve placed Joe in a position now here to get his hands on the steering wheel,” Sweeney explained. “Joe’s well equipped to be able to do this and lead this group. Institutional knowledge for a number of years of teams that have been successful and where it needs to get back to be successful.”
With the support of the Bruins’ brass, the leaders in the room also expressed their feelings over losing Montgomery as their coach, but also what Sacco brings to the bench.
“First, he’s been here for a very long time and obviously has a lot of experience in coaching,” David Pastrnak said. “He’s been a head coach before. He knows everybody here. We all know Joe. He’s a great coach and very well respected here, so excited to work with him.”
Charlie McAvoy echoed Pastrnak’s thoughts on Sacco taking over at the helm and added his personal experience.
“He’s someone who I’ve learned a lot from since I’ve been here,” McAvoy said. “Having him, he’s basically done everything from being the D coach when I first got here to forward, power play to penalty kill, everything in between.
“Som his experience is vast and he, possibly the most important thing, is he understands, like a lot of the guys, like myself that have been here, what it feels like to be a Bruin and what the standard is every single day and what we’re going to recapture moving forward.”
Sacco believes the team has what it takes to turn things around and get back to the standard the Bruins have become accustomed to — especially on special teams.
“We’ve always had strong special teams and we have to get those two units of the power play back up to speed for sure,” Sacco said. “And I think we, I know we have the personnel to do it. Again, I go back to us as a staff. We have to do a job where these guys understand when they come on the ice, know exactly what’s going on, what the plan is, make sure that’s the right plan for them. We have the personnel to deliver. I’m very confident in that.”
The first test will be Thursday night when the Bruins host the Utah Hockey Club at TD Garden.
