Don Sweeney and Cam Neely have a lot of egg on their face, again.
In November, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney decided to fire former coach Jim Montgomery after a brutal 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. At the time, this move was not surprising, and the front office saw it as a move to shake things up.
Sweeney tabbed Joe Sacco to be the interim coach and things didn't go as planned. It was thought that the problem was Montgomery and that couldn't have been further from the truth. A week after being let go in Boston, the St. Louis Blues wasted little time in grabbing the 2022-23 Jack Adams Award winner.
Looking for a spark for their team six weeks into the season, that's what the former Bruins coach did in St. Louis. In fact, what he is accomplishing is quite the feat and it casts a darker shadow over the Bruins, Sweeney and Neely as it is two organizations that are going in different directions.
Former Bruins coach Jim Montgomery continues to shame Boston's front office with his success in St. Louis
So, you say that Jim Montgomery was the problem in Boston? Well, you don't, but Sweeney and Neely thought so. They are out a coach who led them to an NHL record for wins and points in a regular season in 2022-23. Yes, the first-round choke job in the postseason was one where you could have moved on from him, but they didn't. Instead, they brought him back with a less talented roster and made the playoffs, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games in the first round of the postseason before falling to the Florida Panthers in six games in the second round.
Then there was 2024-25. Sweeney thought that he upgraded the roster, which he clearly didn't, they got off to a slow start and Montgomery was fired. The easy way out once again for Sweeney and Neely, but this time and once again, it backfired.
Montgomery has led the Blues to a 12-game winning streak after their 5-4 win over the Colorado Avalanche. While they were ripping off a franchise-record winning streak, the Black and Gold were struggling through a 10-game losing streak while falling into what they hope will be a Top 5 pick in the draft this summer. They ended their losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night, but is that really what's best for them?
Montgomery is coaching the team in the Western Conference, and maybe throughout the whole NHL, that nobody wants to see in the playoffs. So, let's go over this one more time: Don Sweeney and Cam Neely thought that their coach was the problem for the second time in three years and fired him. However, in reality, the problem is the roster construction and the players. Got it.
It remains to be seen if Sweeney and Neely have figured out the problem might be them and not the two Jack Adams Award winners they have canned in three years. Regardless, Montgomery is in a much happier place and has his team going to the playoffs with a ton of momentum, while the Black and Gold spin their wheels in the middle of nowhere. This front office can't get out of their own way.
