Reflecting on Jim Montgomery’s run with Boston Bruins | Poke The Bear

Reflecting on Jim Montgomery’s run with Boston Bruins | Poke The Bear

Poke the Bear is brought to you by Price Picks and welcome into Poke the Bear episode 383, part of the CNS Media Network. If you have time, please subscribe to our Bruins ringside YouTube channel where we have pretty much daily content between Poke the Bay and Bruins beat with Evan Marinowski Fox with Hags. We have you covered every step of the way this hockey season. So follow along with us over at YouTube. And if you don’t like YouTube, you can subscribe, follow along over on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever else you get your hockey podcasts. This episode is also brought to you by Prize Fix, the best way to win cash this football season. Download the app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. My name is Connor Ryan and we’re joined once again by the esteemed, the ever knowledgeable Ty Anderson of 985 the Sports Hub. Ty, how you doing? How we doing this morning? What is going on? Uh, pretty good win for the Bruins on Thursday night. Ty, you look at a team that uh needed a get-right game after that loss uh in Detroit and the St. Louis Blues presented that because my god, that team is bad. Patriots. Uh, not the Patriots, not the Patriots, the Bruins, the Boston Bruins, the team we’re talking about on this podcast. They took advantage, beat the Blues 5-2 on Thursday night uh at TD Gaden. Uh, much like the Patriots against the Jets. Uh, that game was pretty much over with like 20 plus 30 plus minutes to go. Uh, Bruins took care of business in this one. Scored five goals against Jordan Bennington. Ty, what was your main takeaway from a muchneeded win for the Bruins? Uh this team continues to bounce back. Um really since ending that sixgame losing streak back in October, they are now six and one um in games immediately following a loss, which is uh confirmation of things that your eyes are telling you, right? Like this team listens to Marco Sturm and they they understand his messaging. They understand his direction that he wants to go and they’re responding. And that I think I think it’s a big takeaway on a night where you know Jim Montgomery comes to town and and you saw what this team was a year ago and how they couldn’t respond. You know, losses would pile up. It felt like the Bruins kept having just the absolute worst loss after worse loss every time you thought it couldn’t get any lower, you know, like it would somehow get lower. And I think that’s the biggest difference that I that you know, it kind of stuck out. Maybe it stuck out to me because it was Montgomery back in town with St. Lewis, but just again the way this team responds after losing games, like that’s a that’s a, you know, a calling card of a good team. I’m not saying the Bruins are going to be an elite team. I’m not saying they’re going to make the playoffs, but when you bounce back after losing games and you do have that kind of response, like you’re going to be in the hunt. You’re going to be in the race. And so long as that remains a part of their game, they’re going to be better than perhaps we think they should be or think they can be because that’s a mental thing and that’s important. And I think you saw it again in another in another way on Thursday night. Yeah, for sure. And uh we will definitely be talking more about Jim Montgomery uh later on in this podcast. Um as far as his uh his eventful two plus years here in Boston. Um but just looking at this game especially, yeah, as far as like the bounceback effort and buying in, one thing that Macro Sturtorm said is that an emphasis was them starting off pretty strong. And you look at this team and that hasn’t been the case at times this year. They end up putting up a bunch of shots against Bennington early on, take a two nothing lead. Um, and you have a lot of guys pulling on the rope, right? I think that’s kind of been the encouraging thing. It’s not just this game, but even look at the last game against Detroit, a game you come up short, but you have Alex Steves, who now apparently is a 20 goal guy, uh, cashing in. You’ve got like Husandinov scores, uh, on Tuesday against Detroit. And this is a game too on uh Thursday where after kind of a slow start for that Zaka Arbertson middle stat line uh that really kind of cash in this time around where um guys are getting healthy. You got Zaka gets two goals. Ison has a a a rocket to score his first goal since coming back. Um this team desperately needs David Postnog back. Not saying not not saying anything like that, but at least in the the aggregate for right now, they are landing enough punches offensively that’s at least keeping this team competitive, which is encouraging to see. And I think a lot of that has to be credited to a guy like Alex Steves who worked his ass off and now he’s getting rewarded for it in Micro Sterm system. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, it’s another example of a guy coming up giving you something and you’re a better team for it. I I think that’s you know like we’ve done podcasts and we’ve done episodes where like we’ve talked about the Bruins not bringing up some of the younger players whether that’s like Fabian Lysel or Matt Potra and you know I know fans have wanted it but if they keep bringing up guys who when they come up here are productive and are giving you more than in theory you know those guys would give you or or have given you in the past like it’s kind of hard to criticize them you know like like I want to see Fabian Lysel up here But if you bring up a guy like Alex Steves and he has, you know, eight goals or seven goals, whatever in in 14 games, it’s like or 12 games, it’s like, all right, well, maybe you don’t need him as much as I thought you did, you know, cuz he’s producing and and he’s producing in a way that we haven’t seen from those guys before, right? And so this is where I feel like they deserve some credit, you know, as a as a coaching staff, as a management team, where they’re identifying the right guys right now to bring up. And those guys are being put in spots to produce. They are succeeding and the team has been winning games. And so, you know, winning is the best deodorant, right? That’s what everyone always says. And and right now, like, they’re winning more than they’re losing. And these guys are bringing up, these guys that, you know, like we’ve been critical of at certain points are producing. Victor Arvdson, you know, had a really slow start but has been one of their better players when when in the lineup. Steve has been very good. Like like it it’s very funny how, you know, we kind of said, you know, there’s a lot on Marco’s plate. First year head coach, this roster is not that deep. Scoring is going to be a challenge. Blah blah blah. and like he’s been probably the best, you know, he’s been the best guy to to to read who, okay, who’s going to go where and how am I gonna get the most out of them. Like he’s nailed it. He’s nailed it with everyone he’s put in spots. Like it’s just that Midas touch is very very interesting to me that he’s been able to squeeze every ounce of juice out of this roster. It feels like Yeah. and and you look at just how much especially a guy like Steve’s um has helped out this team, but also like maybe what long term it could be. Uh you know, I’m not sure if he is a 20 goal guy, but he’s looking the pot right now, right? Like you’re looking at uh you know what I’ve said last season going into this year, if this is a team that is retooling, like one of the priorities for this group has to be just identifying the players that are going to be part of the the core moving forward, right? the guy that once the Hagens and the younger players show up, who’s going to be helping them out? Who are going to be put into key spots? Like you saw last year, Morgan Geeki fit that role. Uh, and he’s even been even better this year. That’s a guy that’s part of this group moving forward. I think you look at Sad Dorf’s part of that spot. Now you’re looking at obviously you had a guy like Zaka, right, who um, clearly I think if they’re going to keep him longterm is going to be part of that equation. Fraser Minton is going to lock down the 3C spot. If like Steves can be like a middle six guy for you that has kind of found money, uh, you’ll definitely take that. I mean, you look at just the way he played. It’s not like it’s been fluky goals or it’s like an insane shooting percentage. It’s like the guy skates his ass off. He’s forchecking. He’s making plays happen. The puck is kind of following him. Like he had two points on Thursday. Feel like he could have had like three or four. Like that line with him, Geeky, and Lindome were pancing the Blues on just about every shift out there. there. I mean, it was I think both you and I tweeted separately. They looked like the the Berser on Marshian Post line because they were just completely controlling play. The the Blues couldn’t get the puck out and it wasn’t like they were just like, you know, firing Passin’s no man’s line. Like they were Steves was a monster on the forche. He sats Geeky’s goal because he he gets the puck loose from Broberg in 66 Colton Pareo. Like Steve’s not the biggest dude in the world and it’s just him skating his ass off, forcing that turnover that that causes these things. And uh we were joking yesterday it’s you look at a guy like Elias Lindholm and I think we agree he’s a good player. Is he a top you know top line center? Probably not. Is he a play driver per se? Maybe not. But the whole kind of narrative with him was like well if you put him with posternock you know you don’t have to really worry about he’s going to be like a 60 70 point guy. Who knew the mixing equation was not Posternok? It was Alex Steves because a lot of come back from injury. He’s got like seven points in his last four games. So maybe it all works out. Yeah, exactly. And and you know, we kind of joked about how Morgan Geeky had to play with David Postrock, right? Like like that’s what we all assumed. And okay, what if Morgan Geeki can make the next Morgan Geeky productive, right? Like what if what if he can bring guys like Steves and to your point, Lindholm along, right? And if he’s doing that, then you’re a better team because you don’t have to rely on that on that combo and keeping that geeky pos together. And so I feel like that’s something where I think it’s maybe like that’s what’s probably most encouraging about David Posnock being out right now. Um you want him back. He’s a top five player in the NHL. You want him back. But in the meantime, this is a great way to find out what Geeki can do for a team, right? And if he can bring those guys along, and I do feel like he’s brought them along. Like I feel like Elias Lynholm has a lot of quiet nights. And by quiet nights, I don’t mean like bad nights. I just mean nights where you’re kind of like he’s not really popping, you know, but you put him with Geeky and he’s going to have two assists by the end of the night. Last night, I think he had three assists. I think he had three assists in the game. And I’m not going to say like he wasn’t completely noticeable or he wasn’t effective, but I didn’t walk away from that game going Lindel must have three assists. Like I like I didn’t feel that way. And so it’s really interesting the way that he can kind of juice up the opposition and he’s just so talented and he’s so versatile in how he scores goals and creates goals and right now he’s making his linemates better without David Posnock. That’s usually Posnock’s job. But if if Geeky is doing that now and you’re getting legit returns out of guys like Steves and Lynholm and not saying Linholm’s been bad again, but like you feel like you’re getting really good results and it does feel like Geek has been more of a driver, you know, not just Lind Holm, it’s been Geeky as well and the Bruins have are really reaping the rewards right now. Yeah. And I think when also when you look at other guys who stepped up in this game, a bounceback performance, guy that he needed to to play at a high level, I think Yonas Culpasalo is right in that mix as well, right? A guy that I think we’ve been pretty critical of as far as you look at, you know, it’s been the Jeremy Swayman show for about a month now. And what this team needs is during those moments where Swayman has a stinker or two, right? You need a guy that can stop the bleeding, can kind of write the ship. that’s what you’re paying Jonas Copasal that much money for as a backup to do that. And credit to him, he bounced back, right? Had 37 saves. Um it’s unfortunate that one of the goals he gives up is like two seconds after probably his best save of the night with that pad save against Holloway. But uh I think you look at what Corposal did uh last night, a step in the right direction for him, right? Because again, you look at the production, you look at how well guys down in Providence are playing in net. Um he’s not operating with a whole lot of margin for error, I would probably say. And I think he he did a pretty good case for himself as far as what he did on Thursday night. Yeah, 100%. And and he needed it, right? Like it’s his first win since November 6th. It is um a guy they’re going to have to lean on, right? Like we talked about this last week, like you can’t just ride Swayman forever, you know? If if you go back to the start of the month um of November, Swayman played I think the third or fourth most starts uh in the NHL like not sustainable because you want to save some bullets in the chamber for the stretch run, right? If this team is going to be in and out like they are right now, you need to save some bullets when you need to ride him, you know, for 13 straight games in say March and April, not in November, December. That’s just not good for anybody. Um, so Corposal that was a big start for him and you know I think it’s encouraging too that that game in Detroit was a lost game but it allowed him to get in the goal without really having any sort of expectations on. I thought it was interesting too after that game in Detroit like Marco kind of he didn’t outright say it but he was basically saying like we’re not pulling Swayman because Suven’s playing bad. He’s like, I’m just looking for something right there. And and he’s looking for a spark for from his team. But I think he’s also looking to get Corposal some lowle leverage, you know, kind of work here where it’s like just get in rhythm. Just get it’s been hard. Not a lot of practice time, not a lot of game reps for you. Just try to get in rhythm here, you know, get get comfy in your game. And I thought he actually, you know, in a game where nobody really played all that well, you know, his 16 minutes of hockey I thought was like pretty good, you know, and it’s a relief outing. I understand that. But it’s kind of like when a pitcher gets rocked, right? And then you’re like, “All right, maybe we put him in we have a four-run lead instead of a one-run lead and the game’s in the line.” That’s what it kind of felt like on Tuesday in Detroit for Corpusal. And and he comes out, he had a great game. I mean, even the second goal he gives up, right? Like he makes an amazing save before they score that goal. And you know that though that’s a sign that like your goalie is feeling it, right? When it takes a monumental save and then the third chance immediately after for that to beat him, that’s when you know you’re having a good game. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, good to see Corala bounce back and again, it feels like Sturm is pushing all the right buttons there as far as managing this roster. Uh, we’re going to talk Ty a little bit about the Bruins former head coach and Jim Montgomery. 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Where kind of treading water, not really having an identity, not buttoning up their their operations, their execution. Uh, it is kind of staggering when you look at just, you know, a year plus past that those fortunes have kind of shifted for a team. And again, not saying the Bruins this year are going to the cup or they’re a legitimate contender, but I think the one thing you can kind of hang your hat on with this team, um, and you know, whether it’s the buyin from the players, Sterm’s messaging, it feels like this team at least has an identity, right? I think every single game they go into knowing how they need to play, like even if they’re not, they don’t have their A game or their B game, they know like kind of what principles they have to stick to, you know, to have success. uh that felt like it wasn’t the case last year for the Bruins. I think even Hampus Lindolm said that they didn’t have an identity last year. Um and I think you’re kind of seeing the same thing play out with the Blues uh this season. So, it’s funny how that works. Yeah, I I think that, you know, even down to the tur, you know, post game where it’s 58 seconds of him not really wanting to say anything. And it’s Listen, I I I don’t think he’s a bad guy, right? Like I I don’t think Jim Montgomery is a is a bad guy to have behind an NHL bench if your team is looking for a spark. I don’t think he’s a wartime general, though. I don’t think he’s the guy that’s going to guide you through a four round run where you have to outf fox the opposition. I I felt that that became obvious in 2023. It became even more apparent in 2024. And and then when he I I just think one of his greatest mistakes is that he spent 82 games going, “Oh, I don’t got a coach. I got Berser on back there.” And then when he had a coach, you’re like, “Oh, He might not he might not have to coach. He might not know how to coach.” And I I I don’t I don’t mean that like a oh, he’s an idiot way. I mean that in like a sometimes you’re gonna have to outf fox the opposition. And I just I never felt like Montgomery really understood that. He was just throw the pucks out there, have good vibes, and you’re going to win the game. I I don’t And then I thought it was telling too last year when Nikorov signs a $30 million contract to come here and be a Boston Bruin. He talks to guys he knows in the league before signing here asks about Montgomery and they fire Montgomery and the off and then you know Zoro does an interview in Russia where he says I never saw the version of Jim Montgomery that players told me about like you know that’s damning right that’s not just media saying it that’s a player saying it that I never I never saw the guy that everyone told me I was going to see you know and it was obvious there were things that were not going well like I can tell you and I’ve reported before like he wanted big money and he wanted more say and he wanted more you know security I I would say for lack of a better word and the Bruins at the point where you know I so I can what I can tell you is this Montgomery’s camp felt lowballed by the contract offers that the Bruins were putting forth the Bruins felt like Montgomery was taking them for a ride at a certain point they felt like he was no longer negotiating good in good faith and then they also felt like they were I think I think deep down the Bruins were a little worried about okay what if we give him 82 games to figure this out what if he does right we don’t want a cup but but we get in the playoffs right and now he’s going to take us for a ride and have a bidding war he’s going to be Barry Trotz going from Nashville to to the islander or sorry the Capitals to the island um and now we’re gonna be left holding the bag and we might lose Joe Sacko too without ever ever having seen him as a head coach Like there were so many moving parts to it, but it became so toxic and weird and ultimately it came back to Jim Montgomery did not get enough out of this roster now. The Blues are not a good roster, but are they getting the most out of that roster right now? Look up and down that team. It’s hard to find any guy that’s going above and beyond right now where they should be at at at a level as a player in this league. Yeah. No, I agree. And it it makes for just an interesting retrospective, right, of just what all the ups and downs of what his his tenure was, right? essentially two two seasons in two months, right? Not even two months. Uh but for a guy that had such high highs where this was part of a record setting team that again I don’t know how much that you put on him and I I I think at the start of the year like the change of pace between Cassidy to him I think it was probably a breath of fresh air, right? Guys were already I think motivated with it being the last dance for uh for uh Patrice Berseron and David Crerache. some vibes were high and I think he helps out with that. But then to your point, when you need a guy that can be a tactician going up against Paul Maurice who’s really freaking good at it, knows how to work the press conferences, knows how to dial up like what his team needs to do night in and night out. Um, you saw it get exposed. I I was doing a few podcasts with um some media in St. Lewis in the leadup to this game and you kind of like, you know, I wanted to brush back up on just kind of the the sequence of events that led to that first round exit. Yikes, dude. like you almost kind of forget because I think whether it’s just you you block it out of memory because of how traumatic that that playoff series was or because it was going so fast once you get into those playoff series that you’re so dialed in that you forget like how many train crashes there were as as part of just that overall you know sequence that led to Carter Verhagy’s goal in game seven right like you look at playing for all those games where he’s clearly banged up not pulling mark after he gave up you know three goals pretty early on in game six. Um, sticking with them there, putting in Clifton for Grizzlick in game six where Clifton comes in and love the guy, but had like two or three passes that direct I think directly led to goals like within three seconds, three, four seconds, like critical turnovers. Um, splitting up and Marian like man, you want to put some of the blame obviously on the players for not executing. We get it, right? But like Jesus, not great, man. And then you look at you you carry that over to this past year and listen a lot went wrong for the Bruins in 2425. And again, a lot of that also falls on the players themselves. But they couldn’t even get out of the the death spiral they were more or less in. And it feels like that was also a byproduct just the weird vibes. Training camp sucked. You had this uncertainty about like Montgomery’s contract. And you feel like no one was writing the ship there. And by the time that the Bruins moved on, like feel like the nail was already in the coffin. It’s like, and I wonder if all those things factor into it as to why he got like a quick little video thing and that’s all it was yesterday. It makes for an interesting look back into just what his his time here in Boston really was. Yeah, exact. I mean, he I wrote this back in 2023. This isn’t revisionist history in terms of like he’s fired now and now we’re going to grave dance. It’s like no, like when they lost in 2023, there were so many things that that went wrong, but I kept coming back to the coaching. I kept coming back to the coaching, not really adjusting before it was too late. You know, the players understand that like they’re going to get popped in the mouth, right? And I did talk to players who said like, “Yeah, when we got popped, it was hard to recalibrate because we haven’t we hadn’t been popped in so long.” That’s you need coaching to to come in like you’re up 3-1. You know, you know, Elmar is hurting. you got Sway in there like that’s a great opportunity to get Swayman in there and and try to close out a series and you know buy some more time buy some more restron you know like you could have given him another day to try to recuperate instead especially given how Zaka and and Coyle had had been playing you know like like they were they were delivering and just he had no feel for the team that he just coached for 82 games. It was it it was so bizarre. It was like it was like the playoffs were his first time behind the bench where he had he had to actually coach and he looked so overwhelmed and you know he is a he is a David Poster and Hamilton home great game seven away from being the only coach in league history to blow a 3-1 series lead in back-to-back years. I mean that is just it’s ridiculous. It’s too much. It’s that’s too insane of a of a of a thing to have on your to maybe have on your record. And I understand that, you know, that can be the case for K Julien, right? Close Julian could have been done in 2011 if Nathan Horton doesn’t score in game five and game seven overtimes, but you saw things that he adjusted along the way that made those moot points, you know, like you never saw that with with Montgomery. I remember our biggest criticisms of him the second year were that he was still coaching as if he had the team that he had in 2223, which was not the same at all. the team you had in 23 24 and then 24 25 like and again it all comes back to what we’re talking about the failure to adjust the failure to recalibrate the failure to get your team going in a different direction that it needs to go to be the best team possible and I’m seeing that with St. Louis you look at St. Louis like I was joking about this St. Louis’s AI slop. It has no soul, no identity, no feel, nothing that you look at and go, “Oh, I know what they’re going for here.” It’s like Doug Armstrong typed in, “Make me a team that is big but also kind of fast.” The We also want We also want a Golden Retriever doing stick seven in a Blues jersey, too. We want that as part of the AI algorithm, right? Like, it’s just like it it it’s not a team that makes it a damn lick of sense. You watch them. I just don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know what kind of identity they want to have. And that’s what I felt like about Montgomery outside of the 22 23 team. I didn’t know what the identity that they wanted to have was. It’s it’s And I had players that were telling me different things based on, you know, like, hey, like um a coaching staff says this, but like I feel like we should probably try this. And I’m in my head. I’m like, why are you telling me this? Like I’m not the coaching staff. Why are you telling me? Yeah, I don’t really agree with that, but like I guess we’re going to try it. Like I’m like, “Okay, I mean, well, that’s kind of weird.” And so I just felt like, listen, I don’t know if Marco is going to win a playoff round. I don’t know, right? And Jim Montgomery won one playoff round in his in his two years here, two full seasons here. But I feel like Marco has the right identity and the right personality type for what this team is going to try to be. This team is going to be underdog. This Bruins team is going to be an underdog no matter who they go against in round one. Even if the Bruins win the freaking division, they’re gonna begin round one being like, well, you know, it’s gonna have a horseshoe up their ass all year. Can they really win a playoff series? Marco has the right intensity, the right emotional, you know, heaviness, the heavy-handedness. He’s he’s a bit of a hard ass, but he’s also a player. So, like it kind of reminds me of Rael in that regard. We I think we said this on this podcast before, but like it reminds me Mike Greyel where it’s like it’s tough love at times, but it’s like the players know like, “Oh, this guy was playing seven years ago or eight years ago.” Like he knows like what what it’s going to take and what I got to do. Like I think that I think those things do matter, right? And I just feel like that connectivity being a younger guy coaching in the minors for a while like that’s going to help these players because there are going to be underdogs and he’s going to be the right guy to rattle cages where I think the vibes thing only works for so long with a guy like Jim Montgomery. Yep. No, absolutely. So, an interesting uh legacy if you want to call legacy interesting tenure here in Boston. Maybe tenure, right? I wouldn’t have given I mean I’m probably a dick for saying this. I wouldn’t even have given him the welcome back thing. I wouldn’t have I I I I just colossal failure. Colossal failure. His tenure is defined by colossal failure. They they they blew a series, you know, being up 3-1 with an all-time team. They’re all laugh they’re laughed at forever, you know, like by because Yeah. you win 65 games, but you’re out in 13 days. You know, like it’s you come up short there. Um, yes, you win you win the round in 2024, but you’re not the first head coach to beat Toronto in seven games in on Boston ice, you know, and so that’s I don’t want to give him too too much credit for that, unfortunately. I just don’t. And and then he, you know, he leaves last year, he’s disconnected, it felt like, all year, and people outside the market were noticing that. And then he has a job in St. 5 days later and then he takes the press conference at St. Louis and says once a blue always a blue. If I’m the Bruins I’m like dude what? Like I’m a little pissed off knowing that my coach was, you know, not really I I don’t want to say he didn’t care about getting fired, but it’s kind of like he knew he had a job if he got fired. And I think you look back on some of the things that happened that third and final season here in town, your eyebrows kind of raised a little bit based on on a how it ended and b how quickly he turned around and was basically happy to turn around and be in St. Louis. And so I I I’m not going to begrudge anybody for acknowledging. But I I probably wouldn’t have done that because I I feel like I would have been like, nah, you kind of checked out on us a year ago. I don’t really think we should honor you in any fashion. Yep. No, it makes for an interesting little tenure he had here. I agree. And again, the Bruins will have a chance to deliver another uh loss to the Blues uh next week down in St. Louis as well. So, we’ll see what plays out there. We’ll see if we’ll see can bounce back. I just feel like Rajan Rondo when he was talking about Isaiah Thomas and he was like, “Oh, we celebrate that now.” That’s like kind of what I felt like where like we’re giving video nods to a guy who won a playoff round. Like, all right, Johnny Beach is coming back in January. You got a you got a video lined up for Johnny Beecher or or are you an original six franchise that wants to win championships? That’s just how I feel. I was going to say also uh yeah to your point earlier uh Hampus Lindome and David Posog won that Toronto series and Jeremy Swamon that those are three guys that won that playoff series. So think about and think about how quickly, you know, he could have torpedoed Morgan Geeki, right? Like we’ll talk about how good Morgan Geeki’s been, right? Like he was dangerously close to like torpedoing that guy where he scratched him in the early part of the year last year and five times. Yeah. And we asked we asked him, “What does he got to do to get back in the lineup?” He’s like, “Play better.” It’s like, “Okay, well that’s not helpful. That’s that’s not exactly what you want to do, right?” And and then Sacko, I mean, I it’s so weird to think that Joe Sacko, who was a not a great head coach here, you was trying the best he could, but didn’t didn’t have enough to like make up make up for what they lacked talent-wise, Joe Sacko might be the guy to credit for for Morgan Geeky being this incredible franchise player for the Boston Bruins where Sacko was the one who put him with with Zaka and Posnak despite it being his off wing. And there you go. It was off to the races, right? like how did it’s the same it’s kind of the same logic uh that I go back to when um the Bruins were interested in in Quinn and I was like no I’m good and everyone’s like well what he doesn’t deser because he couldn’t tell that if it was Shurkin or Shorv who was the better goalie I don’t know if I want that guy’s brain behind the bench right now like like I’d rather guy I’d rather have someone who knows what they’re knows what talent they’re evaluating it kind of felt like you So Geeki was an example of of Montgomery shortcomings as a talent talent evaluator. Yeah. No, absolutely. So Geeki and I think the Bruins are a whole lot better off now with Marco Sturm uh on the bench. Uh Ty, before we let you go, where can we read your stuff? Where can can we hear you on the airwaves? All that good stuff. Uh, you can find me at 985sportsub.com and on the air 985 Sportsub every Saturday morning 9 to 11 a.m. Uh, tomorrow well you should have the full crew in which I think first time since like opening weekend honestly. Myself, Bob Beers, and Brian Johnston. Always good to have those guys in studio. Prevents me from having to do Monologue Radio which is uh not something I I particularly love doing because I I feel like I’m I don’t know. I just feel like it’s a weird late night talk show. Anyways, that’s where you can find me. How about yourself? Yeah, you can read my stuff on boston.com and the Boston Globe. We’ve covered every step of the way this bruin season. We got recaps, features, columns, breakdowns, analysis, all that good stuff. So, please subscribe over there on those two sites. And if you want to follow me on Twitter X, whatever it’s called these days, you can at Connor Ryan_93. Ty, thank you for joining us. Uh, again, want to give a shout out to the Bruins Rings YouTube channel with part of the Seanist Media Network. Uh again, pretty much daily content between Poke the Bear, Bruins meet with Evan Marinowski, Pucks with Hags. U we have it covered every step of the way this Bruins season. So following along with us over on YouTube, and it’s not just uh Bruins hockey as part of the CLNS Media Network. You’ve got Patriots press, Celtics All Access, the whole crew over at um the CLNS Media Network does a great job keeping you up to date informed on both Patriots and the Celtics. Two teams that are also playing at a high level right now. It’s an exciting time of the year. and CLNS has you covered every step of the way. Again, also want to give a shout out to G uh Prize Pix, the best way to win cash this football season. Download the app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it’s good to be right. Uh my name is Connor Ryan. That is Ty Anderson. This was episode 383 of Poke the Bear. You fans have a great rest of your week. [Music]

In this episode of Poke The Bear, Conor and Ty discuss Boston’s win over the Blues, Alex Steeves’ continued breakout, and Jim Montgomery’s tenure with the Bruins.

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