BOSTON (WHDH) - The Bruins have fired head coach Jim Montgomery, the team announced Tuesday.
Associate coach Joe Sacco will step in as interim head coach, Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney said in a statement.
“Our team’s inconsistency and performance in the first 20 games of the 2024-25 season has been concerning and below how the Bruins want to reward our fans,” Sweeney wrote in the statement. “I believe Joe Sacco has the coaching experience to bring the players and the team back to focusing on the consistent effort the NHL requires to have success.”
Montgomery served as the hockey team’s head coach since July 2022. Many Bruins fans said Tuesday that they disagreed with the team’s decision to fire him.
“I think it’s ridiculous they got rid of him. It’s the start of the season, they could’ve turned it around. He showed a great job the past few years. We could’ve made the playoffs. We lost to the Panthers, who won the whole thing. I mean, we did a great job last year. Just a rough start,” said fan Jacob Carreiro. “I think we could’ve turned it around with him.”
Matt Aylmer, also a Bruins fan, said Montgomery didn’t deserve the boot.
“It wasn’t Jim’s fault, obviously. I still think we scraped the playoffs, but next year better,” Aylmer said.
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WATCH: Bruins fans react to news of Jim Montgomery being fired
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As for Sacco, this is his 11th season with the Bruins, according to the team. Before he joined the Bruins, Sacco served as assistant coach for the Buffalo Sabres from 2013 to 2014, as well as head coach for the Colorado Avalanche from 2009 to 2013.
Sacco was a fourth-round National Hockey League draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leaves out of Boston University. He hails from Melrose.
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