BOSTON BRUINS OWNER AND CHAIRMAN JEREMY JACOBS, CEO CHARLIE JACOBS, PRESIDENT CAM NEELY, GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY, AND HEAD COACH JIM MONTGOMERY…
Opening remarks…
Montgomery: “I want to thank our owners, Mr. Jacobs, Charlie Jacobs, team President Cam Neely, General Manager Don Sweeney, for affording me and my family this tremendous opportunity to be the head coach of the Boston Bruins. I am very grateful to lead the spoked-B behind the bench and really looking forward to working with this group that won 51 games last year. I know my family, we’re excited, we’ve already found a home. We went to Sox-Yanks game. Sox came back and won in the 10th inning, so things have started out well here in Boston. We’re excited with this rabid fan base in this great city of Boston, to be part of the Bruins family.”
On if he thought he’d have this opportunity again…
Montgomery: “It’s a great question. Yes, I did, I’m very fortunate that I have a lot of great people in my life, a lot of great mentors. I think that everybody has ups and downs in life, I think if you learn from them, you grow you get better, I think good things happen. I’m just grateful that it’s happened.”
On a trademark of his teams…
Montgomery: “I think for the fand on ice, it’s that we’re going to compete. That we’re going to be a team known for their effort and their execution. I think around the league, I want us to be known as a team that you better be prepared or else you ‘re going to be put on your heels.”
On if his story could have a positive impact…
Montgomery: “I do, I’m very cognizant of the things I’ve been able to overcome with the help of my wife, my family, my close friends, new friends, that I think anybody can achieve good things in life, if you’re willing to accept change and make change.”
On the line between listening to players and being the coach…
Montgomery: “I think you have to listen. I prefer to listen before I speak. I’ll turn it back into what is always best for the team after I’ve listened to suggestions, ideas, or opinions. And we’re always going to be in this together, it’s always going to be a “we” culture. But when it comes to accountability and final decisions, I will be firm there.”
On what he thinks he can bring out of this team…
Montgomery: “It’s a good question. This is a 51-win team last year, so I think the staff did a really good job last year. Moving forward, I think there’s areas that, I’m hoping with new, different style — every coach has a different way of coaching. That it’s going to lead to a little more offense.”
On how to coach veterans and young players at the same time…
Montgomery: “I think my biggest strength is being able to connect with people, whether it’s young players, old players, or that middle core group of your 24-28 year olds that are incredibly vital. I think the most important thing is I’m going to communicate how important it everyone’s role is to the team’s success. I will always come back to how that person’s individual success can help the team’s success.”
On if he’s reached out to current guys…
Montgomery: “I have, I’ve probably touched base with over half the roster. It’s been very positive in the sense that I’ve been very impressed with the team-first attitude that’s emanating from the players.”
On if this team has a different starting point than most teams…
Montgomery: “I think every opportunity has interesting challenges. Every team has a max ceiling and the exciting part is it’s up to us, management, staff, and especially the players, to try and reach that ceiling.”
On if he’s talked to Patrice Bergeron…
Montgomery: “That was my first phone call. It was really good, it was enlightening, I felt like I was talking to a coach, not a player. Just how he thinks about the team first, he thinks about ways to get better. So, very impressed and it was a very open and honest conversation about how he’s excited about what the Bruins family can do and how I’m excited to be a part of it.”
On what Bergeron has meant to the organization…
Charlie Jacobs: “We’re still waiting for Patrice’s word, although news is positive, we’re getting some positive feedback. Think about his legacy already, a kid — when I say kid, I mean that respectfully for Patrice. I was at the draft table the year we drafted Patrice. To think of his tenure, five-time Selke winner. Fingers crossed that he returns and leads our team again next year. Obviously I’ll defer to Jim on his feedback on his conversation, but he really his another coach on the ice and I think Jim would agree with me that on that front, that having a player of that ability, with that hockey knowledge can really raise up the rest of the bench.”
On the overall health of Delaware North and the Bruins organization…
Charlie Jacobs: “It’s been quite a journey. I’m happy to be sitting on the dais today talking about hockey for the 2022-23 season. There were some dark days of COVID, I think for all of us, maybe that hangover is just clearing for some of us. We’re proud to say that we’re back in business and for anyone who’s at the TD Garden last year and saw a Bruins game firsthand, it’s evident that we still have a very rabid fanbase and people are turning out in mass numbers.”
On how he coaches…
Montgomery: “I think it's always been part of my DNA. Fortunate to be raised by my dad, someone who always thought team, and always tried to make everyone feel included. I think you are the environment you grow up in, and I guess that just came naturally to me.”
On how they came to the conclusion to release the previous coach instead of hockey operations…
Charlie Jacobs: “I’ll let the Chairman speak, but I’ll go first on that one. I want to say the Boston Bruins have been to the Stanley Cup Finals three times in the past eleven years under Cam Neely’s tenure. I want to say we have somewhere around a 600+ win percentage under our general manager’s tenure. The head coach frankly is the responsibility of the general manager, in our opinion. He has to be accountable for that. Likewise, the president is accountable to the general manager. So, if they come to us and say, ‘Hey listen, we think this might be in the best interest,’ we’re of course going to follow their lead. They’re empowered to make those decisions and it’s not our job to interfere with them but rather to empower them to make those types of decisions and support them. I’m not sure if I answered all of your question, but I think that’s the general gist, is that we went and followed management’s direction. There are different types of decisions that are involved in the National Hockey League, and Jim Montgomery just spoke to how he plans to lead, how he makes decisions, what is the process. Some are consultative, some are collaborative, and some are unilateral. I think by in large, if you were to speak to a majority of management in the National Hockey League, there’s a time where they have to make a decision that might not necessarily be collaborative or consultative. But something that they have to make is in the best interest of the club. It’s our job to support them in that process.”
Jeremy Jacobs: “I totally agree with him. It was a long answer, but it’s quite truthful, we’ve been doing that for the last forty years or so and it’s worked pretty good.”
On if Bruce would have stayed under Sweeney’s recommendation…
Charlie Jacobs: “Again, this is Don’s decision and it’s Cam’s responsibility to support Don. I would say it works that way in arguably the other 31 markets in the National Hockey League. If they want to make a change, we’re here to support them and do so. Until further notice, that’s the way this works.”
On if they’re happy with drafting and player development…
Charlie Jacobs: “I think this is – you talk about the term, ‘Who’s shopping for the groceries,’ right? And Jim and I had this conversation; a lot of coaches, when they come in, are ecstatic to have the roster that you hand them. They’re absolutely ecstatic, and they should be. They have the opportunity to coach in the National Hockey League. Sometimes, that viewpoint changes over time — I need different players, I need better players. I think, it’s the coaches job to bring our players to the highest ceiling of their ability. It’s our general manager’s job to find, and identify, those players. There’s a difference, a very unique and dare I say, discrete responsibilities for each of them. We’re not asking Jim Montgomery to go scout amateur players, nor are we asking Don Sweeney to coach the Boston Bruins. And I think that they have to respect and play off one another in that regard.”
On his most influential coach in his playing career and what he pulled from them…
Montgomery: “I don’t have any real original thoughts, but I do take really good lessons learned from other intelligent people that I’ve been fortunate to be around. It’s an excellent question, I guess my communication approach goes to Sean Walsh. He was the master, in my mind, of communicating and motivating people. As a teacher, that would be Grant Stanbrook, who was at the University of Maine with me. I’ve never seen a guy teach one-on-one as well. So, I’ve taken that philosophy a lot with me. At the pro level, Billy Barber was very influential just with holding players accountable to results. If you aren’t producing, he was going to let you know it. And then Dave Tippet was very creative, Kent Hitchkok was very structured. I thought that Randy Carlisle when I was with him was really good on neutral zone breakouts, and breakouts as a defenseman. So, there’s a lot of people – I’m sure I’m missing a couple of coaches that have really impacted me, but you have to be able to take those lessons learned about how different coaches handle the dressing room, coaches you’ve worked with. And now I think I’ve had the opportunity to grow even more being under Craig Berube and watching how he handles players how he handles the dressing room, the staff. And, you know, I do have a growth mindset, I think you’re always trying to learn and I’m always trying to steal ideas from others and implement it if it makes sense to my core values.”
On if there is any progress with David Krejci and if it’s possible to bring Patrice and David back…
Sweeney: “Yeah, we’ve had discussions on Patrice and David. I think both have positive news probably by design – maybe for Chris by design. Anyways as far as Patrice, real positive indications, he’s gone through his rehab and spent time with his family and indicated that he’ll come out in short order to make his declaration, but things have tracked along the right lines there. Recently I’ve had numerous conversations with David Krejci about what his plans are. He spent a lot of time with his family as well and his decision could be forth coming, and we are hopeful that it is with us. I think we would welcome him back, we said that to him last year, that the door is open. And we have to make the pieces of the puzzle fit the door financially in the cap world, but I’ll do everything I possibly can to try and make that happen.”
On if UFA day on Wednesday will be a relatively quiet day considering the cap…
Sweeney: “We’re working backwards, yeah, we did submit the qualifying offers to Jack Studnicka, Jack Ahcan and Matt Filipe, so that is taken care of. Yeah, there’s no question that financially from a cap perspective, we are tight and so are several other teams. The difference is that we have a full roster, minus the injured players that we’ll start on the sidelines. So, we’ve got the bulk of our roster in place, I’m certainly trying to look to make some changes to our roster, that may or may not happen, but I’m going to explore that – have been exploring it. We’re going to address some of the areas of the depth that the organization needs, and so we’ll be active over the next couple of days, but I wouldn’t say that unless barring a major trade of some sort, that we are going to be as active as we were last year in filling a number of holes.”
On what made Jim the right fit…
Sweeney: “We went through a fairly wide and exhaustive interview process, we spent a number of days with our pro staff, breaking down the areas that they see both around the league and internally. We put together a pretty wide-ranging list of candidates. We put together a questionnaire that each candidate – I’m very appreciative of all of the time that each and every one of them did spend – to present both from the questionnaire standpoint but also in the interview process. And we came back to getting down to final candidates, revisiting with Jim, having the chance to spend time with Emily as well. You know, Jim just resonated with us from his presentation of what he wanted to do, his conviction of getting an opportunity and feeling that he was going to be a much-improved coach in his second opportunity. Some of the things that we discussed in the changes that he saw under a head coach in Craig Berube and his staff in St. Louis and what he wanted to bring. Just a constant evolvement of Jim as a coach, a hockey coach. And he’s kind of a student of the game in the same way that he’s the teacher of the game. All the check points – wanting to create a little bit more, looking at our roster, acknowledging that maybe there’s areas that we can continue to improve but excited about the challenges of working with the players who are currently here as well, and getting to a higher level. For us it just checked off boxes of a winning history, a coach that has an open mind to communication as well as evolving style of play. You know, playing against Colorado, breaking that team down to six games and what St. Louis had to do there. And really breaking down our team as well, you know there’s areas of the game that he felt our team needed to improve upon.”
On what stands out about Jim’s coaching style to generate more offense…
Neely: “Well, one of the things that kind of stood out early on was Jim’s philosophy of getting our defensemen to move a little bit more on the offensive blue line. Whether they end up scoring the goals is going to be one thing, but they can create a little more offensive from being fluid on the offensive blue line.”
On if there are challenges with the team in terms of business, revenue, due to COVID…
Jeremy Jacobs: “I’ll tell you, being in Boston is a real pleasure. Being an owner here, everybody in the marketplace when you look around, we’ve gained success faster than most of our contemporaries throughout the industry, and I mean big places - New York, L.A., and the rest – they didn’t respond, our fans did here. Boston fan bases has really made it easy for me in that sense. The facility of course attracted a lot, but this team – they really love this franchise, and it’s great to see.”
On what a revenue standpoint is being based on…
Jeremy Jacobs: “I’m getting it from the turnstiles, the number that’s coming in this building every night, the sold-out situation, and their willing to participate in the retail and the food operation. Yes, that’s all secondary. But it’s expressing them and the desire to move up in their seats and things like that, that you can’t fill but you’d like to be able to. It’s the enthusiasm. I just hope we can maintain that and hold onto it and improve on it, but you have to deliver and that’s what we’re here about today.”
On if there is a trade he can address to a specific need, what would it be…
Sweeney: “Well, I will speak generally, we’re always going to look to improve our hockey club. We’ve done that, when the team is in a position for me to approach Cam and the ownership about it investing in this team, we’ve done that throughout my time here, and we’ll continue to do that. The team generally dictates that, how we come out of injuries at the start of the year – that may dictate that. But as it stands for this week, if a trade possibility really across the board outside of a couple players, you know, we’d look to improve our hockey club. We’re always going to have to, that’s my charge to try and improve our hockey club however I see fit.”
On what besides communication goes into developing younger talent…
Montgomery: “Well, I think the biggest thing is realizing what they can do and trying to emphasize those strengths, and it’s different for every player. If you’re a player that possesses the puck, it’s going to be how long you have the puck on your stick in a game. If you’re a player that’s a big physical player, how many turnovers are you creating and how well are you protecting pucks below the dots. If you’re an offensive defenseman, it’s how many times are you part of the rush, how often are you getting shots through at the point, how often are you going on the back side when we have puck possession on the offensive zone. So, I think it depends on what a player can do, and you try and focus on communicating those strengths with using practice habits that translate into game habits, following it up with video, and then putting icing on the cake with some analytics that could help them, because everyone now is very number-oriented and everyone wants results. Analytics give you that – compared to 30 years ago.”
On if a rebuild would be acceptable if Patrice Bergeron retires in the next few years…
Jeremy Jacobs: “I think it’s an annual situation. I think you have to see where you are and where you’re going. I think that Don and Cam visualize this team very well and understand what they have and perhaps what they need.”
Charlie Jacobs: “There’s been a lot of theatre around this National Hockey League this past week, in particular at the Draft. We saw some teams, what I would call it – sellers – and I think that would be awfully difficult to sell in this market to our fanbase. I do foresee, I don’t have a crystal ball, but there are going to be days, let’s be candid, there are going to be days when we don’t have the opportunity to talk about Patrice Bergeron coming back to be our Captain and our number one center. And those are things that we need to address every summer, and whether it’s through the Draft, Cam and Donny have mentioned this already but we’re a cap team – meaning that we’re going to spend to the max to deliver the best product we possibly can to our fans and that is not going to change. In that regard I would hope that people could put that in their back pocket and understand that we are committed to winning a Stanley Cup and we will do whatever it takes to get us to that threshold again.”
On what they think of women being offered managerial positions in the league…
Neely: “I think it’s great to open it up, there’s no question. I mean there’s a lot of smart hockey people that are playing women’s hockey and involved with women’s hockey. It’s something that Don and I have talked about extensively, you obviously want to hire the right people. Hockey Ops just hired someone in a developmental role, Danielle, who was actually on the ice this morning, she was on the ice with our prospects, so that’s something that we are certainly actively looking at and find the right people – it makes a lot of sense.”
Sweeney: “Yeah, I mean I would echo Cam’s and Charlie and Mr. Jacobs. Diversity and inclusion is paramount to moving forward, and I applaud San Jose, I applaud all the teams that have added diversity to their staffs. You know, we didn’t do something reactionary, we did something because we wanted to. Danielle Marmer is someone that was part of our Diversity & Inclusion scouting program and worked her way through there for an entire year working with our staff and we just felt that she was a terrific fit for where we wanted to go in the directive and the things that she had been doing at Quinnipiac, and what she could apply to our Hockey Operations, and we’ll continue to do that. We are trying to hire great people that want to work for the Boston Bruins and improve our hockey club and Danielle added to that. And anybody else that we come across in the same manner, we are going to try to continue to push the needles in those areas.”
On if there is anything they look at that they can do differently to have success when drafting young players…
Sweeney: “Well, I believe that your team cycle sometimes determines when you integrate those players. First and foremost, you have to pick the right players. We do a deep dive on our drafts, we go back over things, we do a collective study. You know, from my time that I’ve held as General Manager, we’ve looked at the number of players that we’ve drafted during a time period. Sometimes, it’s not necessarily on equal terms if you have more recent drafts. But certainly, say from 2015 to 2018, we’ve looked at how many players we’ve drafted that are National Hockey League players. Have we not hit our high side at times? Absolutely, and we take full culpability of that and we make sure we challenge our staff and go back over the areas that we can improve upon as an organization, both on and off the ice and take full responsibility for that when we do that. But we’ve done a good job overall of producing National Hockey League players. You always want to hit your high side, every team in the National Hockey League would say, ‘We left something on the table.’. It’s how I felt after we finished our series against Carolina, we left something on the table. With this club, what they were capable of doing, we made a very difficult decision with the coach that had a lot of success here, and we went out and hired what we think is the best coach for us and where our team is and potentially where our next cycle becomes. You know, different than ’15 where we made some very difficult decisions and tried to reload with some of our prospect pool, and we’ll always continue to try and do that, and the development is part of that. We’ve made some trades where we sacrificed some of those players – you can analyze whether some of those trades are good or bad with the results, because it’s a results-driven business – but we’ll own that, always own it. And that goes back to the investment the organization is in charge of that we have to try to win. That we’re committed to winning. There are times and periods as I’ve referenced and pivot points that may exist. You’re not just going to replace Patrice Bergeron unless you draft somebody maybe one overall, it’s just the player that he is. But we’ve cycled out great players, and Chara and Rask and eventually it will be Patrice. David Krejci wasn’t a part of our hockey club last year. So, there are challenges, and we acknowledge every one of them, and drafting development is paramount to continuing to have success in the National Hockey League, whether that’s through trades or your own sustaining winning capabilities, and we want to do it better and the bottom line is we are going to continue to try.”
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