Morning Skate: New(ish)
11/20/2024 07:00 AM
The more things change, etc.
It is Wednesday, my dudes.
The big news of the week remains (obviously) the Bruins moving on from head coach Jim Montgomery, who took the fall after a sputtering start.
While it's always a bit surprising to see the news release confirming the move, I think most around these parts felt like a coaching change was coming after Monday night's debacle.
It felt like Monday was the third or fourth time this season one could have rightly used the word "debacle" to describe a Bruins game, which I guess pretty clearly illustrates the problem.
I personally think this move is a bit harsh on Montgomery, but it boils down to two things that many here have reminded me of over the years:
- You can't fire the players.
- Don Sweeney isn't going to fire himself.
Sweeney certainly deserves some criticism for the construction of this roster, maybe for the Jeremy Swayman contract saga, all that good stuff.
However, I think it's a fair coaching criticism to wonder how a team that added good (though maybe not elite) players this summer got considerably worse in all aspects of the game.
Some have pointed to goaltending propping the Bruins up for a couple of years now. Others might point to roster-wide underperformance — or maybe to a roster returning to level after overperforming last year.
In any case, Montgomery will land on his feet, and the Bruins are going in a new(ish) direction under Joe Sacco, who has been with the organization for more than a decade.
Is he a new voice? New vision? New approach? Or just a guy to keep the seat warm while the team assesses other options?
We'll see, I guess.
I can't help but feel like the Bruins locker room leadership, or Brad Marchand, to be more specific, have skated through all of this with too much ease.
You can't necessarily pin team-wide failings on a captain, but at what point do you look to your leaders to address the team-wide malaise that has set in seemingly since the first week of the season?
In any case, there will be plenty of time to point fingers as the season continues.
My guess is, barring a dramatic turnaround, Sweeney will be out of a job by season's end as well, with Cam Neely possibly joining him, though that one's a little tougher to determine.
So...what do you expect over the next couple of games? A new-coach bounce? Legitimate positive change? Continued chaos?
Discuss.
