Boston Herald Jim Montgomery still bullish on the Bruins

[BlackFrancis]

career checker chris kelly running the PP is interesting. not good interesting, but interesting nonetheless.

With all due respect, and I have a ton of it for you as a poster, I don't understand the hesitancy. I never really loved Kelly all that much as a player, but his playing career has little to do with his eventual success as a coach. If a former player's position/role were reliably predictive of their success coaching an NHL PP, the positions would be populated entirely by QBing defensemen. They're the ones with the most touches, the ones that move the most to change angles. And Kelly played PP in lower levels, while also having perspective as an excellent NHL PKer.

The success of a PP assistant is pretty much entirely constrained by personnel and, to a lesser extent, the head coach. Agile thinking and bilateral respect with the HC can probably make an assistant shine a bit, but even then, you aren't getting far without the horses.

Just poll HFBoards users whether their PP coach is above average or a drooling cretin. I'd guess 80% vote the latter. Our own HC was brought in to fix St. Louis's PP, but a staggering number of Bruins fans believe he needs someone who knows the deep secrets of 5-on-4 lore to right the ship.

If McAvoy could shoot, it would be better. If Marchand's hip improves without him hitting the wall, it will be better. I don't think having Chris Kelly or Marc Savard or Paul Coffey would make much of a difference in the grand scheme.

 

[Hookslide]

It's like asking PJ Axelsson to find offensive players in the draft for them

And Matt Patricia being offensive coordinator.........

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

With all due respect, and I have a ton of it for you as a poster, I don't understand the hesitancy. I never really loved Kelly all that much as a player, but his playing career has little to do with his eventual success as a coach. If a former player's position/role were reliably predictive of their success coaching an NHL PP, the positions would be populated entirely by QBing defensemen. They're the ones with the most touches, the ones that move the most to change angles. And Kelly played PP in lower levels, while also having perspective as an excellent NHL PKer.

The success of a PP assistant is pretty much entirely constrained by personnel and, to a lesser extent, the head coach. Agile thinking and bilateral respect with the HC can probably make an assistant shine a bit, but even then, you aren't getting far without the horses.

Just poll HFBoards users whether their PP coach is above average or a drooling cretin. I'd guess 80% vote the latter. Our own HC was brought in to fix St. Louis's PP, but a staggering number of Bruins fans believe he needs someone who knows the deep secrets of 5-on-4 lore to right the ship.

If McAvoy could shoot, it would be better. If Marchand's hip improves without him hitting the wall, it will be better. I don't think having Chris Kelly or Marc Savard or Paul Coffey would make much of a difference in the grand scheme.

Perhaps Montgomery plans on Kelly using his PK expertise to break down opposing penalty kill units, but I'd prefer the Savard type who may be able to mentally step into the role of his players in a given situation. Coaching matters, as much as it is on the players. We saw how painfully stagnant the PP was in the second half. Assumptions were they were saving the effort and willingness to drive to the net for the playoffs but there was not much of that either.

Perimeter, perimeter, perimeter.

 

[goldnblack]

Things we all (mostly) actually knew:

Coyle IS in the top 6
Lucic WON'T be in the middle 6

Carry on

 

[easton117]

Sometimes honesty would be appreciated now and again. It feels like the team gives fans the run around.

To be fair the whole planet speaks like that now. At some point it’s been decided humans can’t handle honesty any longer

 

[Forester65]

Look I see things differently than you ,I was worried going into the playoffs with the way they had been playing defensively,whether they would be ready to play playoff hockey,they weren’t,I”m not going to argue if you seem things differently so be it.You say that teams don’t play shitty and win a lot of games ,well I say they did ,Ullmark was incredible probably every game he played and Swayman probably the second half of the season was even probably a little better.I don’t think we really give enough credit to how great their goaltending was ,and how many games they won,Or definitely kept them in it,because they were guilty of many slow starts. My opinion anyway.

Goaltending covered up a lot of warts. Over and over. We were a sloppy team with a ton of talent.

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

Well of course Monty has to be positive, and he has to be bullish on this team and he will have to work his butt off and try to find a way to get them into the playoffs. If he doesn't, and we miss, I'm almost certain they will can him and then the narrative will turn into "it was all Monty's fault and we're sorry we hired him, our bad". There's always a fall guy and it won't be Cam and Don if they can help it.
Only problem I have with what he said is this idea that we can just slot JVR into a top 6 role and think that'll work. I just don't see it. If he is, great, then I think we definitely can make the playoffs, but I saw JVR play last year and he was crap. Absolute crap. I personally can't even see him making the final cut and if he does, we're in trouble.

 

[Blowfish]

Things we all (mostly) actually knew:

Coyle IS in the top 6
Lucic WON'T be in the middle 6

Carry on

Very Wrong ... check the earlier poll.

 

[mar2kbos]

Isn’t it just normal spin beginning of every year? You could template the responses from every coach in the league and that would be pretty much it, new year, new responsibilities, guys are ready, yadda yadda….etc.

 

[smithformeragent]

“Bullish” sort of sounds like “bull” something else.

 

[UncleRico]

What's he supposed to say?
"I think we are a bubble team, at best"?
"I wish PB and DK stuck around for another year for pennies on the dollar"?
"We are very week up the middle"?

Haha that’s true. I’d imagine the number of coaches who have gone into a year saying the team sucks is very limited, if any.

 

[bruins19]

Have to respect Monty's positivity. Other than deciding to forget everything he knew about hockey at a key point in last season's playoffs, Monty has been masterful throughout his career at maximizing what he has been given. He's a flexible coach, which is a very good thing heading into this season. I think he will do a good job this season with the center situation. Will maximizing what the Bs have down the middle be good enough? Not sure, but I am confident that Monty will end up figuring out the best lines given what he has to work with. We can only hope that two or three centers can take their game to another level.

It came at a high price, but I think Monty learned some lessons the hard way with last year’s early playoff exit. Those lessons sting. I agree we likely see a different coach in terms of decision making.

Perhaps Montgomery plans on Kelly using his PK expertise to break down opposing penalty kill units, but I'd prefer the Savard type who may be able to mentally step into the role of his players in a given situation. Coaching matters, as much as it is on the players. We saw how painfully stagnant the PP was in the second half. Assumptions were they were saving the effort and willingness to drive to the net for the playoffs but there was not much of that either.

Perimeter, perimeter, perimeter.

Perimeter play drives me crazy. I hate it.

 

[mjhfb]

Haha that’s true. I’d imagine the number of coaches who have gone into a year saying the team sucks is very limited, if any.

Not naming names, but didn't a former Bruins coach basically say that, and the GM then led him into the locker room (in front of the players) and told him to point out the players who weren't any good?

 

[Aussie Bruin]

I disagree I don’t think teams were rolling over against the Bruins towards the end of the season,I felt the Bruins were actually getting mostly outplayed and if not for both goalies spectacular play,it would have been a loosing streak going into the playoffs.Which might have been a wake up,call,for them,instead some sloppy play by the team had been masked by the goaltending.

I think there was a bit of both.

 

[bruins19]

Not naming names, but didn't a former Bruins coach basically say that, and the GM then led him into the locker room (in front of the players) and told him to point out the players who weren't any good?

Not sure who did the leading, but IIRC it was Adam Oates who said the team wasn’t good enough and was then led around the room to face each player and was asked each time, “Is he not good enough?”

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Not sure who did the leading, but IIRC it was Adam Oates who said the team wasn’t good enough and was then led around the room to face each player and was asked each time, “Is he not good enough?”

Ha, that's f***ed up.

 

[bruins19]

Ha, that's f***ed up.

Just googled and found the first half of that story: Oates' shots may give Bruins goal: Trade troublemaker

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Just googled and found the first half of that story: Oates' shots may give Bruins goal: Trade troublemaker

Interesting read, I wish the article included the publishing date on the header.

 

[wintersej]

I see your point - a bottom six checking forward who averaged around a point every 3 games tasked to improve the PP. But other non PP guys have done it, and he was a smart player, so I think he'll be fine.

Matt Patricia as offensive coordinator

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Interesting read, I wish the article included the publishing date on the header.

That would certainly help.

 

[McGarnagle]

Interesting read, I wish the article included the publishing date on the header.

The link lists it as 1997/02/23

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

The link lists it as 1997/02/23

Good call

 

[Dr Hook]

The link lists it as 1997/02/23

So real old time hockey news gems in there- rumors about Raleigh trying to lure the Whale, Petr Klima, Geoff Sanderson lol

 

[McGarnagle]

So real old time hockey news gems in there- rumors about Raleigh trying to lure the Whale, Petr Klima, Geoff Sanderson lol

That Geoff Sanderson story was spicy

 

[GordonHowe]

High Noon for Sunny Jim? (That's me, not the podcast).

As noted previously, imho, Jim Montgomery is ultimately responsible for 90% of first round playoff debacle against FLA.

If you want chapter and verse, please see past posts on the subject. Unfortunately, the list is a long one.

Whatever one thinks of him, Mike Milbury makes a fair point.

Sunny Jim's calling card has been, if you will, the white hat. At some point, the black hat may be necessary. Given what little I've gathered, I'm not certain he's capable of credibly making that switch.

This may simply be who JM is, and he may find ways to spur his horses to victory with a pat on the head rather than a kick in the ass.

Genuine adversity is calling this season and going forward. Montgomery has had success at every level, and I can't imagine all of those teams fired on all cylinders, as the impossibly successful regular season Bruins did in 2022-23.

Surely, JM has confronted bad play and sorry streaks before, and presumably understands how to meet them.

Montgomery deserves another opportunity and I sincerely hope has learned from his mistakes. I am not certain his latest remarks affirm this.

To the point, pick up @ 21:15,