Although they’ve been better of late, the Boston Bruins are somewhat of a mirage team.
Yes, they’re currently third in the Atlantic Division, but the fourth-place Tampa Bay Lightning have five games in hand on the Bruins, and they’re just two points behind.
The fifth-place Ottawa Senators are only two points behind the Bruins while having two games in hand as well. They’re fresh off a six-game win streak that ended in Sunday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
The Bruins do deserve credit for going 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, although only two of those wins came against squads in a playoff spot. And the Lightning and Senators could still leave the Bruins in the dust if they continue to play well.
All in all, the Bruins have seen slightly better results in the standings from when GM Don Sweeney fired coach Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19. They were fourth in the Atlantic and ninth in the Eastern Conference when they fired him, and they’re now third and sixth, respectively.
While the Bruins have been able to get better points in the standings, their little improvement elsewhere brings to mind the question – did Sweeney overreact when he fired Montgomery? Some people don’t think so, but we’re not so sure the results are that convincingly different.
The Bruins have gone 10-4-1 under interim coach Joe Sacco, but Boston’s offense is still 28th in the NHL at 2.60 goals-for per game. Since Nov. 19, they’re 20th at 2.87 goals per game.
Their goals-against per game is the ninth best since Nov. 19, at 2.60, which makes them 16th best on the season at 3.09.
Meanwhile, their power play success rate remains a dismal 13.2 percent on the season, which ranks 31st, and a still-subpar 15.9 percent under Sacco, which ranks 23rd. Their penalty kill is 22nd overall at 77.6 percent on the season, and their 81.6-percent kill rate under Sacco is still only average.
There’s an improvement, but even with a favorable schedule that certainly helped them, they remain a work in progress rather than a squad that looks like it resolved its issues.
Related: Reaction: Bruins Can Jim Montgomery. How Unimaginative And Predictable Can You Get?
It really says something about the Bruins’ decision when the St. Louis Blues hired Montgomery just days later, on Nov. 24. It also says something that Boston fired its coach so early in the season, two seasons removed from Montgomery winning the Jack Adams Award in a record-breaking year and a few months after getting to the second round of the playoffs. Montgomery remains a well-respected coach in the NHL, and although they’ve improved under Sacco, his impact hasn’t been huge enough to suggest sending Montgomery away was the absolute best move.
Hard to believe with a 120-41-23 record with the Bruins, including a Jack Adams award, Jim Montgomery is fired after 2 1/2 seasons.
— David Amber (@DavidAmber) November 19, 2024
The Blues’ offense and defense remain in the mid-to-lower tiers of NHL rankings, and their special teams are also a major work in progress, so Montgomery hasn’t had amazing success so far in St. Louis, either. But there’s no doubt he had some promising campaigns in Boston.
It feels like an exercise in choose-your-own-adventure, but wondering whether things would be different if Montgomery stayed where he was in Boston is a fair question to ask. Only a massive hot streak and vastly improved all-around numbers for the Bruins under Sacco will make that coaching change clearly justified.
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