Former Bruins coach Jim Montgomery will be back in Boston on Thursday with his St. Louis Blues to face the Bruins for the first time since he was fired just over a year ago.
He’ll certainly face more questions about the return when he meets with Boston reporters on Thursday, but he was asked about it by the St. Louis media on Wednesday.
“It was a great time for my family. We really enjoyed Winchester, where we lived. We still have tremendous friends who live in the area,” he said. “Professionally, it was a bag of mixed emotions. Some great times and some very, very disappointing times.”
He didn’t elaborate on either the great or the disappointing. Montgomery led Boston to a record-setting regular season in 2022-23 before being stunned by the Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. He won the Jack Adams Trophy that season for the NHL’s Coach of the Year.
He was fired last year after the team got off to an unexpectedly slow start. The Blues hired him quickly afterward.
The trip to Boston begins a three-game road trip for the Blues. Montgomery will face Linus Ullmark, his former Bruins goalie in Ottawa, on Saturday and then take on the Canadiens on Sunday.
Montgomery wasn’t asked any more about his return to Boston, but his final press availability question was about Logan Mailloux’s return to face the Canadiens, the team that dealt him to St. Louis.
The wording of his answer could have been a subtle reference to his own return to Boston. Or it could have been coincidental.
“It’s natural for everybody, when you go back to somewhere where somebody has moved on from you, that you have a little bit of extra fight inside,” he said.