The Boston Bruins have finally found a new head coach.
Jim Montgomery is the guy, according to the Worcester T&G’s Joe McDonald.
Montgomery is just the third head coach the Bruins have hired since 2007. The two previous head coaches in Boston — Claude Julien and Bruce Cassidy — both enjoyed tremendous success. Cassidy was fired on June 6, a couple weeks after the Bruins lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Montgomery has previous NHL head coaching experience. He was behind the bench for the Dallas Stars in 2018-19 and led the team to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where it lost to the eventual champion St. Louis Blues.
He was fired 31 games into the following season for unprofessional conduct. Montgomery talked about his battle with alcohol in an interview with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun in May of 2020.
After getting his life back on track, Montgomery was hired by the Blues in September of 2020 to be an assistant coach on Craig Berube’s staff.
Before becoming the Stars head coach, Montgomery was the head coach at the University of Denver for five seasons from 2013-14 through 2017-18. Denver went to two Frozen Fours and won an NCAA championship under Montgomery in 2016-17.
Montgomery also played at the University of Maine in the early 1990s.