“I don’t think any time teams fail, it’s just one person. It’s impossible.”
Jim Montgomery will coach his first game back in Boston since his firing last November. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
December 4, 2025 | 6:44 PM
4 minutes to read
When it comes to looking back on his short tenure as Bruins bench boss, Jim Montgomery echoed a sentiment shared by many about his two-plus seasons in Boston.
It was complicated.
As impressive as his record was in Boston (120-41-23), Montgomery’s run saw him and the Original Six franchise both reach new heights — and sink to a few devastating lows.
Back in Boston for the first time since his firing in November 2024, Montgomery acknowledged that succinctly summing up his time with the Bruins is a task easier said than done.
“Great memories — the disappointing memory too, of the first-round loss to Florida [in 2023],” Montgomery said Thursday at TD Garden. “But for me, it’s always about people, the great players, the management that I got the opportunity to work with. Everybody here made me better.”
The now-Blues coach isn’t interested in dwelling on the faults that undercut a run that started with a record-setting year at TD Garden.
During Montgomery’s first year at the helm with the Bruins, Boston set new league records for wins (65) and total points (135) in a single season. That miraculous run ended in disaster, as Boston coughed up a 3-1 series edge and lost to the Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
A Bruins franchise moving forward following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci rebounded in 2023-24 with 47 wins and a first-round series victory over Toronto, but things went south in a hurry during Montgomery’s third year with the club.
Despite opening the 2024-25 campaign with playoff aspirations once again, Boston stumbled out of the gate with an 8-9-3 record — with Montgomery ultimately getting a pink slip on Nov. 19, 2024.
It didn’t take long for Montgomery to land on his feet, as the St. Louis Blues fired their coach, Drew Bannister, and handed Montgomery a five-year contract just five days after Boston let him go.
That quick turnaround didn’t exactly assuage the pain Montgomery felt when the Bruins opted to cut ties with him.
“I don’t know. I mean, it happened so quickly. I was still in the mode of ‘Where did I go wrong? What did I do wrong?’ And then all of a sudden, the phone rings and you got to start [preparing],” Montgomery said, per Jim McBride of The Boston Globe. “It helps you get over it quicker, but I still felt like it would’ve been healthy to have more time. That’s just the way my brain works.”
The Blues responded under Montgomery, crawling back into playoff contention and taking the top-seeded Winnipeg Jets to seven games in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite holding a two-goal lead in the third period, St. Louis ultimately fell to Winnipeg in double overtime.
Boston’s fortunes after firing Montgomery were far more grim.
Despite receiving a slight boost following the appointment of interim head coach Joe Sacco, Boston plummeted down the standings as the season carried on — prompting Don Sweeney to deal away lineup regulars like Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic, and others.
Even with Boston closing out the 2024-25 campaign with a 33-39-10 record, Montgomery didn’t feel any validation over his former team’s sustained struggles after his exit.
“I don’t think any time teams fail, it’s just one person. It’s impossible,” Montgomery told McBride. Everybody had a hand in the success of the great year that we had the one season, [and] everybody had a hand in why we failed last year,” he said. “And I would say the same thing 1764893469 because in St. Louis last year everybody had a hand in why we took off like we did, and this year why we struggled, the same thing, everybody had a hand in it.”
The road hasn’t been as easy this season for Montgomery and the Blues, who currently sit outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference with a 9-11-7 record.
But, the trials and tribulations that Montgomery went through during Boston has him better prepared to handle the adversity set in front of him this winter.
“There was no question that I was better prepared to handle the lack of success than I was last year. And expectations drive a lot of that,” Montgomery told McBride. “Last year, the expectations were that we were going to be a playoff team. Didn’t work. So, everybody has these high expectations. Kind of like going to a movie.
‘I remember going to see ‘The Usual Suspects.’ No one told me it was a great movie. I left there floored. I had to go watch it three more times to figure out who Keyser Soze was. But then I’ve gone to movies where people are like, ‘This movie is the best movie ever,’ and I leave halfway through. ‘Pulp Fiction,’ I left halfway through, because so many people said it was so great. It’s like 10 mini stories in one movie. It’s not the way my brain works. But that’s what happens with sports teams, as well.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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